When Oblonsky asked Levin what had brought him to town, Levin blushed, and was furious with himself for blushing, because he could not answer, “I have come to make your sister-in-law an offer,” though that was precisely what he had come for.
当奥布洛夫斯基问了列文为什么来到城里时，列文脸红了，他对自己脸红感到非常愤怒，因为他不能回答：“我来向你妹妹提出一个求婚”，尽管这正是他来的目的。

The families of the Levins and the Shtcherbatskys were old, noble Moscow families, and had always been on intimate and friendly terms. —
列文家和斯切尔巴茨基家都是古老的、高贵的莫斯科家族，一直以来都保持着紧密而友好的关系。 —

This intimacy had grown still closer during Levin’s student days. —
这种亲密关系在列文求学期间变得更加紧密。 —

He had both prepared for the university with the young Prince Shtcherbatsky, the brother of Kitty and Dolly, and had entered at the same time with him. —
他和基蒂和多利的哥哥，也就是年轻的斯切尔巴茨基王子一起为大学准备，并与他同时入学。 —

In those days Levin used often to be in the Shtcherbatskys’ house, and he was in love with the Shtcherbatsky household. —
那些日子里，列文经常去斯切尔巴茨基家，他爱上了斯切尔巴茨基家的生活方式。 —

Strange as it may appear, it was with the household, the family, that Konstantin Levin was in love, especially with the feminine half of the household. —
也许看起来很奇怪，但是孔斯坦丁·列文爱上了这个家庭，尤其是家庭中的女性成员。 —

Levin did not remember his own mother, and his only sister was older than he was, so that it was in the Shtcherbatskys’ house that he saw for the first time that inner life of an old, noble, cultivated, and honorable family of which he had been deprived by the death of his father and mother. —
列文不记得自己的母亲，他的独生妹妹比他年长，所以他第一次在斯切尔巴茨基家中看到了他因父母去世而被剥夺了的那个古老、高贵、修养和有荣誉感的家庭的内心生活。 —

All the members of that family, especially the feminine half, were pictured by him, as it were, wrapped about with a mysterious poetical veil, and he not only perceived no defects whatever in them, but under the poetical veil that shrouded them he assumed the existence of the loftiest sentiments and every possible perfection. —
那个家庭的所有成员，尤其是女性成员，他都把他们想象成被一种神秘的诗意面纱所包围，他不仅对他们没有看到任何缺点，而且在那个笼罩着他们的诗意面纱下，他认为他们拥有最崇高的情感和各种完美。 —

Why it was the three young ladies had one day to speak French, and the next English; —
为什么三位年轻女士有一天要讲法语，而第二天则讲英语； —

why it was that at certain hours they played by turns on the piano, the sounds of which were audible in their brother’s room above, where the students used to work; —
为什么有时候他们轮流在钢琴上演奏，那些声音可以从楼上的他的房间里听到，那里的学生们在那里学习； —

why they were visited by those professors of French literature, of music, of drawing, of dancing; —
为什么他们会受到法国文学、音乐、绘画、舞蹈方面的教授的访问。 —

why at certain hours all the three young ladies, with Mademoiselle Linon, drove in the coach to the Tversky boulevard, dressed in their satin cloaks, Dolly in a long one, Natalia in a half-long one, and Kitty in one so short that her shapely legs in tightly-drawn red stockings were visible to all beholders; —
为什么在特维尔斯基大道的某个时间，三个年轻女士和林农瓦女士一起乘坐马车，穿着她们的缎子斗篷，多莉穿着一件长款的，娜塔莉亚穿着一件半长款的，而凯蒂则穿着一件非常短的，以至于她修长的腿和紧绷的红袜对所有看客都可见； —

why it was they had to walk about the Tversky boulevard escorted by a footman with a gold cockade in his hat–all this and much more that was done in their mysterious world he did not understand, but he was sure that everything that was done there was very good, and he was in love precisely with the mystery of the proceedings.
为什么她们必须在特维尔斯基大道上散步，由一位帽子上戴着金色棓鸡毛饰的侍从陪同——所有这一切以及他们在那个神秘世界中所做的其他事情他都不理解，但他确信在那里发生的一切都是非常好的，并且他正好深深地爱上了这些过程的神秘性。

In his student days he had all but been in love with the eldest, Dolly, but she was soon married to Oblonsky. —
在他的学生时代，他几乎爱上了最大的那个，多莉，但她很快嫁给了奥布隆斯基。 —

Then he began being in love with the second. —
然后他开始爱上第二个。 —

He felt, as it were, that he had to be in love with one of the sisters, only he could not quite make out which. —
他感觉好像他必须爱上其中一个姐妹，只是他不太确定是哪一个。 —

But Natalia, too, had hardly made her appearance in the world when she married the diplomat Lvov. Kitty was still a child when Levin left the university. —
然而，Natalia也刚刚出现在世界上，就嫁给了外交官Lvov。Kitty还是个孩子的时候，Levin离开了大学。 —

Young Shtcherbatsky went into the navy, was drowned in the Baltic, and Levin’s relations with the Shtcherbatskys, in spite of his friendship with Oblonsky, became less intimate. —
年轻的Shtcherbatsky加入了海军，在波罗的海遇难了，尽管Levin与Oblonsky关系亲密，但与Shtcherbatskys的关系变得不太亲密。 —

But when early in the winter of this year Levin came to Moscow, after a year in the country, and saw the Shtcherbatskys, he realized which of the three sisters he was indeed destined to love.
但是当今年冬天Levin在乡村待了一年后来到莫斯科，看到了Shtcherbatskys，他意识到自己确实注定会爱上其中的一个姐妹。

One would have thought that nothing could be simpler than for him, a man of good family, rather rich than poor, and thirty-two years old, to make the young Princess Shtcherbatskaya an offer of marriage; —
人们可能会认为对于一个出生名门、相对富裕、三十二岁的男人来说，向年轻的Shtcherbatskaya公主求婚是一件再简单不过的事情； —

in all likelihood he would at once have been looked upon as a good match. —
很可能他立刻就会被视为一个好的结婚对象。 —

But Levin was in love, and so it seemed to him that Kitty was so perfect in every respect that she was a creature far above everything earthly; —
但Levin总是相信他是真心爱着Kitty的，所以在他看来，Kitty在各个方面都是那么完美，她是一个超越尘世的存在。 —

and that he was a creature so low and so earthly that it could not even be conceived that other people and she herself could regard him as worthy of her.
他认为自己是一个低贱而世俗的生物，以至于其他人和她本人都不能将他视为与她相配的人。

After spending two months in Moscow in a state of enchantment, seeing Kitty almost every day in society, into which he went so as to meet her, he abruptly decided that it could not be, and went back to the country.
在莫斯科度过了两个月的迷人时光后，每天都在社交场合见到她，他突然决定这是不可能的，于是回到了乡下。

Levin’s conviction that it could not be was founded on the idea that in the eyes of her family he was a disadvantageous and worthless match for the charming Kitty, and that Kitty herself could not love him. —
列宁认为不可能的原因是，他在她家人眼中是一个不利且不值得的婚姻伴侣，而且基蒂本人也无法爱上他。 —

In her family’s eyes he had no ordinary, definite career and position in society, while his contemporaries by this time, when he was thirty-two, were already, one a colonel, and ano diplomat ther a professor, another director of a bank and railways, or president of a board like Oblonsky. —
在她家人眼中，他没有普通的、明确的职业和社会地位，而与他同时代的人，在他三十二岁时，已经有人是上校，还有一个是外交官，另一个是银行和铁路公司的董事，或者像奥布隆斯基一样的董事会主席。 —

But he (he knew very well how he must appear to others) was a country gentleman, occupied in breeding cattle, shooting game, and building barns; —
但他（他很清楚自己在别人眼中应该如何表现）是一个乡村绅士，专门养殖牛、打猎、建造谷仓； —

in other words, a fellow of no ability, who had not turned out well, and who was doing just what, according to the ideas of the world, is done by people fit for nothing else.
换言之，他是一个毫无才能的家伙，没有成功，只是按照世俗的观念做着别无他用的事情。

The mysterious, enchanting Kitty herself could not love such an ugly person as he conceived himself to be, and, above all, such an ordinary, in no way striking person. —
神秘而迷人的吉蒂本人不可能爱上一个他认为自己如此丑陋，特别是如此普通，毫不惹眼的人。 —

Moreover, his attitude to Kitty in the past–the attitude of a grown-up person to a child, arising from his friendship with her brother–seemed to him yet another obstacle to love. —
此外，过去他对待吉蒂的态度——作为她哥哥的朋友对待一个孩子的态度——在他看来又成为了爱情中的另一个障碍。 —

An ugly, good-natured man, as he considered himself, might, he supposed, be liked as a friend; —
一个丑陋而善良的人，正如他所认为的，也许可以被人作为朋友喜欢； —

but to be loved with such a love as that with which he loved Kitty, one would need to be a handsome and, still more, a distinguished man.
但要被像他爱吉蒂一样地爱，必须是一个英俊且更加出众的男人。

He had heard that women often did care for ugly and ordinary men, but he did not believe it, for he judged by himself, and he could not himself have loved any but beautiful, mysterious, and exceptional women.
他曾听说过女人经常会关心丑陋和平凡的男人，但他并不相信，因为他是以自己为判断标准，他自己只会爱上美丽、神秘和与众不同的女人。

But after spending two months alone in the country, he was convinced that this was not one of those passions of which he had had experience in his early youth; —
但在乡间独处了两个月后，他确信这并不是他年轻时曾经经历过的那种激情； —

that this feeling gave him not an instant’s rest; —
这种感觉让他一刻也不能安宁； —

that he could not live without deciding the question, would she or would she not be his wife, and that his despair had arisen only from his own imaginings, that he had no sort of proof that he would be rejected. —
他无法生活，直到他决定了这个问题，她是否愿意成为他的妻子，他的绝望仅仅来自于他自己的想象，他没有任何证据表明她会拒绝他。 —

And he had now come to Moscow with a firm determination to make an offer, and get married if he were accepted. —
他现在带着坚定的决心来到莫斯科，打算求婚，并且如果被接受就结婚。 —

Or…he could not conceive what would become of him if he were rejected.
或者…他无法想象如果被拒绝会发生什么。