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short stories and fairy tales: Gustave Flaubert

  Flaubert, Madame Bovary Deuxième Partie, Chapitre V (Extrait)


french text                                                english text                                                          
 

Ce fut un dimanche de février, une après-midi qu'il neigeait. Ils étaient tous, M. et Mme Bovary, Homais et M. Léon, partis voir, à une demi-lieue d'Yonville dans la vallée, une filature de lin que l'on établissait. L'apothicaire avait emmené avec lui Napoléon et Athalie, pour leur faire faire de l'exercice, et Justin les accompagnait, portant des parapluies sur son épaule. Rien pourtant n'était moins curieux que cette curiosité. Un grand espace de terrain vide, où se trouvaient pêle-mêle, entre des tas de sable et de cailloux, quelques roues d'engrenage déjà rouillées, entourait un long bâtiment quadrangulaire que perçaient quantité de petites fenêtres. Il n'était pas achevé d'être bâti et l'on voyait le ciel à travers les lambourdes de la toiture. Attaché à la poutrelle du pignon, un bouquet de paille entremêlé d'épis faisait claquer au vent ses rubans tricolores. Homais parlait. Il expliquait à la compagnie l'importance future de cet établissement, supputait la force des planchers, l'épaisseur des murailles, et regrettait beaucoup de n'avoir pas de canne métrique, comme M. Binet en possédait une pour son usage particulier. Emma, qui lui donnait le bras, s'appuyait un peu sur son épaule, et elle regardait le disque du soleil irradiant au loin, dans la brume, sa pâleur éblouissante ; mais elle tourna la tête : Charles était là. Il avait sa casquette enfoncée sur les sourcils, et ses deux grosses lèvres tremblotaient, ce qui ajoutait à son visage quelque chose de stupide ; son dos même, son dos tranquille était irritant à voir, et elle y trouvait étalée sur la redingote toute la platitude du personnage. Pendant qu'elle le considérait, goûtant ainsi dans son irritation une sorte de volupté dépravée, Léon s'avança d'un pas. Le froid qui le pâlissait semblait déposer sur sa figure une langueur plus douce ; entre sa cravate et son cou, le col de sa chemise, un peu lâche, laissait voir la peau ; un bout d'oreille dépassait sous une mèche de cheveux, et son grand œil bleu, levé vers les nuages, parut à Emma plus limpide et plus beau que ces lacs des montagnes où le ciel se mire. — Malheureux ! s'écria tout à coup l'apothicaire. Et il courut à son fils, qui venait de se précipiter dans un tas de chaux pour peindre ses souliers en blanc. Aux reproches dont on l'accablait, Napoléon se prit à pousser des hurlements, tandis que Justin lui essuyait ses chaussures avec un torchis de paille. Mais il eût fallu un couteau ; Charles lui offrit le sien. — Ah ! se dit-elle, il porte un couteau dans sa poche, comme un paysan ! Le givre tombait, et l'on s'en retourna vers Yonville.

 

It was a Sunday in February, an afternoon when the snow was falling. They had all, Monsieur and Madame Bovary, Homais, and Monsieur Leon, gone to see a yarn-mill that was being built in the valley a mile and a half from Yonville. The druggist had taken Napoleon and Athalie to give them some exercise, and Justin accompanied them, carrying the umbrellas on his shoulder. Nothing, however, could be less curious than this curiosity. A great piece of waste ground, on which pell-mell, amid a mass of sand and stones, were a few break-wheels, already rusty, surrounded by a quadrangular building pierced by a number of little windows. The building was unfinished; the sky could be seen through the joists of the roofing. Attached to the stop-plank of the gable a bunch of straw mixed with corn-ears fluttered its tricoloured ribbons in the wind. Homais was talking. He explained to the company the future importance of this establishment, computed the strength of the floorings, the thickness of the walls, and regretted extremely not having a yard-stick such as Monsieur Binet possessed for his own special use. Emma, who had taken his arm, bent lightly against his shoulder, and she looked at the sun's disc shedding afar through the mist his pale splendour. She turned. Charles was there. His cap was drawn down over his eyebrows, and his two thick lips were trembling, which added a look of stupidity to his face; his very back, his calm back, was irritating to behold, and she saw written upon his coat all the platitude of the bearer. While she was considering him thus, tasting in her irritation a sort of depraved pleasure, Leon made a step forward. The cold that made him pale seemed to add a more gentle languor to his face; between his cravat and his neck the somewhat loose collar of his shirt showed the skin; the lobe of his ear looked out from beneath a lock of hair, and his large blue eyes, raised to the clouds, seemed to Emma more limpid and more beautiful than those mountain-lakes where the heavens are mirrored. "Wretched boy!" suddenly cried the chemist. And he ran to his son, who had just precipitated himself into a heap of lime in order to whiten his boots. At the reproaches with which he was being overwhelmed Napoleon began to roar, while Justin dried his shoes with a wisp of straw. But a knife was wanted; Charles offered his. "Ah!" she said to herself, "he carried a knife in his pocket like a peasant." The hoar-frost was falling, and they turned back to Yonville.


* Translated from the French by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
Vokabulary
  le dimanche = Sunday la brume = mist
l' après midi = afternoon   la pâleur = paleness
neiger = to snow   éblouir = to blind
partir = to leave   tourner = to turn
la vallée = valley   la tête = head
une filature de lin = flax spinning company   la casquette = hat, cap
l' apothicaire = pharmacist   enfoncer = to push in
pourtant = but   les sourcils = eye brows
la curiosité = curiosity   les lèvres = lips
le terrain = area   trembloter = to tremble
vide = empty   ajouter = to add
accompagner = to accompany   le visage = face
curieux = curious   le dos = back
la curiosité = curiocity   étaler = to spread
achever = to finalize   le redingote = frock-coat
bâtir = to build   considerer = to consider
voir = to see   goûter = to taste
le ciel = the sky   la volupté = voluptuousness
lambourdes = crossbeams of the truss   dépraver = to ruin
la toiture = roof beams   la mèche = streak
le bouquet = bouquet   les cheveux = hair
la paille = straw   lever = to lift
entremêler = to mix   les nuages = sky
claquer = to clack   paraître = to shine
le ruban = ribbon   l' oil das = eye
expliquer = to explain   malheureux = unhappy
l' importance = importance   tout à coup = suddenly
supputer = to measure   se précipiter = to leap at
la force = power, force   le tas = heap
le plancher = plank   peindre = to paint
l' espaisseur = thickness   les souliers = soles
  la muraille = wall   les chaussures = shoes
  regretter = to regret   le reproche = reproach
  la canne métrique = folding rule   pousser = to push
  posséder = to possess   hurler = to scream
  s' appuyer = to rest on   offrir = to offer
  l' épaule = shoulder   le givre = dew
  regarde = to look at   essuyer = to wipe away
  le soleil = sun      

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