An old man with a tangled beard was leaning over some iron and doing something, while muttering senseless words in French; and as always in that nightmare (this was what made it terrible) she felt this peasant was paying no attention to her but was doing something dreadful to her with the iron.
Un viejecillo con la barba mal peinada, inclinado sobre el lecho, manipulaba los hierros de la cama repitiendo unas palabras sin sentido. Y Ana, como siempre que tenía esta pesadilla (y en esto consistía precisamente todo el horror) sentía que el viejecillo no le prestaba atención, y continuaba manipulando los hierros de la cama.