🔊 In September Levin moved to Moscow for Kitty's confinement. He had spent a whole month in Moscow with nothing to do, when Sergey Ivanovitch, who had property in the Kashinsky province, and took great interest in the question of the approaching elections, made ready to set off to the elections. He invited his brother, who had a vote in the Seleznevsky district, to come with him. Levin had, moreover, to transact in Kashin some extremely important business relating to the wardship of land and to the receiving of certain redemption money for his sister, who was abroad.

九月份,列文为基蒂的分娩移居莫斯科。他已经在莫斯科百无聊赖地待了整整一个月,这时谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇--他在卡申省有产业,并且对即将到来的选举问题非常感兴趣--准备动身去参加选举。他邀请他的弟弟一同前往,弟弟在谢列兹涅夫县有投票权。此外,列文还得在卡申办理一些极其重要的事务,涉及土地的监护以及为他在国外的妹妹领取一笔赎金。

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confinement /kənˈfaɪnmənt/

n. 限制；分娩期➕

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transact /trænˈzækt/

v. 办理（业务）；交易➕

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wardship /ˈwɔːdʃɪp/

n. 监护；保护➕

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redemption /rɪˈdempʃən/

n. 赎回；救赎➕

🔊 Levin still hesitated, but Kitty, who saw that he was bored in Moscow, and urged him to go, on her own authority ordered him the proper nobleman's uniform, costing seven pounds. And that seven pounds paid for the uniform was the chief cause that finally decided Levin to go. He went to Kashin.

列文还在犹豫,但基蒂看出他在莫斯科很无聊,便催他去,还自作主张为他订购了合适的贵族制服,花了七个英镑。正是这七个英镑的制服钱最终促使列文下了决心。他动身前往卡申。

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authority /ɔːˈθɒrəti/

n. 权威；权力当局➕

🔊 Levin had been six days in Kashin, visiting the assembly each day, and busily engaged about his sister's business, which still dragged on. The district marshals of nobility were all occupied with the elections, and it was impossible to get the simplest thing done that depended upon the court of wardship. The other matter, the payment of the sums due, was met too by difficulties. After long negotiations over the legal details, the money was at last ready to be paid; but the notary, a most obliging person, could not hand over the order, because it must have the signature of the president, and the president, though he had not given over his duties to a deputy, was at the elections. All these worrying negotiations, this endless going from place to place, and talking with pleasant and excellent people, who quite saw the unpleasantness of the petitioner's position, but were powerless to assist him--all these efforts that yielded no result led to a feeling of misery in Levin akin to the mortifying helplessness one experiences in dreams when one tries to use physical force. He felt this frequently as he talked to his most good-natured solicitor. This solicitor did, it seemed, everything possible, and strained every nerve to get him out of his difficulties. "I tell you what you might try," he said more than once; "go to so-and-so and so-and-so," and the solicitor drew up a regular plan for getting round the fatal point that hindered everything. But he would add immediately, "It'll mean some delay, anyway, but you might try it." And Levin did try, and did go. Everyone was kind and civil, but the point evaded seemed to crop up again in the end, and again to bar the way. What was particularly trying, was that Levin could not make out with whom he was struggling, to whose interest it was that his business should not be done. That no one seemed to know; the solicitor certainly did not know. If Levin could have understood why, just as he saw why one can only approach the booking office of a railway station in single file, it would not have been so vexatious and tiresome to him. But with the hindrances that confronted him in his business, no one could explain why they existed.

列文在卡申已经待了六天,每天参加集会,忙着处理他姐姐的事情,但事情依然没有进展。各县的首席贵族都忙于选举,凡是需要监护法庭办理的最简单的事情都无法办成。另一件事,即支付到期款项,也遇到了困难。经过长期的法律细节谈判,钱终于准备好可以支付了；但那位非常乐于帮忙的公证人却无法交出汇票,因为它需要主席签字,而主席虽然尚未将职权交给副手,却正在参加选举。所有这些令人烦恼的谈判,这种无休止的奔波,与那些和蔼可亲的、优秀的人交谈--他们完全明白请愿者的处境艰难,却无力相助--所有这些毫无结果的努力,让列文感到一种痛苦,犹如在梦中想用力气却无能为力时那种令人沮丧的无助感。当他与那位最善良的律师交谈时,他经常有这种感觉。这位律师似乎竭尽全力,想尽办法帮他摆脱困境。“我告诉你,你可以试试这样,”他不止一次地说,“去找某某和某某,”然后律师制定了一个常规方案,以绕过那个阻碍一切的致命障碍。但他紧接着就会补充说:“不过无论如何总会有些耽搁,但你可以试试。”列文真的试了,也真的去了。每个人都和蔼可亲,彬彬有礼,但那个被避开的问题最终似乎又冒了出来,再次挡住了去路。特别令人苦恼的是,列文弄不清自己在和谁作对,他的事情办不成对谁有利。似乎没有人知道；律师肯定也不知道。如果列文能明白其中的缘由,就像他明白为什么只能排成一队接近火车站的售票窗口那样,他就不至于如此恼火和厌倦了。但对于他事务中遇到的那些障碍,没有人能解释它们为什么存在。

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solicitor /səˈlɪsɪtə/

n. 事务律师；法律顾问➕

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vexatious /vekˈseɪʃəs/

adj. 令人烦恼的；麻烦的➕

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single file /ˈsɪŋɡəl faɪl/

n. 单行；一列纵队➕

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mortifying /ˈmɔːtɪfaɪɪŋ/

adj. 令人羞愧的；难堪的➕

🔊 But Levin had changed a good deal since his marriage; he was patient, and if he could not see why it was all arranged like this, he told himself that he could not judge without knowing all about it, and that most likely it must be so, and he tried not to fret.

不过,列文婚后改变了许多；他变得耐心了,如果他看不出为什么要这么安排,他就告诉自己,不了解全部情况就不能妄加评判,而且很可能事情本来就该如此,于是他努力不去烦恼。

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fret /fret/

v. 焦虑；担忧➕

🔊 In attending the elections, too, and taking part in them, he tried now not to judge, not to fall foul of them, but to comprehend as fully as he could the question which was so earnestly and ardently absorbing honest and excellent men whom he respected. Since his marriage there had been revealed to Levin so many new and serious aspects of life that had previously, through his frivolous attitude to them, seemed of no importance, that in the question of the elections too he assumed and tried to find some serious significance.

在出席选举和参与其中时,他现在也努力不去评判,不去与他们争执,而是尽可能充分地理解那个让他所敬重的诚实而优秀的人们如此认真热情关注的问题。自从结婚以来,列文看到了生活中许多新的、严肃的方面,这些方面从前由于他轻率的态度而显得无关紧要,因此在选举问题上,他也假定并试图找到某种严肃的意义。

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frivolous /ˈfrɪvələs/

adj. 轻浮的；不严肃的➕

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comprehend /ˌkɒmprɪˈhend/

v. 理解；领悟➕

🔊 Sergey Ivanovitch explained to him the meaning and object of the proposed revolution at the elections. The marshal of the province in whose hands the law had placed the control of so many important public functions--the guardianship of wards (the very department which was giving Levin so much trouble just now), the disposal of large sums subscribed by the nobility of the province, the high schools, female, male, and military, and popular instruction on the new model, and finally, the district council--the marshal of the province, Snetkov, was a nobleman of the old school--dissipating an immense fortune, a good-hearted man, honest after his own fashion, but utterly without any comprehension of the needs of modern days. He always took, in every question, the side of the nobility; he was positively antagonistic to the spread of popular education, and he succeeded in giving a purely party character to the district council which ought by rights to be of such an immense importance. What was needed was to put in his place a fresh, capable, perfectly modern man, of contemporary ideas, and to frame their policy so as from the rights conferred upon the nobles, not as the nobility, but as an element of the district council, to extract all the powers of self-government that could possibly be derived from them. In the wealthy Kashinsky province, which always took the lead of other provinces in everything, there was now such a preponderance of forces that this policy, once carried through properly there, might serve as a model for other provinces for all Russia. And hence the whole question was of the greatest importance. It was proposed to elect as marshal in place of Snetkov either Sviazhsky, or, better still, Nevyedovsky, a former university professor, a man of remarkable intelligence and a great friend of Sergey Ivanovitch.

谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇向他解释这次选举中所拟议变革的意义和目的。那个依法掌管着许多重要公共职能--监护被监护者（正是最近让列文如此头疼的那个部门）、支配省贵族认捐的大笔款项、管理男女中学和军校以及新式平民教育,最后还有地方自治会--的省首席贵族,是斯涅特科夫,一位老派贵族--挥霍着巨额家产,是个好心人,有他自己的一套诚实,但完全不了解现代的需求。他在每一个问题上总是站在贵族一边；他公然反对平民教育的普及,并且成功地将按说应该具有极其重要意义的地方自治会变成了纯粹党派性质的机构。现在需要的是用一个新鲜的、能干的、完全现代的、具有当代思想的人来取代他,并制定政策,以便从授予贵族的权利中--不是作为贵族,而是作为地方自治会的一个组成部分--提取出一切可能从中获得的自治权力。在富裕的卡申省（它在各方面总是领先于其他省份）,现在各种力量对比如此有利,以至于一旦这项政策在那里得以妥善实施,就可能成为全俄罗斯其他省份的榜样。因此,整个问题具有极其重要的意义。拟议中取代斯涅特科夫的首席贵族人选,要么是斯维亚日斯基,要么更好的是涅韦多夫斯基,他是一位前大学教授,才智非凡,也是谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇的好友。

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marshal of the province /ˈmɑːʃəl əv ðə ˈprɒvɪns/

n. 省首席贵族（沙俄时期地方贵族领袖）➕

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antagonistic /ænˌtæɡəˈnɪstɪk/

adj. 对抗的；敌对的➕

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preponderance /prɪˈpɒndərəns/

n. 优势；多数➕

🔊 The meeting was opened by the governor, who made a speech to the nobles, urging them to elect the public functionaries, not from regard for persons, but for the service and welfare of their fatherland, and hoping that the honorable nobility of the Kashinsky province would, as at all former elections, hold their duty as sacred, and vindicate the exalted confidence of the monarch.

会议以省长致辞开幕,他向贵族们发表演说,敦促他们选举公职人员时不要出于私人关系,而要以服务祖国和人民福祉为宗旨,并希望卡申省的可敬贵族们,像以往历次选举一样,恪尽职守,不辜负君主的高度信任。

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vindicate /ˈvɪndɪkeɪt/

v. 证明…正确；为…辩护➕

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exalted /ɪɡˈzɔːltɪd/

adj. 崇高的；高贵的➕

🔊 When he had finished with his speech, the governor walked out of the hall, and the noblemen noisily and eagerly--some even enthusiastically--followed him and thronged round him while he put on his fur coat and conversed amicably with the marshal of the province. Levin, anxious to see into everything and not to miss anything, stood there too in the crowd, and heard the governor say: "Please tell Marya Ivanovna my wife is very sorry she couldn't come to the Home." And thereupon the nobles in high good-humor sorted out their fur coats and all drove off to the cathedral.

演说结束后,省长走出大厅,贵族们喧闹而急切地--有些人甚至热情洋溢地--跟随着他,围拢在他身边,这时他正在穿皮大衣,并与省首席贵族友好地交谈。列文急于了解一切,不愿错过任何事情,也站在人群中,听到省长说:“请转告玛丽亚·伊万诺夫娜,我妻子非常抱歉没能来养老院。”随后,贵族们兴致勃勃地认出自己的皮大衣,纷纷乘车前往大教堂。

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amicably /ˈæmɪkəbli/

adv. 友好地；温和地➕

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thronged /θrɒŋd/

v. （人群）挤满；聚集➕

🔊 In the cathedral Levin, lifting his hand like the rest and repeating the words of the archdeacon, swore with most terrible oaths to do all the governor had hoped they would do. Church services always affected Levin, and as he uttered the words "I kiss the cross," and glanced round at the crowd of young and old men repeating the same, he felt touched.

在大教堂里,列文像其他人一样举起手,跟着副主教重复誓词,以最可怕的誓言宣誓要完成省长所期望他们做的一切。礼拜仪式总是打动列文,当他说出“我亲吻十字架”这句话,并环视着四周年轻和年长的人群在重复同样的话语时,他深受感动。

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archdeacon /ˌɑːtʃˈdiːkən/

n. 执事长（教会官职）➕

🔊

oaths /əʊðz/

n. 誓言；宣誓➕

🔊 On the second and third days there was business relating to the finances of the nobility and the female high school, of no importance whatever, as Sergey Ivanovitch explained, and Levin, busy seeing after his own affairs, did not attend the meetings. On the fourth day the auditing of the marshal's accounts took place at the high table of the marshal of the province. And then there occurred the first skirmish between the new party and the old. The committee who had been deputed to verify the accounts reported to the meeting that all was in order. The marshal of the province got up, thanked the nobility for their confidence, and shed tears. The nobles gave him a loud welcome, and shook hands with him. But at that instant a nobleman of Sergey Ivanovitch's party said that he had heard that the committee had not verified the accounts, considering such a verification an insult to the marshal of the province. One of the members of the committee incautiously admitted this. Then a small gentleman, very young-looking but very malignant, began to say that it would probably be agreeable to the marshal of the province to give an account of his expenditures of the public moneys, and that the misplaced delicacy of the members of the committee was depriving him of this moral satisfaction. Then the members of the committee tried to withdraw their admission, and Sergey Ivanovitch began to prove that they must logically admit either that they had verified the accounts or that they had not, and he developed this dilemma in detail. Sergey Ivanovitch was answered by the spokesman of the opposite party. Then Sviazhsky spoke, and then the malignant gentleman again. The discussion lasted a long time and ended in nothing. Levin was surprised that they should dispute upon this subject so long, especially as, when he asked Sergey Ivanovitch whether he supposed that money had been misappropriated, Sergey Ivanovitch answered:

第二天和第三天处理的是有关贵族财务和女子中学的事务,据谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇解释,这些都不重要,列文忙于自己的事情,没有出席会议。第四天,在省首席贵族的主席台上进行了首席贵族账目的审计。这时,新派与旧派之间发生了第一次小冲突。被委派核查账目的委员会向会议报告一切正常。省首席贵族站起身来,感谢贵族们的信任,流下了眼泪。贵族们对他报以热烈的欢呼,与他握手。但就在这时,谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇一派的一位贵族说,他听说委员会并未核查账目,因为委员会认为核查账目是对省首席贵族的侮辱。委员会的一位成员不慎承认了这一点。接着,一位个子不高、看起来很年轻但非常恶毒的绅士开始说,或许省首席贵族会乐意说明一下他对公款的支出情况,而委员会成员们的不当体谅恰恰剥夺了他这种道德上的满足感。随后,委员会成员试图收回他们的承认,谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇开始证明,合逻辑地他们必须要么承认核查了账目,要么承认没有核查,并详细阐述了这个两难困境。对方的发言人回答了谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇。接着斯维亚日斯基发了言,然后那位恶毒的绅士又说了话。讨论持续了很久,最后毫无结果。列文很惊讶他们竟然在这个问题上争论这么久,尤其是当他问谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇是否认为有人贪污了钱款时,谢尔盖·伊万诺维奇回答道:

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skirmish /ˈskɜːmɪʃ/

n. 小冲突；小争执➕

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malignant /məˈlɪɡnənt/

adj. 恶意的；恶性的➕

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dilemma /dɪˈlemə/

n. 困境；两难境地➕

🔊 "Oh, no! He's an honest man. But those old-fashioned methods of paternal family arrangements in the management of provincial affairs must be broken down."

“哦,不！他是个诚实的人。但是那些家长式的、家族式的管理地方政务的老套方法必须打破。”

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paternal /pəˈtɜːnl/

adj. 父亲的；父系的➕

🔊

provincial /prəˈvɪnʃl/

adj. 省的；地方的（常指偏僻）➕

🔊 On the fifth day came the elections of the district marshals. It was rather a stormy day in several districts. In the Seleznevsky district Sviazhsky was elected unanimously without a ballot, and he gave a dinner that evening.

第五天是选举县首席贵族。在几个县里,这一天颇为激烈。在谢列兹涅夫县,斯维亚日斯基未经投票便全票当选,当晚他设宴款待。

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unanimously /juːˈnænɪməsli/

adv. 全体一致地➕

🔊

ballot /ˈbælət/

n. 选票；无记名投票➕

Part Six – Chapter twenty-six (第二十六章)

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