A Fully Glossed Russian Text of “The Death of Ivan Ilich” with Explanatory and Interpretive Annotations
Chapter 2
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- Thus begins the second chapter of the novel, with one of the most famous lines in Russian literature. A literal translation of the Russian would be "The past history of the life of Ivan Il'ich was most simple and ordinary, and most terrible" ("terrible" in the sense of inspiring terror, absolute fear). In the paragraphs that follow, the text is at pains to show that Ivan Ilich was an average, ordinary sort of person. He is middle-aged at his death (in his mid-forties), the middle son of three, an average family man with a medium-sized family and an entirely normal career. ↵
- Here is the first of several foreign-language expressions which occur in the text of the novel, many of which contain particular significance. This one (lit. "the phoenix of the family'') normally means "the member of the family most likely to succeed," but it contains a reference to the phoenix, a mythological bird which was periodically reborn from the ashes of its own destruction. It is interesting to note that some lines below the reference to the phoenix we read: "from early youth he 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." In the original, this sentence contains a pun on the Russian word 'svet' ('light,' 'world of high society'). We might translate as follows: "he was, like a fly to the light ('svet'), drawn to the people most highly placed in society ('svet')." In Tolstoi's day, of course, the "light" to which flies were drawn was the light of a burning flame in which the insect is immolated. It is suggested that this flame is society itself, which will burn up Ivan Il'ich, but that, like the phoenix, Ivan Il'ich will somehow transcend this fiery end. ↵
- The list of adjectives describing Ivan Ilich is particularly appropriate to the description of him as an average or composite sort of person. He is intelligent ("umnyj" -- lit. "having a mind") and lively ("zhivoj" -- lit. "alive"), but also pleasant and proper (the characteristics of his older brother and his father). There is a suggestion here that pleasantness and propriety are somehow antithetical to intelligence and aliveness. ↵
- See the preceding note for an explanation of the pun on the word "svet" which this sentence contains ↵
- That is, his starting grade in the Civil Service would be at the tenth rank or higher ↵
- Scharmer's was an expensive tailor. ↵
- Here is another example of the ironic use of cliche formulas. It will turn out that the one thing that Ivan Ilich absolutely refuses to foresee is his own end, his death. ↵
- Donon's was a fashionable restaurant. ↵
- Religious sectarians represented special legal problems in the Russian empire because the Russian Orthodox Church was the officially established national church. Thus, religious differences could often lead to legal disputes or prosecutions. ↵
- French for "a good fellow, a nice guy" (literally, 'a good child'). Beneath the surface of this foreign-language cliche is the suggestion that "good-heartedness" (lit., goodness of soul) is characteristic of a child but not, perhaps, of an adult. We should pay attention to the way in which Ivan Ilich's behavior changes as he grows older. Just as earlier we learned that his sense of shame as a child was gradually overcome so too the positive qualities of good-heartedness and gaiety will gradually be weakened in favor of more grown up attitudes and pastimes ↵
- The French saying is used to mean "Youth will have its fling," "Boys will be boys." It's literal meaning, however, is "youth must happen" and, by implication, at some point stop happening and be lost. Later on in the novel Ivan Ilich will devote a lot of effort to an attempt to recapture that lost youth. ↵
- The 1860s saw the institution of major governmental reforms in Russia. The most celebrated of these was the freeing of the serfs from their legal bondage in 1861. Among the most far-reaching (and the most needed) of the reforms was that which attempted to remodel the Russian judicial system, long marked by incompetence and venality. Ivan Il'ich's ability to conform himself to the proprieties and expectations of this new system is the secret to his continuing career success. He now begins a steady rise in the service of several years duration. ↵
- An "examining magistrate"was a junior official of the court charged with conducting a preliminary enquiry into the circumstances and character of a crime and of the person(s) charged with the commission of the crime. ↵
- Comme il faut is French for "as one ought to be"; the phrase is a favorite descriptor of vapid and insincere characters throughout his career. One thinks, for example, of such characters in War and Peace as Hippolyte Kuragin, completely comme il faut and almost devoid of intelligence, or Alphonse Karlovich Berg, whose most earnest desire is to be the twin of those highly-placed persons who seem to him to represent comme il faut, a feat he tries to accomplish not simply by furnishing his house in the same style as those he admires but by purchasing furnishings which have actually stood in those houses. ↵
- It is interesting to note that Ivan Il'ich's secret of success in his official career resembles very much the attitude which his 'friends' bring to the 'required formality' of attending his funeral. Peter Ivanovich, indeed, does a remarkable job of estranging himself from the unpleasant sensations aroused by his feelings of personal connection with his deceased mentor and of the personal relevance which Ivan Il'ich's countenance and expression seemed to hold for him. Later on, the doctors whom Ivan Ilich consults as his illness progresses will treat him very much as he treats those who come before him in court. ↵
- Like Peter Ivanovich and Schwartz in Chapter One, Ivan Ilich becomes a devotee of card-playing. The skills required to play whist (which will be referred to later as "vint," a variation of the game sometimes called "Russian whist" in English) are similar to those which bring him success in his career: his good humor and playful manner, his ability to calculate quickly and astutely, his knowledge of the rules of the game and the proper forms of play. The thrust here is to connect his "life" (Russ. zhizn') with his "official life" (Russ. sluzhba) and to reduce both to triviality by suggesting that they involve little more than the artificial conventions of a game of cards. ↵
- Ivan Ilich dances as skillfully as he plays cards; as he "won over" Praskovya Fyodorovna with his dancing and by the "playful" relations he established with her, so also does his astute "playing" of cards leave him usually on the "winning" side after a rubber of whist. Playing cards and courting a wife are represented as no more than two varieties of the same activity--and both are equally "pleasant." ↵
- The Russian word "porjadochnaja" suggests a variety of meanings. Clearly the surface significance is that Praskovya Fyodorovna exemplifies "good order" (Russ. porjadok) in the choice of a wife. The word may also suggest that she is selected from a whole row (rjad) of similarly acceptable women. The word "porjadochnyj" may also be applied to physical objects to indicate that the object is well suited to its purpose. Praskovya Fyodorovna will make a "serviceable" wife. In short, the implication is really that there is nothing special or individual about her as far as Ivan Ilich is concerned. ↵
- The word "soobrazhenija" (Engl. "considerations") forms a verbal link to the earlier comment about Ivan Ilich's ability to "quickly and astutely consider" the best way to play a hand of whist. ↵
- Ivan Ilich's relationship with his wife, entered into more because it was a suitable and appropriate match than because he loved her, is portrayed as satisfactory and even pleasant as long as it involves only such material considerations as sexual relations, furniture, dishes, and tablecloths. It is disrupted, however, and becomes unpleasant when Praskovya Fyodorovna becomes pregnant, that is, when a new life enters into the situation. Thus, marriage, too, as Ivan Ilich wishes it to be, is suggested to be a social form in which there is no place for life. By now it has already become clear that the story of the life of Ivan Ilich is really the story of his steady approach toward death. In the midst of his successful "life," real life is already a devastating threat. Later in this same passage the pregnancy is said to introduce something "new, unexpected, unpleasant, depressing (Russ. 'tjazheloe' = 'heavy, serious'), and unseemly" came into his life, "from which there was no way of escape." All of these adjectives apply equally well to the illness from which Ivan Ilich will soon begin to suffer. This is especially true of the adjective 'tjazheloe,' which is part of a familiar and standard expression when applied to disease (Russ. 'tjazhelaja bolezn'''). In the same way that Praskovya Fyodorovna's pregnancy seems to be an intimation of Ivan Ilich's illness, so also her behavior while pregnant pre-figures that of her husband after he has become ill. Thus, the displays of unseemliness and unpleasantness, the unreasonableness, the vulgar scenes which will mark Ivan Ilich's behavior later on are all pre-figured here in the behavior of his pregnant wife. One must conclude, it seems, that just as there is a relationship between Ivan Ilich's official and personal life and the symbols of death, so too is there a relationship between the illness which leads to the end of that "life" and the discomborts associated with the genuine new life stirring within Praskovya Fyodorovna's womb. ↵
- A French phrase used to mean "out of sheer wantonness" or, more vulgarly, "for the hell of it." Literally, the phrase means "from gaiety of heart" and, consequently, seems to suggest the possibility that Praskovya Fyodorovna's pregnancy and its attendant symptoms, since they represent new life, should rather be a cause of happiness than of irritation. Here is still another example of a meaning beneath the meaning of these conventional phrases, suggesting (rather specifically, since she is pregnant) that there is another life beneath the superficial life of these conventional people. ↵
- Having discovered that the pleasantness and propriety of his life has been badly injured by the behavior of his pregnant wife Ivan Ilich first tries to ignore her outbursts and demands, but when this fails he withdraws into his work in order to protect his "independence." Thus, he turns away from his family life to the still more artificial world of his life at work. Maude's translation here does not capture the organizing metaphor of this passage. Where Maude says "entrench himself" the Russian has "barricade himself" (Russ. 'ogradit' sebja'), and where Maude translates "secure his own independence" Tolstoi's text has "fence off his own independent world" (Russ. 'vygorazhivaja svoj nezavisimyj mir'). Thus, the Russian text suggests the motif of voluntary separation by walls or barriers, a process of self-enclosure, which is similar to the image created by the heavy black border of the funeral announcement and the framing edge of Ivan Ilich's coffin in chapter one. Some lines below the Maude translation does finally make the connection with "if he met with antagonism and querulousness he retired at once into his separate fenced-off (Russ. 'otdel'nyj vygorozhennyj im') world of official duties (italics mine)." Even here, though, Maude's translation refers to "his fenced-off world" while the Russian has "the world fenced-off by him" which makes Ivan Ilich responsible for the deliberate act of closing himself off from that which irritates him. Thus it is that in his desire to escape from the unpleasantness of his personal life he more and more embraces the relative emptiness and artificiality of his official life. In thinking to protect himself by escaping the unpleasantness, he always accomplishes this result by isolating himself, by building a metaphorical fence around himself. ↵
- The narrator's preference for the adjective supruzheskaja ("spousal," from "suprug/supruga," spouse) suggests that Ivan Ilich sees his relationship with Praskovya Fyodorovna as one in which each of them is playing, and is bound to play, a certain role, that of spouse, rather than as a relationship between two authentic individuals. One might say that Ivan Ilich's strategy for defense against the importunities of his wife is to escape the role of spouse by taking refuge in the role of government official. The inherently inauthentic nature of this "play-acting" at life is most strongly suggested in Chapter Eight where the family discusses their imminent outing to the theater to see the celebrated actress Sarah Bernhardt perform. ↵
- The word "opredelennyj" (as here in "opredelennoe otnoshenie," Eng., "a definite (or "defined") relationship) occurs frequently in the story. It is suggestive that it derives from the word "predel," Eng., "limit," "boundary" and thereby resonates with the various images of borders, edges, barriers, enclosures, curtains, screens and so on in which the story abounds. To say that there is need for a defined relationship suggests that every aspect of life has its known and desirable limits, its rules describing the types of behavior which are and are not permitted within that aspect. Extending this principle logically we come soon to the conclusion that life itself is just such a limited affair, and Ivan Ilich's hope to protect his "independent world" is illusory. ↵
- Note the use of the same verb "privlekat'/privlech'" ("to draw, attract") to express the idea of Ivan Ilich's gratification of being able to "draw" anyone into court (or into prison) and his gratification with all aspects of his new duties being able to "draw" Ivan Ilich himself into his work at the office even more than before. Thus again the idea of Ivan Ilich's life becoming ever more a voluntarily accepted decision to lock himself away from the world. ↵
- The image of being surrounded by solid walls is picked up yet again in the use of the word "nepronicaemyj" ('impenetrable'). ↵
- Here is a prime example of the ambiguity so often reflected in the style of the narrative: is it simply that the cost of living is more expensive because of moving to a larger town, or is it that because of his promotion Ivan Ilich's real life has become more dear because it is slipping away ever farther into the false life of his increased official duties. ↵
- Just as the birth of a child created unpleasantness in Ivan Ilich's life, so also does their death. Clearly, if these ineluctable evidences of real life--birth and death--are both unpleasant, it must be that Ivan Ilich's "family life" is somehow false, not real life at all; his family life is rather a phenomenon in which the elements of real life have no appropriate place. ↵
- Making the point yet again, Tolstoy's Russian uses the phrase "postoronnie lica" (lit. 'persons ranged along the sides, rather than in the center') to suggest once more the image of Ivan Ilich surrounded by a protective screen. Ivan Ilich thinks always to fence the offending behavior out, never realizing that he is also, necessarily, fencing himself in. ↵
- The completeness of his isolation in his official life is mainly missed by Maude's translation "The whole interest of his life now centered in the official world and that interest absorbed him" [italics mine] but is vividly suggested by Tolstoy's use of the idiomatic expression "And that interest swallowed him," [italics mine] which Tolstoy offers as a separate, brief, and powerful sentence. ↵
The past history of the life of Ivan Ilich
was most simple and ordinary and most terrible
Ivan Ilich died at forty-five years
a member of the House of Judges
He was the son of a government official
who had made in Petersburg in various ministries and departments
the sort of career which leads people to the kind of position
in which although it is quite clear
that they are not suitable to fulfill any kind of substantive responsibility
they nonetheless because of their long and past service and their rank
cannot be dismissed
and therefore receive invented, fictional positions
and non-fictional thousands, from six to ten
with which they live on to deep old age
Such was Privy Councillor
an unnecessary member of various unnecessary institutions
Ilya Efimovich Golovin
He had three sons
Ivan Ilich was the second son
The elder made the same sort of career as the father
only in a different ministry
and was already closely approaching that age of service
at which that salary inertia sets in
The third son was a failure
He in various positions had everywhere spoiled (things) for himself
and now served on the railroads
and his father, and brothers, and especially their wives not only did not like to meet with him
but absent extreme necessity would not even recall his existence
(Ivan Ilich's) sister was married to Baron Gref
the same sort of Petersburg official
as his father-in-law
Ivan Ilich was "le phenix de la famille," as (people) said
He was not so cold and precise as the elder
and not so wild as the younger
He was the mid-point between them
an intelligent, lively (lit. "living"), pleasant, and proper person
He had been educated together with the younger brother in the School of Law
The younger didn't finish
and was expelled from the fifth class
Ivan Ilich, on the other hand, completed his course well
In the School of Law he was already that
which he continued to be (lit., was) later on for his whole life
a person (who was) capable, gaily good-natured, and sociable
but strictly fulfilling that which he considered his duty
his duty, then, he, considered (to be) everything
that was considered such by the most highly placed people
He was not one who ingratiates himself
neither as a boy nor thereafter as a grown-up person
but it was (characteristic) of him from (his) earliest years
that he, like a fly to the light
was drawn to (lit., "pulled himself to") the people most highly placed in society
(he) assimilated (lit., made his own) their ways (of behaving), their views on life
and with them he established friendly relations
All the distractions of childhood and youth went by for him
not having left large traces
he gave himself up both to sensuality and vanity
and--near the end, in the higher classes--to liberalism
but everything within known limits
which his instinct (lit., feeling) correctly pointed out to him
In the School of Law were committed by him acts
which formerly seemed to him (to be) great abominations
and inspired him (with) revulsion toward himself
at the time that he committed them
but later on
having seen that these acts were committed
also by persons of high standing
and were not considered by them (to be) bad
he did not exactly admit them (to be) good
but he did completely forget them
and did not at all feel bitterly troubled by recollections of them
Having graduated from the School of Law entitled to the tenth rank
and having received from his father money for outfitting himself
Ivan Ilich ordered for himself clothes at Scharmer's
hung on his watch chain a medallion with the inscription
Latin for "foresee the end," a common motto for lawyers whose job it is to guide their clients to the desired result.
bade farewell to the prince (i.e., the patron of the school) and (his) professor
dined with his schoolmates at Donon's
and with new, fashionable suitcase, linen (i.e., shirts, underclothes), clothing, shaving and grooming appurtenances, and a traveling rug
(which had been) ordered and purchased in the very best stores
(he) departed for the provinces to a post as an official for special services to the governor (of the province)
which his father had obtained (for him)
In the provinces Ivan Ilich at once set up for himself
the same easy and pleasant situation
as had been his situation in the School of Law
He served (i.e., did his work in the government service), made a career and together with that pleasantly and with propriety amused himself
occasionally he would go on a commission for his chief into the (surrounding) districts
(he) conducted himself with dignity
both with (his) superiors and with (his) inferiors
and also with exactitude and incorruptible honesty
(of) which he could not but be proud
(he) fulfilled the placed-upon-him commissions
primarily on matters (having to do with) the (religious) sectarians
In official matters he was
despite his youth and inclination to light amusement
extraordinarily restrained, official, and even strict
but in social (matters) he was often playful and witty
and always good-hearted, decent, and a "bon enfant"
as said about him his chief and (his chief's) wife
in whose home he was like one of the family (lit., "a person of the house")
(There) was in the province also a connection (i.e., an affair) with one of the (married) ladies
(who) had involved herself (with) the elegant jurist
(there) was also a seamstress
(there) were also drinking bouts with visiting young officers
and trips to a distant street after a late supper
(there) was also obseqious behavior to his chief and even to the wife of his chief
but all of this carried on itself such a high tone of proper behavior
that all of this could not be named by bad words
all of this came only under the rubric of the French saying il faut que jeunesse se passe
Everything proceeded with clean hands
in clean shirts
with French words
and, the main thing, in the very highest society
consequently, with the approval of people of high standing
So served Ivan Ilich (for) five years
and a (major) change occurred (lit., invaded, attacked, overcame) throughout the service
(There) appeared new judicial institutions
new people were needed
And Ivan Ilich became this new person
To Ivan Ilich was offered the position of examining magistrate
and Ivan Ilich accepted it
despite the fact that this position was in a different province
and for him it was necessary to throw off (his) established relationships and establish new ones
Ivan Ilich was seen off by his friends
a group portrait was taken
he was presented with a silver cigarette case
and he left for his new position
As an examining magistrate Ivan Ilich was
the very same sort of comme il faut, decorous (person)
(who) knows how to separate (his) official duties from (his) private life
and (who) inspires general respect
as he had been as an official for special services
The very work of an examining magistrate
seemed for Ivan Ilich (to be) of much greater interest and attractiveness
than (his) former (work)
In (his) former work
(it) had been pleasant
(with) a free (and easy) gait in (his) uniform from Scharmer's
to bypass the trembling and awaiting-a-reception petitioners
and the officials who envied him
directly into the office of the chief
and to sit down with him over tea and a cigarette
but of people, directly dependent on his personal whim, there were few
Such people were only the policemen and sectarians (whom he encountered)
when he was sent with special instructions
and he liked to interact politely, almost in a comradely way
with such, dependent on him, people
liked to let (them) feel
that here is he
who could crush (them)
interacting with them in a friendly, simple way
Of such people at that time (there) were few
Now, however, as an examining magistrate
Ivan Ilich felt
that everyone, everyone without exception
the most important self-satisfied people
everyone (was) in his hands
and that he need only to write known words on paper with (an official) heading
and this important, self-satisfied person
will be brought (lit. they will bring) to him in the capacity of an accused or a witness
and he will
if he (i.e., Ivan Ilich) will not wish to seat him
will (have) to stand before him and answer his questions
Ivan Ilich never abused this power of his
on the contrary, (he) tried to soften the expression of it
but the consciousness of this power
and the possibility of softening it
comprised for him the chief interest and attractiveness of his new work
In the work itself
especially in the interrogations
Ivan Ilich very quickly mastered the device
of estranging from himself all circumstances not (directly) concerning (his) official duties
and of drafting out of any (even the) most complex matter in such form
wherein the matter would only in its external form be reflected on paper
and in which (form) would be excluded completely his personal view
and, the main thing, would be observed all of the required formality
This (way of) doing (things) was new
And he was one of the first people
who (successfully) worked out in practice the application of the (reformed) codes of 1864
Having moved to a new town to (take up his) new post of examining magistrate
Ivan Ilich made new acquaintanceships, connections
set himself up in a new manner
and adopted a somewhat different tone
He set himself up at a certain dignified distance from the local authorities
and selected the best circle of judicial (officials) and wealthy gentry-folk
who lived in the town
and adopted a tone of easy-going dissatisfaction with the government
(a tone) of moderate liberalism and civilized civic-mindedness
at the same time
while not having changed the elegance of his manner of grooming
Ivan Ilich in his new position stopped shaving his chin
and allowed his beard to grow as it wished
The life of Ivan Ilich also in the new town
put itself together very pleasantly
the (local) society, which was displaying its dis-satisfaction with the governor
was friendly and respectable (lit., good)
(his) salary was larger
and not a little pleasantness in life (was) added then (by) whist
which Ivan Ilich began to play
who (i.e., Ivan Ilich) had the ability to play cards with good humor
considering (the play of each hand) quickly and very astutely
so that in general he always was on the winning (side)
After two years of service in the new town
Ivan Ilich met his future wife
Praskovya Fyodorovna Mikhel was the most attractive, intelligent, brilliant girl of the circle
in which Ivan Ilich moved (lit. turned himself about)
Among the other amusements and relaxations from the labors of the examining magistrate
Ivan Ilich established playful, easy-going relations (also) with Praskovya Fyodorovna
Ivan Ilich, while he was an official of special services, had in general participated in dancing
as an examining magistrate, however, he now (lit., already) danced as an exception
He danced now in the sense, that
even though (he was serving) both in the new institutions and in the fifth rank
but if we're speaking of (lit. if the matter concerns) dances
then I can prove that in this area I can (do) better than others
So he occasionally at the end of an evening would dance with Praskovya Fyodorovna
and (it was) mainly during these dances (that) he won (the heart of) Praskovya Fyodorovna
She fell in love with him
Ivan Ilich did not have a clear, definite intention to get married
but after the girl fell in love with him
he put to himself this question
Indeed, why NOT get married
said he to himself
The maiden Praskovya Fyodorovna was of a good gentry family, not bad looking
(there) was a small bit of property
Ivan Ilich could have counted on a more brilliant match
but even this (one) was a good match
Ivan Ilich had his salary
she, he hoped, would have as much again
A good family
she is a dear, pretty, and fully acceptable woman
To say that Ivan Ilich got married
because he had fallen in love with his bride
and found her sympathetic to his own views on life
would be just as inapt
as also to say that he got married
because the people of his society approved the match
Ivan Ilich got married on the basis of both considerations
he had done (something) pleasant for himself
(in) gaining such a wife
and together with that had done that, which the most highly placed persons considered correct
And (so) Ivan Ilich got married
The very process of the wedding and the first period of married life
with (its) spousal caresses, new furniture, new dishes, new linen
up to the pregnancy of the wife
passed very well
such that Ivan Ilich had begun already to think
that marriage not only would not destroy
that character of a life (which is) easy, pleasant, gay, and always proper and approved by society
which (character) Ivan Ilich considered natural to life in general
but (that marriage) would improve it still (more)
But here, from the first months of the pregnancy of (his) wife
(there) appeared something so new, unexpected, unpleasant, burdensome (lit. heavy), and improper
(something) which had been impossible to expect
and from which it was completely impossible to separate oneself
The wife without any (good) reasons
as it seemed to Ivan Ilich, de gaité de coeur
as he told himself
began to ruin the pleasantness and propriety of life
she without any reason was jealous (concerning) him
demanded from him solicitousness for herself
became irritated at everything
and made him unpleasant and coarse scenes
At first Ivan Ilich hoped to free himself
from the unpleasantness of this position
by that same easy(-going) and proper relationship toward life
which had helped him before
he tried to ignore the mood of (his) wife
continued to live as before easily and pleasantly
invited to his place friends to make up a foursome
tried (by) himself to go out to (his) club or to (visit) acquaintances
But (his) wife one time with such energy
began (with) coarse words to scold him
and so stubbornly continued to scold him every time
until he fulfilled (lit., as long as he did not fulfill) her demands
obviously having firmly decided not to stop
until he submitted (lit., as long as he would not submit)
that is, until he stayed at home (with her) and was as depressed as she was
that Ivan Ilich was horrified
He came to understand that married (lit., spousal) life
at least with his wife
would not always conduce to the pleasantnesses and propriety of life
but, on the contrary, would often destroy them
and that therefore it was necessary to protect himself (lit., fence himself off) from these destructions
And Ivan Ilich began to search out means for (doing) this
(His) work was the one thing
that prevailed (upon) Praskovya Fyodorovna
and Ivan Ilich using (lit., by means of) his work and the flowing-out-of-it obligations
began to fight (lit., to do battle) with (his) wife
defending (lit., fencing in) his independent world
With the birth of the child, the attempts at nursing (it), and the various failures (going) along with that
with the illnesses actual and imagined of the child and the mother
in which from Ivan Ilich was demanded participation
but in which he could not understand anything
the requirement for Ivan Ilich to enclose for himself a world outside of the family became still more insistent
To the (same) degree that (his) wife was becoming more irritable and demanding
(so) also did Ivan Ilich ever more and more transfer the center of gravity of his life into his work (at the office)
He began to like his work (still) more
and he became (still) more ambitious (lit., fond of honors, recognition)
than he had been previously
Very soon, not farther than a year after the wedding
Ivan Ilich came to understand that married (lit., spousal) life
while offering certain conveniences in life
in essence is a very complex and weighty matter
in connection with which
in order to fulfill one's duty
that is, to conduct a proper, approved-by-society life
it is necessary to work out a definite relationship, just as with (one's) work
And such a relationship to spousal life Ivan Ilich worked out for himself
He demanded from family life
only those conveniences of dinner at home, a housekeeper, bed, which it (family life) could give him
and, the main thing, that propriety of external forms, which were defined by social opinion
In (all) the rest (of it) he sought happy pleasantness
and, if (he) found them, was very grateful
if on the other hand (he) met resistance and grumbling
then at once (he) would go off into his own separate, fenced-off-by-him world of (his official) work
and in it (he) would find pleasantness
(They) valued Ivan Ilich as a good worker
and in three years (they) made (him) an assistant prosecutor
New responsibilities, the importance of them, the possibility of drawing into court and putting anyone into prison, the publicness of his speeches
the success which Ivan Ilich had in this activity
all (of) this still more drew him towards (his official) work
(More) children came
The wife became ever more querulous and angry
but the worked-out-by-Ivan-Ilich relationships to (his) domestic life
made him almost inpenetrable for her querulousness
After seven years of service in one town
(They) transferred Ivan Ilich to the position of (chief) prosecutor in another province
They (i.e., Ivan Ilich and family) moved
there was (too) little money
and the wife was not pleased by the place where they moved
(Ivan Ilich's) salary even though it was more than his former (one)
but life (i.e., the cost of living) was more dear (i.e., expensive)
besides that, two of the children died
and for that reason family life became still more unpleasant for Ivan Ilich
For (lit., in) all the discontents which occurred in this new place Praskovya Fyodorovna blamed (her) husband
The majority of the subjects of conversation between husband and wife
particularly the upbringing of the children
culminated in questions, concerning which (there) were memories of quarrels
and (such) quarrels every minute were ready to flame up
(There) remained only those rare periods of lovingness
which would (occasionally) come over the spouses
but would last not long
These were little islands
to which they would come for a time
but then again (they) would launch themselves into the sea of hidden enmity
(which) would express itself in (their) alienation from one another
This estrangement might have embittered Ivan Ilich
if he had considered that this ought not to be so
but he (by) now acknowledged this position (i.e., his estrangement) not only (as) normal
but even (as) the goal of all (his) activity in the family
His goal consisted in this
ever more and more to free himself from these unpleasantnesses and to give them a character of harmlessness and propriety
and he achieved this
by this, that he ever less and less would spend time with the family
and when (he) was forced to do that
then (he) would try to secure his position by the presence of outsiders
The main thing, though, (was) that Ivan Ilich had (his official) work
In the world of his work was concentrated for him all the interest of life
And that interest swallowed him
The consciousness of his power
of the possibility to ruin any person whom he might want to ruin
(his) importance, even the surface (importance), during his entry into court and (in) meetings with inferiors
his success before superiors and inferiors
and, the main thing, his masterliness (in) conducting cases, of which he was well aware (lit., which he felt)
all this gave him joy and together with conversations with his colleagues, dinners (out), and whist filled up his life
Thus (it was) that in general the life of Ivan Ilich continued to go on in the way
that (lit., as) he considered that it ought to go on: pleasantly and with propriety
Thus he lived for seven more years
The elder daughter was already sixteen
one more child had died
and (that) left a boy in high school, (who was) a subject of discord
Ivan Ilich had wanted to enroll him in (lit., give him over to) the School of Law
but Praskovya Fyodorovna to spite him had enrolled him in the high school
The daughter studied at home and was growing up well
the boy also studied not badly
