Dans un somptueux palais de Ferrare, par une soirée d’hiver, don Juan Belvidéro régalait un prince de la maison d’Este. 

One winter evening, in a princely palace at Ferrara, Don Juan Belvidero was giving a banquet to a prince of the house of Este.

À cette époque, une fête était un merveilleux spectacle que de royales richesses ou la puissance d’un seigneur pouvaient seules ordonner.

A banquet in those times was a marvelous spectacle which only royal wealth or the power of a mightly lord could furnish forth.

Assises autour d’une table éclairée par des bougies parfumées, sept joyeuses femmes échangeaient de doux propos, 

Seated about a table lit up with perfumed tapers, seven laughter-loving women were interchanging sweet talk. 

parmi d’admirables chefs-d’œuvre dont les marbres blancs se détachaient sur des parois en stuc rouge et contrastaient avec de riches tapis de Turquie.

The white marble of the noble works of art about them stood out against the red stucco walls, and made strong contrasts with the rich Turkey carpets.

Vêtues de satin, étincelantes d’or et chargées de pierreries qui brillaient moins que leurs yeux, toutes racontaient des passions énergiques, mais diverses comme l’étaient leurs beautés.

Clad in satin, glittering with gold, and covered with gems less brilliant than their eyes, each told a tale of energetic passions as diverse as their styles of beauty.

Elles ne différaient ni par les mots ni par les idées ; 

They differed neither in their ideas nor in their language; 

l’air, un regard, quelques gestes ou l’accent servaient à leurs paroles de commentaires libertins, lascifs, mélancoliques ou goguenards.

but the expression of their eyes, their glances, occasional gestures, or the tones of their voices supplied a commentary, dissolute, wanton, melancholy, or satirical, to their words.

L’une semblait dire: – Ma beauté sait réchauffer le cœur glacé des vieillards.

One seemed to be saying—"The frozen heart of age might kindle at my beauty."

L’autre : – J’aime à rester couchée sur des coussins, pour penser avec ivresse à ceux qui m’adorent.

Another—"I love to lounge upon cushions, and think with rapture of my adorers."

Une troisième, novice de ces fêtes, voulait rougir : – Au fond du cœur je sens un remords ! disait-elle. Je suis catholique, et j’ai peur de l’enfer. Mais je vous aime tant, oh ! tant et tant, que je puis vous sacrifier l’éternité.

A third, a neophyte at these banquets, was inclined to blush. "I feel remorse in the depths of my heart! I am a Catholic, and afraid of hell. But I love you, I love you so that I can sacrifice my hereafter to you."

La quatrième, vidant une coupe de vin de Chio, s’écriait : – Vive la gaieté ! Je prends une existence nouvelle à chaque aurore !

The fourth drained a cup of Chian wine. "Give me a joyous life!" she cried; "I begin life afresh each day with the dawn. 

Oublieuse du passé, ivre encore des assauts de la veille, tous les soirs j’épuise une vie de bonheur, une vie pleine d’amour !

Forgetful of the past, with the intoxication of yesterday's rapture still upon me, I drink deep of life—a whole lifetime of pleasure and of love!"

La femme assise auprès de Belvidéro le regardait d’un œil enflammé. Elle était silencieuse. 

The woman who sat next to Juan Belvidero looked at him with a feverish glitter in her eyes. She was silent. 

– Je ne m’en remettrais pas à des bravi pour tuer mon amant, s’il m’abandonnait ! Puis elle avait ri ; mais sa main convulsive brisait un drageoir d’or miraculeusement sculpté.

Then—"I should need no hired bravo to kill my lover if he forsook me!" she cried at last, and laughed, but the marvelously wrought gold comfit box in her fingers was crushed by her convulsive clutch.

– Quand seras-tu grand-duc ? demanda la sixième au prince avec une expression de joie meurtrière dans les dents, et du délire bachique dans les yeux.

"When are you to be Grand Duke?" asked the sixth. There was the frenzy of a Bacchante in her eyes, and her teeth gleamed between the lips parted with a smile of cruel glee.

– Et toi, quand ton père mourra-t-il ? dit la septième en riant, en jetant son bouquet à don Juan par un geste enivrant de folâtrerie. 

"Yes, when is that father of yours going to die?" asked the seventh, throwing her bouquet at Don Juan with bewitching playfulness. 

C’était une innocente jeune fille accoutumée à jouer avec toutes les choses sacrées.

It was a childish girl who spoke, and the speaker was wont to make sport of sacred things.

– Ah ! ne m’en parlez pas, s’écria le jeune et beau don Juan Belvidéro, il n’y a qu’un père éternel dans le monde, et le malheur veut que je l’aie !

"Oh! don't talk about it," cried Don Juan, the young and handsome giver of the banquet. "There is but one eternal father, and, as ill luck will have it, he is mine."

Les sept courtisanes de Ferrare, les amis de don Juan et le prince lui-même jetèrent un cri d’horreur. Deux cents ans après et sous Louis XV, les gens de bon goût eussent ri de cette saillie.

The seven Ferrarese, Don Juan's friends, the Prince himself, gave a cry of horror. Two hundred years later, in the days of Louis XV., people of taste would have laughed at this witticism. 

Mais peut-être aussi, dans le commencement d’une orgie, les âmes avaient- elles encore trop de lucidité ?

Or was it, perhaps, that at the outset of an orgy there is a certain unwonted lucidity of mind? 

Malgré le feu des bougies, le cri des passions, l’aspect des vases d’or et d’argent, la fumée des vins, malgré la contemplation des femmes les plus ravissantes, 

Despite the taper light, the clamor of the senses, the gleam of gold and silver, the fumes of wine, and the exquisite beauty of the women, 

peut-être y avait-il encore, au fond des cœurs, un peu de cette vergogne pour les choses humaines et divines qui lutte jusqu’à ce que l’orgie l’ait noyée dans les derniers flots d’un vin pétillant ?

there may perhaps have been in the depths of the revelers' hearts some struggling glimmer of reverence for things divine and human, until it was drowned in glowing floods of wine!

Déjà néanmoins les fleurs avaient été froissées, les yeux s’hébétaient, et l’ivresse gagnait, selon l’expression de Rabelais, jusqu’aux sandales. 

Yet even then the flowers had been crushed, eyes were growing dull, and drunkenness, in Rabelais' phrase, had "taken possession of them down to their sandals."

En ce moment de silence, une porte s’ouvrit ;

et, comme au festin de Balthazar, Dieu se fit reconnaître, il apparut sous les traits d’un vieux domestique en cheveux blancs, 

and as once the Divine presence was revealed at Belshazzar's feast, so now it seemed to be manifest in the apparition of an old white-haired servant, 

à la démarche tremblante, aux sourcils contractés ;

who tottered in, and looked sadly from under knitted brows at the revelers.

il entra d’un air triste, flétrit d’un regard les couronnes, les coupes de vermeil, les pyramides de fruits, l’éclat de la fête, la pourpre des visages étonnés et les couleurs des coussins foulés par le bras blanc des femmes 

He gave a withering glance at the garlands, the golden cups, the pyramids of fruit, the dazzling lights of the banquet, the flushed scared faces, the hues of the cushions pressed by the white arms of the women.

enfin, il mit un crêpe à cette folie en disant ces sombres paroles d’une voix creuse : – Monsieur, votre père se meurt.

"My lord, your father is dying!" he said; and at those solemn words, uttered in hollow tones, a veil of crape seemed to be drawn over the wild mirth.

Don Juan se leva en faisant à ses hôtes un geste qui peut se traduire par : « Excusez-moi, ceci n’arrive pas tous les jours. »

Don Juan rose to his feet with a gesture to his guests that might be rendered by, "Excuse me; this kind of thing does not happen every day."

La mort d’un père ne surprend-elle pas souvent les jeunes gens au milieu des splendeurs de la vie, au sein des folles idées d’une orgie ?

Does it so seldom happen that a father's death surprises youth in the full-blown splendor of life, in the midst of the mad riot of an orgy?

La mort est aussi soudaine dans ses caprices qu’une courtisane l’est dans ses dédains; mais plus fidèle, elle n’a jamais trompé personne.

Death is as unexpected in his caprice as a courtesan in her disdain; but death is truer—Death has never forsaken any man.

Quand don Juan eut fermé la porte de la salle et qu’il marcha dans une longue galerie froide autant qu’obscure, il s’efforça de prendre une contenance de théâtre ;

Don Juan closed the door of the banqueting-hall; and as he went down the long gallery, through the cold and darkness, he strove to assume an expression in keeping with the part he had to play;

car, en songeant à son rôle de fils, il avait jeté sa joie avec sa serviette. La nuit était noire. 

he had thrown off his mirthful mood, as he had thrown down his table napkin, at the first thought of this role. The night was dark.

Le silencieux serviteur qui conduisait le jeune homme vers une chambre mortuaire éclairait assez mal son maître, en sorte que la MORT, aidée par le froid, le silence, l’obscurité, 

The mute servitor, his guide to the chamber where the dying man lay, lighted the way so dimly that Death, aided by cold, silence, and darkness, 

par une réaction d’ivresse, peut-être, put glisser quelques réflexions dans l’âme de ce dissipateur, il interrogea sa vie et devint pensif comme un homme en procès qui s’achemine au tribunal.

and it may be by a reaction of drunkenness, could send some sober thoughts through the spendthrift's soul. He examined his life, and became thoughtful, like a man involved in a lawsuit on his way to the Court.

Bartholoméo Belvidéro, père de don Juan, était un vieillard nonagénaire qui avait passé la majeure partie de sa vie dans les combinaisons du commerce. 

Bartolommeo Belvidero, Don Juan's father, was an old man of ninety, who had devoted the greatest part of his life to business pursuits. 

Ayant traversé souvent les talismaniques contrées de l’Orient, 

He had acquired vast wealth in many a journey to magical Eastern lands, 

il y avait acquis d’immenses richesses et des connaissances plus précieuses, disait-il, que l’or et les diamants, desquels alors il ne se souciait plus guère.

and knowledge, so it was said, more valuable than the gold and diamonds, which had almost ceased to have any value for him.

– Je préfère une dent à un rubis, et le pouvoir au savoir, s’écriait-il parfois en souriant.

"I would give more to have a tooth in my head than for a ruby," he would say at times with a smile. 

Ce bon père aimait à entendre don Juan lui raconter une étourderie de jeunesse, et disait d’un air goguenard, en lui prodiguant l’or : – Mon cher enfant, ne fais que les sottises qui t’amuseront.

The indulgent father loved to hear Don Juan's story of this and that wild freak of youth. "So long as these follies amuse you, dear boy——" he would say laughingly, as he lavished money on his son.

C’était le seul vieillard qui éprouvât du plaisir à voir un jeune homme, l’amour paternel trompait sa caducité par la contemplation d’une si brillante vie.

Age never took such pleasure in the sight of youth; the fond father did not remember his own decaying powers while he looked on that brilliant young life.

À l’âge de soixante ans, Belvidéro s’était épris d’un ange de paix et de beauté. Don Juan avait été le seul fruit de cette tardive et passagère amour.

Bartolommeo Belvidero, at the age of sixty, had fallen in love with an angel of peace and beauty. Don Juan had been the sole fruit of this late and short-lived love.

Depuis quinze années, le bonhomme déplorait la perte de sa chère Juana. Ses nombreux serviteurs et son fils attribuaient à cette douleur de vieillard les habitudes singulières qu’il avait contractées.

For fifteen years the widower had mourned the loss of his beloved Juana; and to this sorrow of age, his son and his numerous household had attributed the strange habits that he had contracted.

Réfugié dans l’aile la plus incommode de son palais, Bartholoméo n’en sortait que très rarement, et don Juan lui-même ne pouvait pénétrer dans l’appartement de son père sans en avoir obtenu la permission.

He had shut himself up in the least comfortable wing of his palace, and very seldom left his apartments; even Don Juan himself must first ask permission before seeing his father.

Si ce volontaire anachorète allait et venait dans le palais ou par les rues de Ferrare, 

If this hermit, unbound by vows, came or went in his palace or in the streets of Ferrara, 

il semblait chercher une chose qui lui manquait ; il marchait tout rêveur, indécis, préoccupé comme un homme en guerre avec une idée ou avec un souvenir.

he walked as if he were in a dream, wholly engrossed, like a man at strife with a memory, or a wrestler with some thought.

Pendant que le jeune homme donnait des fêtes somptueuses et que le palais retentissait des éclats de sa joie, 

The young Don Juan might give princely banquets, the palace might echo with clamorous mirth, 

que les chevaux piaffaient dans les cours, que les pages se disputaient en jouant aux dés sur les degrés, Bartholoméo mangeait sept onces de pain par jour et buvait de l’eau.

horses pawed the ground in the courtyards, pages quarreled and flung dice upon the stairs, but Bartolommeo ate his seven ounces of bread daily and drank water.

S’il lui fallait un peu de volaille, c’était pour en donner les os à un barbet noir, son compagnon fidèle. Il ne se plaignait jamais du bruit.

A fowl was occasionally dressed for him, simply that the black poodle, his faithful companion, might have the bones. Bartolommeo never complained of the noise. 

Durant sa maladie, si le son du cor et les aboiements des chiens le surprenaient dans son sommeil, il se contentait de dire : – Ah ! c’est don Juan qui rentre !

If the huntsmen's horns and baying dogs disturbed his sleep during his illness, he only said, "Ah! Don Juan has come back again."

Jamais sur cette terre un père si commode et si indulgent ne s’était rencontré ; aussi le jeune Belvidéro, accoutumé à le traiter sans cérémonie, avait-il tous les défauts des enfants gâtés ;

Never on earth has there been a father so little exacting and so indulgent; and, in consequence, young Belvidero, accustomed to treat his father unceremoniously, had all the faults of a spoiled child.

il vivait avec Bartholoméo comme vit une capricieuse courtisane avec un vieil amant, faisant excuser une impertinence par un sourire, vendant sa belle humeur, et se laissant aimer.

He treated old Bartolommeo as a wilful courtesan treats an elderly adorer; buying indemnity for insolence with a smile, selling good-humor, submitting to be loved.

En reconstruisant, par une pensée, le tableau de ses jeunes années, don Juan s’aperçut qu’il lui serait difficile de trouver la bonté de son père en faute.

Don Juan, beholding scene after scene of his younger years, saw that it would be a difficult task to find his father's indulgence at fault.

En entendant, au fond de son cœur, naître un remords, au moment où il traversait la galerie, il se sentit près de pardonner à Belvidéro d’avoir si longtemps vécu.

Some new-born remorse stirred the depths of his heart; he felt almost ready to forgive this father now about to die for having lived so long.

Il revenait à des sentiments de piété filiale, comme un voleur devient honnête homme par la jouissance possible d’un million, bien dérobé.

He had an accession of filial piety, like a thief's return in thought to honesty at the prospect of a million adroitly stolen.

Bientôt le jeune homme franchit les hautes et froides salles qui composaient l’appartement de son père.

Before long Don Juan had crossed the lofty, chilly suite of rooms in which his father lived; 

Après avoir éprouvé les effets d’une atmosphère humide, respiré l’air épais, l’odeur rance qui s’exhalaient de vieilles tapisseries et d’armoires couvertes de poussière, 

the penetrating influences of the damp close air, the mustiness diffused by old tapestries and presses thickly covered with dust had passed into him, 

il se trouva dans la chambre antique du vieillard, devant un lit nauséabond, auprès d’un foyer presque éteint.

and now he stood in the old man's antiquated room, in the repulsive presence of the deathbed, beside a dying fire.

Une lampe, posée sur une table de forme gothique, jetait, par intervalles inégaux, des nappes de lumière plus ou moins forte sur le lit, et montrait ainsi la figure du vieillard sous des aspects toujours différents.

A flickering lamp on a Gothic table sent broad uncertain shafts of light, fainter or brighter, across the bed, so that the dying man's face seemed to wear a different look at every moment.

Le froid sifflait à travers les fenêtres mal fermées ; et la neige, en fouettant sur les vitraux, produisait un bruit sourd. 

The bitter wind whistled through the crannies of the ill-fitting casements; there was a smothered sound of snow lashing the windows.

Cette scène formait un contraste si heurté avec la scène que don Juan venait d’abandonner, qu’il ne put s’empêcher de tressaillir.

The harsh contrast of these sights and sounds with the scenes which Don Juan had just quitted was so sudden that he could not help shuddering. 

Puis il eut froid quand, en approchant du lit, une assez violente rafale de lueur, poussée par une bouffée de vent, illumina la tête de son père :

He turned cold as he came towards the bed; the lamp flared in a sudden vehement gust of wind and lighted up his father's face;

les traits en étaient décomposés, la peau collée fortement sur les os avait des teintes verdâtres que la blancheur de l’oreiller, sur lequel le vieillard reposait, rendait encore plus horribles ;

the features were wasted and distorted; the skin that cleaved to their bony outlines had taken wan livid hues, all the more ghastly by force of contrast with the white pillows on which he lay. 

contractée par la douleur, la bouche entrouverte et dénuée de dents laissait passer quelques soupirs dont l’énergie lugubre était soutenue par les hurlements de la tempête.

The muscles about the toothless mouth had contracted with pain and drawn apart the lips; the moans that issued between them with appalling energy found an accompaniment in the howling of the storm without.

Malgré ces signes de destruction, il éclatait sur cette tête un caractère incroyable de puissance.

In spite of every sign of coming dissolution, the most striking thing about the dying face was its incredible power.

Un esprit supérieur y combattait la mort. Les yeux, creusés par la maladie, gardaient une fixité singulière.

It was no ordinary spirit that wrestled there with Death. The eyes glared with strange fixity of gaze from the cavernous sockets hollowed by disease.

Il semblait que Bartholoméo cherchât à tuer, par son regard de mourant, un ennemi assis au pied de son lit.

It seemed as if Bartolommeo sought to kill some enemy sitting at the foot of his bed by the intent gaze of dying eyes.

Ce regard, fixe et froid, était d’autant plus effrayant, que la tête restait dans une immobilité semblable à celle des crânes posés sur une table chez les médecins.

That steady remorseless look was the more appalling because the head that lay upon the pillow was passive and motionless as a skull upon a doctor's table.

Le corps entièrement dessiné par les draps du lit annonçait que les membres du vieillard gardaient la même roideur. Tout était mort, moins les yeux. 

The outlines of the body, revealed by the coverlet, were no less rigid and stiff; he lay there as one dead, save for those eyes.

Les sons qui sortaient de la bouche avaient enfin quelque chose de mécanique.

There was something automatic about the moaning sounds that came from the mouth. 

Don Juan éprouva une certaine honte d’arriver auprès du lit de son père mourant en gardant un bouquet de courtisane dans son sein, en y apportant les parfums d’une fête et les senteurs du vin.

Don Juan felt something like shame that he must be brought thus to his father's bedside, wearing a courtesan's bouquet, redolent of the fragrance of the banqueting-chamber and the fumes of wine.

– Tu t’amusais ! s’écria le vieillard en apercevant son fils.

"You were enjoying yourself!" the old man cried as he saw his son.

Au même moment, la voix pure et légère d’une cantatrice qui enchantait les convives, fortifiée par les accords de la viole sur laquelle elle s’accompagnait, domina le râle de l’ouragan, 

Even as he spoke the pure high notes of a woman's voice, sustained by the sound of the viol on which she accompanied her song, rose above the rattle of the storm against the casements, 

et retentit jusque dans cette chambre funèbre. Don Juan voulut ne rien entendre de cette sauvage affirmation donnée à son père.

and floated up to the chamber of death. Don Juan stopped his ears against the barbarous answer to his father's speech.

Bartholoméo dit : – Je ne t’en veux pas, mon enfant.

"I bear you no grudge, my child," Bartolommeo went on.

Ce mot plein de douceur fit mal à don Juan, qui ne pardonna pas à son père cette poignante bonté.

The words were full of kindness, but they hurt Don Juan; he could not pardon this heart- searching goodness on his father's part.

– Quel remords pour moi, mon père ! lui dit-il hypocritement.

"What a remorseful memory for me!" he cried, hypocritically.


– Pauvre Juanino, reprit le mourant d’une voix sourde, j’ai toujours été si doux pour toi, que tu ne saurais désirer ma mort ?

"Poor Juanino," the dying man went on, in a smothered voice, "I have always been so kind to you, that you could not surely desire my death?"

– Oh ! s’écria don Juan, s’il était possible de vous rendre la vie en donnant une partie de la mienne ! 

"Oh, if it were only possible to keep you here by giving up a part of my own life!" cried Don Juan. 

(Ces choses-là peuvent toujours se dire, pensait le dissipateur, c’est comme si j’offrais le monde à ma maîtresse !)

("We can always say this sort of thing," the spendthrift thought; "it is as if I laid the whole world at my mistress' feet.")

À peine sa pensée était- elle achevée, que le vieux barbet aboya. Cette voix intelligente fit frémir don Juan, il crut avoir été compris par le chien.


The thought had scarcely crossed his mind when the old poodle barked. Don Juan shivered; the response was so intelligent that he fancied the dog must have understood him.

– Je savais bien, mon fils, que je pouvais compter sur toi, s’écria le moribond. Je vivrai. Va, tu seras content. Je vivrai, mais sans enlever un seul des jours qui t’appartiennent.

"I was sure that I could count upon you, my son!" cried the dying man. "I shall live. So be it; you shall be satisfied. I shall live, but without depriving you of a single day of your life."

– Il a le délire, se dit don Juan. Puis il ajouta tout haut : – Oui, mon père chéri, vous vivrez, certes, autant que moi, car votre image sera sans cesse dans mon cœur.

"He is raving," thought Don Juan. Aloud he added, "Yes, dearest father, yes; you shall live, of course, as long as I live, for your image will be for ever in my heart."

– Il ne s’agit pas de cette vie-là, dit le vieux seigneur en rassemblant ses forces pour se dresser sur son séant, car il fut ému par un de ces soupçons qui ne naissent que sous le chevet des mourants.

"It is not that kind of life that I mean," said the old noble, summoning all his strength to sit up in bed; for a thrill of doubt ran through him, one of those suspicions that come into being under a dying man's pillow.

– Écoute, mon fils, reprit-il d’une voix affaiblie par ce dernier effort, je n’ai pas plus envie de mourir, que tu ne veux te passer de maîtresses, de vin, de chevaux, de faucons, de chiens et d’or.

"Listen, my son," he went on, in a voice grown weak with that last effort, "I have no more wish to give up life than you to give up wine and mistresses, horses and hounds, and hawks and gold——"

– Je le crois bien, pensa encore le fils en s’agenouillant au chevet du lit et en baisant une des mains cadavéreuses de Bartholoméo.

"I can well believe it," thought the son; and he knelt down by the bed and kissed Bartolommeo's cold hands. 

 – Mais, reprit-il à haute voix, mon père, mon cher père, il faut se soumettre à la volonté de Dieu.

"But, father, my dear father," he added aloud, "we must submit to the will of God."

–Dieu, c’est moi, répliqua le vieillard en grommelant.

– Ne blasphémez pas, s’écria le jeune homme en voyant l’air menaçant que prirent les traits de son père.

"Do not blaspheme!" cried the other, as he saw the menacing expression on his father's face.

Gardez-vous-en bien, vous avez reçu l’extrême-onction, et je ne me consolerais pas de vous voir mourir en état de péché.

"Beware what you say; you have received extreme unction, and I should be inconsolable if you were to die before my eyes in mortal sin."

– Veux-tu m’écouter ! s’écria le mourant dont la bouche grinça.

"Will you listen to me?" cried Bartolommeo, and his mouth twitched.

Don Juan se tut. Un horrible silence régna. 

Don Juan held his peace; an ugly silence prevailed. 

À travers les sifflements lourds de la neige, les accords de la viole et la voix délicieuse arrivèrent encore, faibles comme un jour naissant. Le moribond sourit.

Yet above the muffled sound of the beating of the snow against the windows rose the sounds of the beautiful voice and the viol in unison, far off and faint as the dawn. The dying man smiled.

– Je te remercie d’avoir invité des cantatrices, d’avoir amené de la musique ! Une fête, des femmes jeunes et belles, blanches, à cheveux noirs ! tous les plaisirs de la vie, fais-les rester, je vais renaître.

"Thank you," he said, "for bringing those singing voices and the music, a banquet, young and lovely women with fair faces and dark tresses, all the pleasure of life! Bid them wait for me; for I am about to begin life anew."

– Le délire est à son comble, dit don Juan.
– J’ai découvert un moyen de ressusciter.

"The delirium is at its height," said Don Juan to himself.
"I have found out a way of coming to life again," the speaker went on.

Tiens! Cherche dans le tiroir de la table, tu l’ouvriras en pressant un ressort caché par le griffon.

"There, just look in that table drawer, press the spring hidden by the griffin, and it will fly open."

– J’y suis, mon père.
– Là, bien, prends un petit flacon de cristal de roche.
– Le voici.

"I have found it, father."
"Well, then, now take out a little phial of rock crystal." "I have it."


– J’ai employé vingt ans à... En ce moment, le vieillard sentit approcher sa fin, et rassembla toute son énergie pour dire: 

"I have spent twenty years in——" but even as he spoke the old man felt how very near the end had come, and summoned all his dying strength to say, 

– Aussitôt que j’aurai rendu le dernier soupir, tu me frotteras tout entier de cette eau, je renaîtrai. – Il y en a bien peu, répliqua le jeune homme.

"As soon as the breath is out of me, rub me all over with that liquid, and I shall come to life again." "There is very little of it," his son remarked.

Si Bartholoméo ne pouvait plus parler, il avait encore la faculté d’entendre et de voir : sur ce mot, sa tête se tourna vers don Juan par un mouvement d’une effrayante brusquerie, 

Though Bartolommeo could no longer speak, he could still hear and see. When those words dropped from Don Juan, his head turned with appalling quickness, 

L'Élixer de longue vie

The Elixer of life

Dans un palais de Ferrare, le jeune Don Juan et le prince de la maison d'Este sont réunis pour un festin accompagné de sept jeunes et jolies courtisanes. Les jeunes gens discutent et Don Juan se plaint à sa compagnie de la longévité de son père, Bartholoméo Belvidéro, un richissime nonagénaire qui lui a toujours permis de vivre dans un grand luxe et sans jamais rien lui interdire. Lorsqu’on les interrompt pour prévenir le jeune homme que le vieillard est mourant, Don Juan se rend au chevet de son père qui lui révèle alors qu’il est en possession d’une fiole contenant un liquide qui permettra de le ressusciter.

Grand Duke Bartolommeo Belvidero is ninty years old and living in the princely palace at Ferrara, Italy, with the young and handsome Don Juan Belvidero, the son of his old age. Don Juan occupies the lively rooms of the palace and fills it with lovely women resplendent in gems and luxurious fabrics, fine foods, and wines. Bartolommeo has lived quietly and spartanly for many years while indulging Don Juan, and now it is only for Bartolommeo to die so Don Juan will have his fortune. Suddenly Don Juan is called to Bartolommeo’s bedside for indeed he is dying.

L’élixir de longue vieFrench

The Elixer of lifeEnglish

Honororé de Balzac

French

English