Chapter 3 third chapter

The next day Prince Andrew took leave of the count alone, and started home without waiting for the ladies to come out. It was already the beginning of June, and just as Prince Andrei was about to return home, he drove into the birch grove again, in which the gnarled old oak tree took on a strange, memorable, and surprise him.In the woods the bells sounded lower than they had been a month and a half ago, when the trees were full of shade and foliage, and the little fir-trees scattered through the woods did not detract from the common beauty of the environment, but catered to the common beauty of the trees. Features, are green, grow hairy shoots.

It was hot all day, with looming thunderstorms in places, but only a small dark cloud sprayed a few drops of rain on the dust and succulent leaves on the road.The left side of the forest was dark and poorly lit, and the right side of the forest was damp, bright, shining in the sun, and slightly shaken by the wind.The trees were in blossom, and the nightingales sang melodiously, echoing now near and now far away. "Yes, here, in this oak tree, in this forest, we are kindred spirits," thought Prince Andrew. "But where is it?" Prince Andrei, looking at the left side of the road, called "pure experience" or "thought stream", "consciousness stream" something that was the universe, and thought again, he himself did not Didn't realize it, didn't recognize it, but he was admiring the oak tree he was looking for.The completely transformed old oak was covered with shade, and its dark green juicy leaves stood numbly, swaying slightly in the afterglow of the setting sun.Not a knuckle-finger, not a scar, not old doubts and sorrows, are gone.Through the hard century-old bark, there are clusters of green leaves drilled out of the branches, so it is really unbelievable that this old man-like oak tree can grow green leaves. "This is the old oak tree." Prince Andrei thought for a while, and suddenly a happy feeling came to his heart, a feeling of renewal in everything.He recalled at once the best moments of his life.The battlefield of Austerlitz and the high sky, the face of the late wife with a reproachful expression, Pierre on the ferry, the girl who was deeply moved by the beauty of the night, and this night and the moonlight—she suddenly Think about it all.

"No, life does not end at the age of thirty-one," said Prince Andrei, suddenly and decisively, "I just know that everything in my heart is not enough, and that everyone—whether Pierre; It’s still this girl who wants to fly into the sky—we all know this, let everyone know me, I don’t live for me alone, don’t let their lives have nothing to do with mine, let my life be for everyone Make an impact, and they all live with me!" Prince Andrei, returning from his journey, made up his mind to go to Petersburg in the autumn, and thought of various reasons for this decision.Every moment he could think of a series of reasonable arguments why he should go to Petersburg, and even serve there.He did not even understand at the moment how he could hesitate to take an active part in life any more than a month ago he could not understand how he could even think of leaving the village.He clearly felt that all the experience he had accumulated in life must be useless and meaningless if he did not apply it to his career and ceased to take an active part in life.He did not even understand how it had been evident from such improbable arguments before that if, after the lessons of life, he was convinced that he could bring profit to his career, that he could obtain happiness and love, then he would I lost my identity.Now reason suggests something quite different.After this trip, Prince Andrew began to feel lonely in the country. He was not interested in his previous business, and often sat alone in his study, often got up, went to the mirror, and gazed at his own face for a long time.Then he turned his head and gazed at the portrait of his late wife Lisa, with her alagrecque curls fluffed up, looking at him from a golden frame with tender joy.She no longer said the terrible things to her husband, and she looked at him with a simple and cheerful curiosity.Prince Andrew walked up and down the room for a long time with his hands behind his back, now frowning, now smiling, brooding over inappropriate, indescribable, criminally secret thoughts, which Thoughts involving Pierre, Honor, the girl at the window, the oak tree, women's beauty and love, changed his whole life.At such moments, when someone came in and walked up to him, he was usually very indifferent, serious and decisive, especially when he spoke some unpleasing truths.

-------- ①French: Greek style. "Moncher," said Princess Marya, who often entered at this time, "Nikolushka cannot go for a walk today: it is very cold." -------- ①French: Dear friend. "If it's warm," Andrei answered his sister at this moment, with particular indifference, "he'll just have to wear a shirt, because it's very cold and he ought to be dressed warmly, and that's why it was thought of. He makes warm clothes. Because it's cold, that's why he's doing it, not forcing him to stay in when he needs fresh air." As if punishing someone for this covert and unreasonable intellectual activity.In such cases Princess Mary often thought that mental activity would haggle the countenance of men and make them indifferent.