Chapter 8 chapter eight

After Prince Andrei met Pierre in Moscow, he told his family that he was going to Petersburg on business, and that he really wanted to meet Prince Anatole Kuragin there, whom he considered necessary .Arriving in Petersburg, he found out that Kuragin was not there.Pierre had informed his brother-in-law that Prince Andrew was looking for him.Anatoly then received a commission from the Minister of War and set out for the Moldavian army.At this time Prince Andrew met General Kutuzov, the leader who had always liked him, in Petersburg. General Kutuzov suggested that Prince Andrey go with him to the Moldavian troops.The old general has been appointed as the local commander-in-chief.After receiving a letter of commission to serve at the High Command, Prince Andrew set off for Turkey.

Prince Andrew did not think it proper to write to Kuragin asking for a duel.In the absence of a new reason for a duel, Prince Andrei thought that if he provoked the duel in the first place, the honor of Countess Rostova would be damaged, so he sought an opportunity to meet Kuragin in order to Find a new excuse for a duel.In the Turkish army, however, he failed to meet Kuragin, who returned to Russia shortly after Prince Andrew's arrival.Prince Andrew felt more at ease in a new country and in new surroundings.Since his fiancée's betrayal of him (which affected him the more he concealed it), the conditions of his life, which he had once felt so happy with, now made him miserable, the freedom and freedom he had so dearly cherished. Independence made him feel even more painful now.Not only did he no longer think about those earlier thoughts—the thoughts that first occurred to him when he looked up at the sky on the battlefield of Austerlitz, what he liked to talk about to Pierre, in Bogucharovo and later in Switzerland and Rome. Thoughts that had filled his solitary life; now he was afraid even to look back on those thoughts that had revealed to him infinitely bright futures.He is now only concerned with present practical problems which have nothing to do with the past, and the more he is absorbed in present problems, the more distant the past is from him.The infinitely distant sky that used to hang high above his head suddenly seemed to become a low and limited vaulted roof over him, and everything in it was clear, and there was nothing eternal and mysterious. to speak of.

Of all the jobs he could think of, service in the army seemed to him the easiest and the most familiar.When he was on duty in Kutuzov's headquarters, he surprised Kutuzov with his dedication and dedication to his work.Prince Andrei, having failed to find Kuragin in Turkey, did not think it necessary to go back to Russia to follow him; No challenge, just like a very hungry person will inevitably pounce on food, even though he despises him extremely, even though he finds thousands of reasons for himself, all of which make him feel that he does not need to lower his status to have a relationship with him conflict.But at the thought of his unsettled shame, his unsettled hatred, his artificial peace—that is, the toilsome activities which he had arranged for himself in Turkey, more or less out of personal ambition and vanity—was hindered.

In 1812, when news of Russia's war with Napoleon reached Bucharest (where Kutuzov had been living for two months, where he was hanging out with the Wallachian woman day and night), Prince Andrei begged Kutuzov to Transferring him to the Western Front, Bolkonski reproached him with diligence as part of his lazy conclusions.Compiled into the second volume of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong".In the conclusion of this article, Kutuzov was already tired of this and was willing to transfer him away, so he sent him to Barclay de Tolly to perform the task. Before arriving at the army of officers stationed at Drissa, Prince Andrei stopped by the Bald Mountains, which were only three versts from the Smolensk road by which he was traveling.During the last three years, Prince Andrew's life has undergone great changes. He has many things to think about, many feelings, and many insights (he has traveled all over the West and East), but when he came to Bald Mountain, the people here Everything, down to the smallest detail, was still the same, and the way of life was the same, which struck him as strange and unexpected.As he drove down the avenue, past the stone gates of Bald Hill House, it was as if he had entered an old castle that had been enchanted and slumbering.The house was still grand, clean, and quiet, with the same furniture, the same walls, the same sound, the same smell, and the same few timid faces that were only slightly older.Princess Marya was still the same small, discreet, unbeautiful old girl who spent her best years in perpetual terror and pain, in unhelpful melancholy.Mademoiselle Bourienne was also a beaming, self-satisfied coquette enjoying every moment of her life.Prince Andrew felt that she had only grown more confident.The tutor Prince Andrei brought back from Switzerland, Dessalle, although he always wore a Russian frock coat and talked to the servants in broken Russian, was still a not very bright and learned man. There are also virtuous nerds.The only physical change in the old prince was the lack of a tooth in one side of his mouth; his temper remained the same, but he was more easily irritated and more suspicious of external happenings.Nikolushka only grew taller, changed his face, had rosy cheeks, black curly hair, and when he was happy and laughed, the upper lip of his pretty little mouth curled up unconsciously. , exactly the same as the little duchess who has passed away.But he would not obey the immutable laws of the old castle, which had been bewitched to sleep.Outwardly everything was the same, but since Prince Andrei's departure, the internal relations of these people had changed.The family members were divided into two hostile camps who regarded each other as passers-by. Now it was only for his sake that they changed their usual way of life, and everyone got together in front of his dough.The old prince, Mademoiselle Bourienne, and the architect belonged to one camp, and Princess Maria, Desalle, Nizolushka, and all the nurses and wet nurses belonged to another camp.

When he was at Bald Mountain, the whole family dined together, but everyone was embarrassed, and Prince Andrei felt that he was a guest, and the exception was made for his sake, and everyone was very embarrassed in his presence. uneasy.Prince Andrei could not help feeling this way at dinner the first day, and he stopped talking. The old prince saw at a glance that his face was unnatural, and he also kept his face stern and silent. After lunch He went back to his room.Prince Andrei went to see him in the evening, tried to cheer him up, and told him about the expedition of the young Count Kamensky, but the old prince suddenly told him about Princess Marya, and accused her of superstition. Notions, telling Maria that she didn't love Mademoiselle Bourienne, and saying that only Mademoiselle Bourienne was truly loyal to him.

The old prince said that if he fell ill, it was to be blamed on Princess Maria, who deliberately tortured him, and that the young prince Nicholas had misunderstood the free translation of the Greek ousia and the Latin substantia.In the history of philosophy, it was because she doted on him and said a lot of stupid things.The old prince knew very well that he made his daughter suffer, that her life was difficult, but he also knew that he had to torture her, and that she deserved it. "Why did Prince Andrei see this and say nothing about his sister?" thought the old prince, "does he think I'm a villain or an old fool, alienating myself from my daughter for no reason?" Get up, but get close to a French woman? He doesn't understand, you should explain to him, let him listen to what I have to say." The old prince thought.He began to explain why he could not tolerate his daughter's stupid character.

"If you ask me," said Prince Andrei, without looking at his father (for the first time in his life he reproached him), "I didn't mean to say that, but if you really want to ask me, then I will be frank. Tell you my opinion of all this, for I know that Martha loves you very much, and I must not blame her for any misunderstanding and disharmony between you and her. If you ask me ’ said Prince Andrew impatiently, and he is prone to irascibility of late, ‘the only thing I can say to you is that if there is any misunderstanding, it has its roots in that humble woman who is not worthy to be my sister’s daughter. with."

At first the old man was looking intently at his son, and with an unnatural grin showing a new gap in the teeth that Prince Andrew had not yet been accustomed to seeing. "Honey, what girl? Huh? You've all talked! Huh?" "Father, I don't want to be a judge," said Prince Andrei in an angry and stiff voice, "but you provoked me first, I said it, don't say it again, Princess Marya is innocent, And the ones who are guilty are those... the French woman's crimes..." "Here, come and pronounce the sentence, and condemn me!" said the old man in a low voice, which Prince Andrew felt a little embarrassed by, but then suddenly the old man jumped up and shouted: "Give me that!" Get out, get out of here! Don't let me see your shadow!..."

Prince Andrei wanted to leave the house at once, but Princess Marya persuaded him to stay another day. Prince Andrew did not see his father that day, and the old people did not go out, except Mademoiselle Bourienne and Tikhon. Anyone who went into the room asked more than once if his son was gone.Before leaving the next day, Prince Andrew went into his son's room.The healthy, curly-haired boy sat on his lap.Prince Andrew told his son the story of Bluebeard, but he didn't finish the story, and fell silent.He wasn't thinking about his beautiful little son on his lap, he was thinking about himself.He searched in fear in the depths of his heart and could not find the regret of having offended his father, nor the regret of parting from the father whom he had quarreled for the first time in his life.Above all, he caressed his son, held him on his knees, and he hoped to arouse tender feelings for him from within him, but he felt that he could never find the tenderness he had for his son in the past. Feelings.

"Go ahead," said the son.Prince Andrew made no reply, took him off his knees, and walked out of the room. As soon as Prince Andrei threw away his daily work, and especially when he returned to the old surroundings in which he had lived happily, and melancholy assails him as strongly as before, he hastened to turn away from the memory of the past and find something to do. son to do. "Andrei, must you go?" said his sister to him. "I can go, thank God," said Prince Andrei, "I'm sorry you can't go." "Why do you say that!" said Princess Marya, "and now you are going to fight a terrible war, and he is so old, how can you say such a thing!" said Mademoiselle Bourienne, he is always asking you... . . . " As soon as she opened the conversation, her lips trembled, and tears streamed down her cheeks.Prince Andrew turned his face away and began to pace up and down the room.

"Oh, my God! my God!" said he, "you'd never guess how little a thing or a person, however insignificant, can make a man miserable!" said he, and he The exasperated tone surprised Princess Marya. She understood that the insignificant person he spoke of meant not only Mademoiselle Bourienne, who had made him unhappy, but the one who had ruined his happiness. "Andrei, I beg you, there is only one thing I beg of you," she said, touching his elbow, and looking at him with shining eyes brimming with tears. "I understand you (Princess Marya lowers her eyes). Don't think that misfortune is caused by man. Man is God's tool." She glanced slightly above Prince Andrey's head, and her gaze showed The devotion with which he was accustomed to look at the holy images. "Unfortunateness is given by God, not by man. Man is God's instrument. They are all innocent. If you think someone has done you wrong, forget it and forgive us. We don't punish Right, you will know the happiness of forgiveness." "Maria, if I were a woman, I would definitely do that. That's a woman's character, but a man should not forget and forgive." He said, although he didn't think of Kuragin at this time, but the unresolved emotion in his heart Suddenly his anger flared up. "If Princess Marya has persuaded me to forgive, it means that I should have been punished long ago," he thought.He stopped answering Princess Marya, and at that moment he began to think of that delightful, vengeful moment when he had met Kuragin (he knew that Kuragin was at the moment in the army). Princess Marya begged her brother to stay a day longer, saying that if Andrei left without being reconciled with his father, it would really make his father feel bad, but Prince Andrey replied that perhaps he would soon be discharged from the army. When he comes back, he must write a letter to his father. The longer he lives at home now, the worse the relationship will be. "Adieu, Andre! Rappelez-vousquelesmalheursviennentde Dieu, etqueleshommesnesontjanaiscoupables." These were the last words he heard from his sister as he bid her farewell. -------- ①French: Andre, goodbye!Remember, misfortune comes from God, and people are never guilty. "Yes, that's all there is to it!" thought Prince Andrew as he drove out of the avenue of Bald Hill House. "She's a poor, innocent woman, she's gotta suffer from a stupid old man. The old man knows what he's doing wrong, but he can't change it. My boy is growing up, enjoying life, and he's like everyone else, In the future I will be deceived or deceived in life. Why should I go to the army? - I don't know myself, I hope to meet the villain I despise, and give him a life to kill me and laugh at me. Favorable conditions!" The living environment is still the same, but it used to be peaceful and comfortable, and now it's all broken.Incoherent and meaningless phenomena emerged one after another in Prince Andrew's mind.