Chapter 5 chapter Five

Boris wanted to marry a rich maiden in Petersburg, but it didn't work out.He arrived in Moscow with this purpose in mind.In Moscow, Boris is torn between the two richest beauties, Julie and Princess Maria.Princess Maria, ugly as she was, seemed to him more attractive than Julie, and for some reason he was ashamed to pursue Bolkonskaya.When meeting her recently on the old duke's name day, he tried to make love to her, but she answered him in the wrong way, and it was clear that she didn't want to hear him. In contrast, Julie, despite her special talents, was open to his courtship.

Julie is already twenty-seven years old.After her brothers died, she became very rich.She was not pretty at all now, but it occurred to her that she was not only very pretty, but much prettier than ever.However, two things continued to perplex her. First, she had become a very wealthy bachelorette; To undertake any obligation, but to be endangered, is all the more free.They all enjoyed her dinners and soirees, taking advantage of the rather lively upper-society parties at her house.Ten years ago, men were afraid to visit every day because there was a seventeen-year-old lady in their family. They were worried about damaging her reputation and were unwilling to restrain themselves. Now they can boldly visit her every day. When interacting with her, Think of her not as an unmarried woman, but as a genderless acquaintance.

It was winter, and the Karagin House was the most pleasant and hospitable family in Moscow.In addition to the evenings and banquets for entertaining guests, a large group of people, especially men, met every day at Karagin's house, and after eleven o'clock in the night, their names and titles were corrected to make the names match the real ones.Confucius pointed out, "Yes, they sat there for too long at dinner, until more than two o'clock. Balls, funfairs, plays, Julie never misses every opportunity. Her clothes are always the most fashionable. Nevertheless, Julie seemed to be disappointed in everything. She told everyone she met that she believed in neither friendship nor love nor any joy in life. She just waited for the quiet of Hades. the tone of a girl who seemed to have lost a loved one, or had been cruelly deceived by a loved one. Although nothing of the kind had happened to her, she was still treated that way, and she herself did not even believe that she had suffered The miseries of many lives. This melancholy mood did not prevent her from pleasures, nor from the pleasant pastimes of the young men who frequented her house. Every visitor who frequented their house was first of all concerned with the melancholy of her mistress. Pay your respects before engaging in the genteel talk, dancing, mind games and doggerel contests that were all the rage in the Karagin family. Only a few young people, Boris among them, appreciate more deeply Julie's melancholy mood, she talked with these young people alone and longer about the emptiness of the world, and she opened and showed them a few souvenir books, all of which were full of sad patterns and filled with aphorisms and poems.

Julie was very kind to Boris, regretted that he was disappointed in life prematurely, and gave him the comfort of friendship that she could give, but she herself suffered a lot of pain in the world, so she opened a memorial book to him and gave him He looks.Boris drew two trees for her in the memorial book and inscribed them: Arbes rustiques, vossombres rameaux secouent surmoilestenebreset lamelancolie① In another place, he painted a mausoleum and inscribed it: Lamortest secourable et lamortesttranqulle; Ah! coutrelesdouteursiln'yapasd'autreasile． ②Julie said, this is wonderful.

"Ilyaquelque chose des iravissant dans les urire de la lam colie," she read to Boris verbatim from the passage in the book. "C'estunrayondelumieredansl'ombre, unenuanceentreladouleuretledesespoir, quimontrelaconsolationpossible.④" -------- ①French: Rural trees, your dark branches shake down the dark gloom on me. ② French: Death saves life, death gives peace; oh, there is no other place to hide from pain. ③French: There is a kind of endless charm in a sad smile. ④French: This is the ray of light in the shadows, the nuance between sorrow and disappointment, and the possibility of consolation.

Boris wrote her the following poem about it: Aliment depoison d'unea B metropsensible, Toi, sansquilebonheurmeseraitimpossible, Tendreme Lancolie, ah! viensmeconsoler, Vienscolmerlestourmentsdemasombreretraite, Etmeleunedouceur secrete Acespleurs, quijesenscouler. ① Julie played Boris the saddest nocturne on the harp.Boris read "Poor Lisa" to her, which he interrupted several times because he was out of breath with excitement.When Julie and Boris met in public, their eyes met as if they were the only cold, understanding people in the world. Anna Mikhailovna, who was a frequent visitor to Karagina's house, made a factual investigation into Julie's dowry when she was playing cards with Julie's mother Two Territories and Lower City Forest).Anna Mikhaylovna observed with a look of devotion and deep emotion the delicate atmosphere of mourning which bound her son to the rich Julie.

"Tojoursfcharmanteetmelancolique, cettechereJulie," she said to their daughter, "Boris says he is at ease only in your house. How many times he has lost heart, and he has felt it deeply." She told Julie's mother. -------- ①French: Poisonous delicacy / Damage to the soul of incomparable wit, / Without you, my happiness has become nothing. /Tender desolation/ O come to comfort me, / Take away the pain of that dark solitary life, / Mix that secret sweetness / With the rustling tears I feel. ②French: Our lovely Julie is still so charming and melancholy. "Oh, my darling, how much I've been attached to Julie lately," she said to her son, "I can't describe to you! Who can't love her? What a marvel she is! Oh, Boris, Boris " She was silent for a moment, "how I pity her mother," she went on, "today she showed me the accounts and letters from Penza (they have a huge land), she is very poor, She is all on her own, and everyone else is lying to her!"

Boris smiled slightly as he listened to his mother.He laughed mildly at her simple cunning, but he listened to her carefully, and sometimes asked her about Penza and the lower town estates. Julie had long waited for her anxious suitor to propose and accept him, but Boris harbored an underlying distaste for her eagerness to leave the cabinet, for her unnatural attitude, and at the same time He was also afraid of losing the chance of real love, and this fear still prevented him from proposing to Julie.His vacation is coming to an end.He spent the whole day at Karagin's every day, thinking to himself, saying to himself that he would propose marriage tomorrow.But when Julie appeared, he looked at her flushed face and almost always powdered chin, her tear-stained eyes, her facial expression that showed her readiness to emerge from a melancholy mood. The immediate transition into the unnatural joy of married happiness prevented Boris from uttering a decisive word, although he had long fancied himself the possessor of Penza and the Lower Town. And put the income of the territory to good use.Julie saw Boris hesitate, and sometimes she thought he disliked her, but the woman's self-deception pleased her immediately, and she said to herself that he was only shy out of affection.But her melancholy was beginning to turn into depression, so shortly before Boris left she took the decisive step.And when Boris's vacation was coming to an end, Anatoly Kuragin was in Moscow, and naturally appeared in the living room of Karagin's house. Julie no longer was depressed, but became very happy, and took good care of Kula. gold.

"Moncher," said Anna Mihailovna to her son, "jesais de bonne source quele Prince Basile en voieson filsa Moscoupour luifaireepouser Julie. I like Julie very much, and I pity her. What do you think, my darling?" Anna Mihalov Na said. -------- ①French: My dear, I have learned from reliable sources that Prince Vasili sent his son to marry Julie as his wife. Boris was fooled, wasted a month in vain, and was completely depressed and unhappy around Julie, feeling sick and seeing the territory of Penza that he had acquired in his imagination and put to good use. Boris was insulted at the thought that his income had fallen into the hands of others, especially the foolish Anatole.He drove to Karakin's house and decided to propose marriage.Jolie came out to meet him with a cheerful and unconcerned air, remarking absently how much fun she had had at yesterday's ball, and asking him when he was going to leave.Although Boris had come to her with the intention of expressing his love, and therefore he had put on an air of tenderness and affection, he was impulsively talking of women's love of the new and of the old, and how easily they turned from melancholy to the old, he said. For joy, the state of mind of women depends only on the man who pursues them.Julie felt insulted and said that it was true, that women needed to vary, and that if it stayed the same, everyone would be bored.

"That's why I can advise you..." Boris was about to start, trying to say something ironic to her; but at that moment a humiliating thought came to his mind: it was very likely that he would go away in vain. Moscow (this never happened to him).He paused in the middle of his speech, lowered his eyes, not wanting to look at her repulsive and very angry and indecisive face, and said: "I didn't come here to argue with you at all, on the contrary... ..." He glanced at her, to see if he could continue.Her angry mood suddenly disappeared, and a pair of anxious, begging eyes stared at him with eager expectation. "I can always think of a way to avoid seeing her," Boris thought for a while, "it has to be finished when it starts!" He suddenly blushed, raised his eyes to look at her, and said to her: "You know I have a lot of love for you!" Needless to say, Julie's face glowed with self-satisfaction and complacency, but she forced Boris to speak to her on this occasion. To say that he loved her so much that he had never loved another woman as he loved her.She knew that with the domain of Penza and the forests of the Lower City she could make this claim, and she had got all she asked for.

The fiancé and fiancée stopped talking about the two gloomy and desolate trees, and they planned how to build a splendid house with golden walls in Petersburg, visit relatives and friends, and prepare for a grand wedding.