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Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.
伊凡? 伊里奇的一生最是简单平凡不过，因此也最可怕。
He had been a member of the Court of Justice, and died at the age of forty—five. His father had been an official who after serving in various ministries and departments in Petersburg had made the sort of career which brings men to positions from which by reason of their long service they cannot be dismissed, though they are obviously unfit to hold any responsible position, and for whom therefore posts are specially created, which though fictitious carry salaries of from six to ten thousand rubles that are not fictitious, and in receipt of which they live on to a great age.
他是一名法官，死的时候45岁。他父亲是彼得堡的官员，曾在各种不同的政府部门任职，因为任职多年，所以不能被遣出官场，尽管他很明显不适合呆在任何重要的职位上，于是政府为这类人单设了一些空有其名的岗位，但是发给他们的六千到一万卢布工资倒是实实在在的，靠着这笔收入他们都活到了很大的岁数。
Such was the Privy Councillor and superfluous member of various superfluous institutions, Ilya Epimovich Golovin.
这就是枢密院成员、臃肿机构里的冗官——伊里亚? 叶斐莫维奇? 高洛文。
He had three sons, of whom Ivan Ilych was the second. The eldest son was following in his father's footsteps only in another department, and was already approaching that stage in the service at which a similar sinecure would be reached. The third son was a failure. He had ruined his prospects in a number of positions and was now serving in the railway department. His father and brothers, and still more their wives, not merely disliked meeting him, but avoided remembering his existence unless compelled to do so. His sister had married Baron Greff, a Petersburg official of her father's type. Ivan Ilych was le phenix de la famille as people said. He was neither as cold and formal as his elder brother nor as wild as the younger, but was a happy mean between them—an intelligent polished, lively and agreeable man. He had studied with his younger brother at the School of Law, but the latter had failed to complete the course and was expelled when he was in the fifth class. Ivan Ilych finished the course well. Even when he was at the School of Law he was just what he remained for the rest of his life: a capable, cheerful, good—natured, and sociable man, though strict in the fulfillment of what he considered to be his duty: and he considered his duty to be what was so considered by those in authority. Neither as a boy nor as a man was he a toady, but from early youth was by nature attracted to people of high station as a fly is drawn to the light, assimilating their ways and views of life and establishing friendly relations with them. All the enthusiasms of childhood and youth passed without leaving much trace on him; he succumbed to sensuality, to vanity, and latterly among the highest classes to liberalism, but always within limits which his instinct unfailingly indicated to him as correct.
他有三个儿子，伊凡? 伊里奇是老二。长子追随着父亲职业生涯的脚步，在另一个部门任职，而且他已经接近父亲任职的层次，可以取得一份类似的报酬优厚的闲职。小儿子没有出息。他在许多位置上都自毁前程，目前正在铁道部任职。他的父亲、两个哥哥还有两个嫂子不仅不愿和他碰面，而且要不是万不得已，都记不起他。他的姐姐嫁给了和父亲是一类人的彼得堡官员格列夫男爵。伊凡? 伊里奇是人们所谓的 “家里的凤凰” 。他既不像他哥哥一样冷漠、拘谨，也不像他弟弟一样狂放不羁，他的性格折中——是一个优雅博学、活泼、令人愉快的人。他和他弟弟曾在法学院念书，但他弟弟没念下来，到了五年级就被开除了。伊凡? 伊里奇以优异的成绩毕业。甚至他在法学院的时候，就和他后半辈子一样：有能力、性格开朗、脾气温和、交友甚广，虽然在履行他认为是自己的职责的时候很严格。他认为自己的职责就是当局所认定的那些职责。不论是小时候还是长大成年，他都不会拍马奉承，但从青年时期就从本性上为上层社会的人们吸引，就像飞蛾总被灯光吸引一样，接受他们的生活方式以及对生活的观点，并与他们建立良好的关系。童年和青年时代的所有激情都从他身上消失殆尽，他屈服于肉欲、虚荣，后来发展到自由主义的最高境界，但他的本能从未有负于他，指示他什么是正确的，所以他没有干过什么出格的事。
At school he had done things which had formerly seemed to him very horrid and made him feel disgusted with himself when he did them; but when later on he saw that such actions were done by people of good position and that they did not regard them as wrong, he was able not exactly to regard them as right, but to forget about them entirely or not be at all troubled at remembering them.
上学的时候他曾做过一些他以前觉得很可怕的事，他做这些事的时候很厌恶自己，但后来他看到这类行为是身居高位的人们干的，而且他们并不觉得那是错的。伊凡? 伊里奇虽然不能完全认为那些人的行为是正确的，但却能够完全忘记那些事，就算记起来也不会烦恼。
Having graduated from the School of Law and qualified for the tenth rank of the civil service, and having received money from his father for his equipment, Ivan Ilych ordered himself clothes at Scharmer's, the fashionable tailor, hung a medallion inscribed respice finem on his watch—chain, took leave of his professor and the prince who was patron of the school, had a farewell dinner with his comrades at Donon's first—class restaurant, and with his new and fashionable portmanteau, linen, clothes, shaving and other toilet appliances, and a traveling rug, all purchased at the best shops, he set off for one of the provinces where through his father's influence, he had been attached to the governor as an official for special service.
从法学院毕业，有了担任第十级文官的资格，又从他父亲手里领到了治装费，伊凡? 伊里奇给自己在沙尔玛裁缝店定制了衣服。沙尔玛是个为时髦人士做衣服的裁缝，他的手表链上挂着一块刻有 “考虑后果” 的纪念章。之后他向教授和赞助学院的王子话别，又和他的同学在唐农甲等大饭店吃了告别晚宴，然后带着他全部从最好的商店里买来的崭新、时髦的手提箱、衬衣裤、衣服、剃须刀和其他洗漱用品以及一个旅行毯，出发去了一个省里做省长的特派专员，这是靠他父亲的影响谋得的。
In the province Ivan Ilych soon arranged as easy and agreeable a position for himself as he had had at the School of Law. He performed his official task, made his career, and at the same time amused himself pleasantly and decorously. Occasionally he paid official visits to country districts where he behaved with dignity both to his superiors and inferiors, and performed the duties entrusted to him, which related chiefly to the sectarians, with an exactness and incorruptible honesty of which he could not but feel proud.
在省里，伊凡? 伊里奇很快就把自己安排到一个舒舒服服、轻松愉快的职位上，就像他那会儿在法学院里一样。他履行自己的职责，开拓自己的事业，同时又让自己有所娱乐，过得开开心心、正派得体。他偶然会去省里各区县视察，既在他的上级面前也在他的下级面前表现得举止得体，做好托付给他的工作，这工作主要是关于教派分裂分子的。他工作一丝不苟、诚实不受贿，对此他不得不为自己骄傲。
In official matters, despite his youth and taste for frivolous gaiety, he was exceedingly reserved, punctilious, and even severe; but in society he was often amusing and witty, and always good—natured, correct in his manner, and bon enfant, as the governor and his wife—with whom he was like one of the family—used to say of him.
尽管他年轻、喜好轻浮地寻欢作乐，他在公事上却非常地保守、谨小慎微、甚至很严肃；但在社交场合，他常常是幽默风趣、脾气温和、彬彬有礼，就像省长和他的妻子——他和他们简直亲如一家——曾经说他的那样，是个好孩子。
In the province he had an affair with a lady who made advances to the elegant young lawyer, and there was also a milliner; and there were carousals with aides—de—camp who visited the district, and after—supper visits to a certain outlying street of doubtful reputation; and there was too some obsequiousness to his chief and even to his chief's wife, but all this was done with such a tone of good breeding that no hard names could be applied to it. It all came under the heading of the French saying: "Il faut que jeunesse se passe. " It was all done with clean hands, in clean linen, with French phrases, and above all among people of the best society and consequently with the approval of people of rank.
在省里时，他和一位追求他这个优雅的青年法学家的女士有过风流韵事，还和一个女帽设计师有染；他和巡查的副官们宴会狂欢，吃过饭后就到某一条偏僻的、名声备受质疑的街上逛；他还阿谀奉承他的上司，甚至是上司的妻子，但所有这些他都做得十分优雅，让人无懈可击。别人只能说一句法国谚语： “年轻人难免狂放不羁。” 这一切他都做得清白廉洁，他穿着干净的亚麻衣服，说着法语，最重要的是他跻身最上流的社会，所以容易得到达官显贵的认同。
So Ivan Ilych served for five years and then came a change in his official life. The new and reformed judicial institutions were introduced, and new men were needed. Ivan Ilych became such a new man. He was offered the post of examining magistrate, and he accepted it though the post was in another province and obliged him to give up the connexions he had formed and to make new ones. His friends met to give him a send—off; they had a group photograph taken and presented him with a silver cigarette—case, and he set off to his new post.
就这样，伊凡? 伊里奇工作了五年，然后他官员生涯中的工作调动到来了。新改革的司法机构成立了，需要一批新人。伊凡? 伊里奇就成了这样的新人中的一个。分配给他的岗位是地方预审法官，他接受了，虽然这个岗位是在另一个省里，他必须放弃他原来的各种人际关系，重新建立新的友谊。他的朋友们聚在一起为他送行，与他合影，还送给他一个银色烟盒，然后他就出发去上任了。
As examining magistrate Ivan Ilych was just as comme il faut and decorous a man, inspiring general respect and capable of separating his official duties from his private life, as he had been when acting as an official on special service. His duties now as examining magistrate were far more interesting and attractive than before. In his former position it had been pleasant to wear an undress uniform made by Scharmer, and to pass through the crowd of petitioners and officials who were timorously awaiting an audience with the governor, and who envied him as with free and easy gait he went straight into his chief's private room to have a cup of tea and a cigarette with him. But not many people had then been directly dependent on him—only police officials and the sectarians when he went on special missions—and he liked to treat them politely, almost as comrades, as if he were letting them feel that he who had the power to crush them was treating them in this simple, friendly way. There were then but few such people. But now, as an examining magistrate, Ivan Ilych felt that everyone without exception, even the most important and self—satisfied, was in his power, and that he need only write a few words on a sheet of paper with a certain heading, and this or that important, self—satisfied person would be brought before him in the role of an accused person or a witness, and if he did not choose to allow him to sit down, would have to stand before him and answer his questions. Ivan Ilych never abused his power; he tried on the contrary to soften its expression, but the consciousness of it and the possibility of softening its effect, supplied the chief interest and attraction of his office. In his work itself, especially in his examinations, he very soon acquired a method of eliminating all considerations irrelevant to the legal aspect of the case, and reducing even the most complicated case to a form in which it would be presented on paper only in its externals, completely excluding his personal opinion of the matter, while above all observing every prescribed formality. The work was new and Ivan Ilych was one of the first men to apply the new Code of 1864.
作为地方预审法官，伊凡? 伊里奇和以前做特派专员一样公正、正派，将他的公职与私生活分得清清楚楚，受到人们的尊重。地方预审法官的工作比他以前的职务要有趣、有吸引力得多。他在前一个职位上，可以舒服地穿着沙尔玛制作的军便装，以轻松、自由的步态穿过一群胆怯地等待省长召见并且妒忌他的请愿者和官员，直接进入上司的办公室，和上司一起喝上一杯茶、抽一根烟。但那时没有多少人直接地依赖于他——只有警官和教派分裂分子，而且是在他视察的时候。他喜欢客客气气地对待他们，差不多都当成同事了，好像他让他们感觉到，虽然他有处死他们的权力，但却以这种简单、友好的方式对待他们。那时候这样的人很少。但是现在，作为地方预审法官，伊凡? 伊里奇感觉到每个人都无一例外地处在他的权力范围内，甚至连最重要、最自鸣得意的人也一样为他控制，他只需在一张有某个标题的纸上写几句话，无论是哪个重要、自鸣得意的人士都得作为被告或证人被带到他面前，而且如果他选择不让这个人坐下，那么他就必须站着回答他的问题。伊凡? 伊里奇从未滥用他的权力，相反地，他试着收敛权力的锋芒，不过对权力的意识以及柔化其影响的能力，成为他就任新职位后的主要兴趣和吸引力。从他的工作本身，尤其是审查工作上，他很快就获得了一种排除所有与案子无关的考虑的方法，并将最复杂的案子在纸上清晰明了地表达出来，完全排除他个人对案件的意见，同时，最重要的是完全地依照格式要求。这是一项新工作，而伊凡? 伊里奇是第一批应用一八六四年新法典的人之一。
On taking up the post of examining magistrate in a new town, he made new acquaintances and connexions, placed himself on a new footing and assumed a somewhat different tone. He took up an attitude of rather dignified aloofness towards the provincial authorities, but picked out the best circle of legal gentlemen and wealthy gentry living in the town and assumed a tone of slight dissatisfaction with the government, of moderate liberalism, and of enlightened citizenship. At the same time, without at all altering the elegance of his toilet, he ceased shaving his chin and allowed his beard to grow as it pleased.
刚一到新的城镇、接过地方预审法官的职位，他就认识了一些新朋友，建立了一些新的人际关系，他找了一个新的立足点，或多或少地采用了新的语调。他以一种非常威严冷淡的态度对待省里的权威人士，却去亲近本城法律界最优秀、最富有的绅士圈，而且在温和自由主义以及开明的公民权方面透露出对政府的些微不满。与此同时，在完全不改变他优雅形象的情况下，他不再刮下巴上的胡子，而是任络腮胡恣意生长。
Ivan Ilych settled down very pleasantly in this new town. The society there, which inclined towards opposition to the governor was friendly, his salary was larger, and he began to play vint (a form of bridge), which he found added not a little to the pleasure of life, for he had a capacity for cards, played good—humouredly, and calculated rapidly and astutely, so that he usually won.
伊凡? 伊里奇舒舒服服地在新地方定居下来。那里的社交圈倾向于反对省长，但却友善。他的工资提高了，而且他开始玩桥牌，他发现玩牌给生活带来不止一点乐趣，因为他擅于玩牌，玩得愉快，而且又机敏、算得又快，所以常常获胜。
After living there for two years he met his future wife, Praskovya Fedorovna Mikhel, who was the most attractive, clever, and brilliant girl of the set in which he moved, and among other amusements and relaxations from his labours as examining magistrate, Ivan Ilych established light and playful relations with her.
在那里住了两年后，他碰到了他未来的妻子，普拉斯柯菲雅? 费多罗夫娜? 米海尔。她是他那个圈子里最有魅力、最聪颖、最光彩照人的姑娘。他完成地方预审法官的本职工作后，就会找一些娱乐和消遣，其中就包括和她建立轻松、娱乐的关系。
While he had been an official on special service he had been accustomed to dance, but now as an examining magistrate it was exceptional for him to do so. If he danced now, he did it as if to show that though he served under the reformed order of things, and had reached the fifth official rank, yet when it came to dancing he could do it better than most people. So at the end of an evening he sometimes danced with Praskovya Fedorovna, and it was chiefly during these dances that he captivated her. She fell in love with him. Ivan Ilych had at first no definite intention of marrying, but when the girl fell in love with him he said to himself: "Really, why shouldn't I marry? "
他当年做特派专员的时候常常跳舞，但现在作为地方预审法官，他极少跳了。如果他现在跳舞，那也是为了显示。他虽然在改革的司法机构里办事、已经升到五级文官，但若论跳舞，他依然可以比多数人跳得好。所以有时在晚会快结束的时候，他会邀请普拉斯柯菲雅? 费多罗夫娜跳舞，而且他能俘获她主要是靠跳舞。她爱上他了。伊凡? 伊里奇一开始并没有一定要结婚的打算，但是当这个姑娘爱上他的时候，他对自己说： “真的，为什么我不能结婚呢？”
Praskovya Fedorovna came of a good family, was not bad looking, and had some little property. Ivan Ilych might have aspired to a more brilliant match, but even this was good. He had his salary, and she, he hoped, would have an equal income. She was well connected, and was a sweet, pretty, and thoroughly correct young woman. To say that Ivan Ilych married because he fell in love with Praskovya Fedorovna and found that she sympathized with his views of life would be as incorrect as to say that he married because his social circle approved of the match. He was swayed by both these considerations: the marriage gave him personal satisfaction, and at the same time it was considered the right thing by the most highly placed of his associates.
普拉斯柯菲雅来自一个良好的家庭，长得不难看，还有一些家产。伊凡? 伊里奇可能渴望一个更好的妻子，但这个也不错了。他有自己的工资，也希望她能有一份相当的收入。她有许多身居高位的亲戚，本人又是一位温和、美丽、教养非常好的年轻女子。说伊凡? 伊里奇结婚是因为他与普拉斯柯菲雅? 费多罗夫娜坠入爱河、并发觉她与他的人生观一致，是不合事实的；说他结婚是因为他的社交圈子里的人同意他们的结合，也是不合事实的。说服他的是两种考虑：这桩婚事令他自己满意，同时他认识的那些最显赫的人们认为这桩婚事无可挑剔。
So Ivan Ilych got married.
于是伊凡? 伊里奇结婚了。
The preparations for marriage and the beginning of married life, with its conjugal caresses, the new furniture, new crockery, and new linen, were very pleasant until his wife became pregnant—so that Ivan Ilych had begun to think that marriage would not impair the easy, agreeable, gay and always decorous character of his life, approved of by society and regarded by himself as natural, but would even improve it. But from the first months of his wife's pregnancy, something new, unpleasant, depressing, and unseemly, and from which there was no way of escape, unexpectedly showed itself.
准备婚礼和刚刚结婚那阵子，夫妻恩爱，有新的家具、新的餐具器皿、新的亚麻织品，日子过得很惬意，这时他的妻子还没怀孕。所以伊凡? 伊里奇开始认为婚姻不会损害他那为社会所认可、自己也认为是理所当然的轻松、愉快、欢乐、得体的生活，甚至对此会有所改善。但从他妻子怀孕的最初几个月起，就有某些不愉快、压抑、不得体的新情况出人意料地显露出来，让他无路可逃。
His wife, without any reason—de gaiete de coeur as Ivan Ilych expressed it to himself—began to disturb the pleasure and propriety of their life. She began to be jealous without any cause, expected him to devote his whole attention to her, found fault with everything, and made coarse and ill—mannered scenes.
他的妻子，毫无来由地——伊凡? 伊里奇自己对自己说是妻子任性——开始打搅他们愉快而体面的生活。她无缘无故地吃醋，要求他全身心地关注她，对每一件事都吹毛求疵，还粗鲁无礼地对他吵闹。
At first Ivan Ilych hoped to escape from the unpleasantnesses of this state of affairs by the same easy and decorous relation to life that had served him heretofore: he tried to ignore his wife's disagreeable moods, continued to live in his usual easy and pleasant way, invited friends to his house for a game of cards, and also tried going out to his club or spending his evenings with friends. But one day his wife began upbraiding him so vigorously, using such coarse words, and continued to abuse him every time he did not fulfill her demands, so resolutely and with such evident determination not to give way till he submitted—that is, till he stayed at home and was bored just as she was—that he became alarmed. He now realized that matrimony—at any rate with Praskovya Fedorovna—was not always conducive to the pleasures and amenities of life, but on the contrary often infringed both comfort and propriety, and that he must therefore entrench himself against such infringement. And Ivan Ilych began to seek for means of doing so. His official duties were the one thing that imposed upon Praskovya Fedorovna, and by means of his official work and the duties attached to it he began struggling with his wife to secure his own independence.
一开始，伊凡? 伊里奇希望能通过此前就一直采取的轻松、得体的生活态度来摆脱这种不愉快的状态：他尽量忽略他妻子的暴躁的情绪，依旧过着轻松、舒适的日子，他邀请朋友到他家打牌，还想方设法地上俱乐部，或和朋友们在一起打发晚上的时光。但是有一天，他的妻子开始狠狠地谴责他，用非常粗鲁的词骂他，之后只要他没有达到要求，就要骂他，她的决心坚如磐石，毫不让步，直到他屈服，也就是说，直到他呆在家里，和她一样无聊。这让伊凡? 伊里奇感到害怕。他现在意识到婚姻——至少是他和普拉斯柯菲雅? 费多罗夫娜的婚姻——并不是总能带来快乐和优雅的生活，而是相反地，总与舒适和体面的生活背道而驰，因此他必须保护自己免受其害。于是伊凡? 伊里奇开始找机会保护自己。他的公职是唯一能让普拉斯柯菲雅? 费多罗夫娜服气的事，于是他以公务和工作上的职责为借口，开始从他妻子那里争取回他的自由。
With the birth of their child, the attempts to feed it and the various failures in doing so, and with the real and imaginary illnesses of mother and child, in which Ivan Ilych's sympathy was demanded but about which he understood nothing, the need of securing for himself an existence outside his family life became still more imperative.
孩子一出世，他们想好好地喂养他，但试了各种方法都以失败告终。母亲和婴儿患病有真有假，所以需要伊凡? 伊里奇的怜悯来照顾两人，但他对此一窍不通。确保自己有家庭以外的生活的需求变得更加迫切了。
As his wife grew more irritable and exacting and Ivan Ilych transferred the center of gravity of his life more and more to his official work, so did he grow to like his work better and became more ambitious than before.
他的妻子越来越急躁、苛刻，于是伊凡? 伊里奇将自己的生活重心逐渐转移到了公职上去，所以他越来越喜爱他的工作，也比以前更加雄心勃勃了。
Very soon, within a year of his wedding, Ivan Ilych had realized that marriage, though it may add some comforts to life, is in fact a very intricate and difficult affair towards which in order to perform one's duty, that is, to lead a decorous life approved of by society, one must adopt a definite attitude just as towards one's official duties.
很快，结婚不到一年，伊凡? 伊里奇就意识到，婚姻虽然可能给生活增添某些欢娱，但其实是一个非常复杂、艰难的事，为了能尽自己的责任，也就是过上一种体面的、为社会所认可的生活，他必须采用一种明确的态度，就像对待公职一样。
And Ivan Ilych evolved such an attitude towards married life. He only required of it those conveniences—dinner at home, housewife, and bed—which it could give him, and above all that propriety of external forms required by public opinion. For the rest he looked for lighthearted pleasure and propriety, and was very thankful when he found them, but if he met with antagonism and querulousness he at once retired into his separate fenced—off world of official duties, where he found satisfaction.
从此，伊凡? 伊里奇就以这样的态度对待婚姻生活。他对婚姻只要求那几条——在家能吃上饭、有家庭主妇照顾他的生活以及床第之欢——这些婚姻都能提供，最重要的是，要保证外表体面的生活，这是公众舆论所要求的。除此之外，他还想要轻松的消遣和得体的举止，要是能得到，他就会欣慰感激；但要是遭遇抵抗和牢骚，他会立即躲进独立的、无需防御的公职世界中去，在那里他能感到满足。
Ivan Ilych was esteemed a good official, and after three years was made Assistant Public Prosecutor. His new duties, their importance, the possibility of indicting and imprisoning anyone he chose, the publicity his speeches received, and the success he had in all these things, made his work still more attractive.
伊凡? 伊里奇被认为是一个好官员，三年之后升任副检察官。新职责及其重要性、可以恣意指控、关押任何人的权利、受到公众的追捧的演讲，以及成功地完成任何事，所有这些让他的工作更加有吸引力了。
More children came. His wife became more and more querulous and ill—tempered, but the attitude Ivan Ilych had adopted towards his home life rendered him almost impervious to her grumbling.
又有几个孩子降生了。他的妻子变得越来越易怒、暴戾，伊凡? 伊里奇对他的家庭生活采取的那种态度，让他对她的口出怨言几乎无动于衷。
After seven years 'service in that town he was transferred to another province as Public Prosecutor. They moved, but were short of money and his wife did not like the place they moved to. Though the salary was higher the cost of living was greater, besides which two of their children died and family life became still more unpleasant for him.
在这座城市里任职七年后，他被调到另一个省里做检察官。他们搬家了，但很缺钱，而且他妻子不喜欢他们新搬的住所。虽然工资见涨，但生活的成本也更高，再者，他们死了两个孩子，家庭生活对他来说变得更加不愉快了。
Praskovya Fedorovna blamed her husband for every inconvenience they encountered in their new home. Most of the conversations between husband and wife, especially as to the children's education, led to topics which recalled former disputes, and these disputes were apt to flare up again at any moment. There remained only those rare periods of amorousness which still came to them at times but did not last long. These were islets at which they anchored for a while and then again set out upon that ocean of veiled hostility which showed itself in their aloofness from one another. This aloofness might have grieved Ivan Ilych had he considered that it ought not to exist, but he now regarded the position as normal, and even made it the goal at which he aimed in family life. His aim was to free himself more and more from those unpleasantness and to give them a semblance of harmlessness and propriety. He attained this by spending less and less time with his family, and when obliged to be at home he tried to safeguard his position by the presence of outsiders. The chief thing however was that he had his official duties. The whole interest of his life now centered in the official world and that interest absorbed him. The consciousness of his power, being able to ruin anybody he wished to ruin, the importance, even the external dignity of his entry into court, or meetings with his subordinates, his success with superiors and inferiors, and above all his masterly handling of cases, of which he was conscious—all this gave him pleasure and filled his life, together with chats with his colleagues, dinners, and bridge. So that on the whole Ivan Ilych's life continued to flow as he considered it should do—pleasantly and properly.
普拉斯柯菲雅? 费多罗夫娜不管碰到什么麻烦的事，都要责怪她的丈夫。夫妻间说话，尤其是说到关于孩子们的教育，多数情况下都会让他们回忆起以前的争执，而这类争执又随时可能再次爆发。他们极少有夫妻恩爱的时候，即使偶尔还有，也持续不了多久。这种恩爱就像小岛，夫妻两人在此下锚暂时停留，然后就会再次驶入表面上以轻纱遮掩敌意的大海，只要夫妻变得冷漠，这种敌意就显露出来。如果伊凡? 伊里奇认为夫妻间不应当冷若冰霜，那么这种冷漠也许已经让他伤心了，但现在他把这种冷漠当作是常态，甚至把冷漠当作是家庭生活的目标。他的目标是把自己逐渐从这种烦恼当中解脱出来，但表面上又要看着无损门风、适当得体。为了达到这个目标，他和家人呆在一起的时间越来越少，要是必须呆在家里，他就叫来一些外人来保卫他的地位。其实，最重要的是他有他的公职。现在，他生活的全部乐趣都在官场之中，那种乐趣完完全全地占据了他。他的控制着所有人命运的权力、其职责的重要性、他进入法庭或召见属下时周身所散发的威严、他在领导和下属当中混得如鱼得水的技巧，最重要的是他纯熟地处理案件的能力——他也意识到了自己有这个能力，所有这些，再加上和同事聊天、吃饭、打桥牌，都让他感到愉悦和生活的充实。总体而言，伊凡? 伊里奇的生活过得还算合乎他的理想——舒适、得体。
So things continued for another seven years. His eldest daughter was already sixteen, another child had died, and only one son was left, a schoolboy and a subject of dissension. Ivan Ilych wanted to put him in the School of Law, but to spite him Praskovya Fedorovna entered him at the High School. The daughter had been educated at home and had turned out well: the boy did not learn badly either.
就这样又过了七年。他的大女儿已经十六岁，又有一个孩子死了，只有一个儿子活着，这个孩子在上学，是夫妻产生分歧的因子。伊凡? 伊里奇想让他到法学院念书，但为了气他，普拉斯柯菲雅? 费多罗夫娜把儿子送进了普通中学。女儿是在家受教育，学得还不错；儿子学得也不差。