Briggs: Nikolay eschews violence. Sonya, the 'sterile flower', lives with them.
Pevear and Volokhonsky (chapters 8-16): Life at Bald Hills. The feast of St. Nicholas in 1820. Pierre and Natasha visit Bald Hills. Gifts and children. Young Nikolay Bolkonsky listens to a political discussion between Pierre and Nikolai. Intimate conversation between Nikolai and Princess Marya. Her diary. Intimate conversation between Pierre and Natasha. Young Nikolai Bolkonsky's dream. Mucius Scaevola. Thoughts of Pierre and of his father.
Translation:
VIII.
One thing that sometimes tormented Nikolay by the relation to his managing was his irascibility in connection with his old hussar habit to give free will to his hands. In the first time he saw nothing reprehensible in this, but in the second year of his marriage his look on such family reprisals suddenly changed.
One summer from Bogucharovo he was summoned by the headman, replacing the deceased Dron, accused in different frauds and failures. Nikolay got out to him on the porch, and from the first answers of the headman at the canopy was heard shouting and strokes. Returning home to breakfast, Nikolay came up to his wife, sitting with a low omitted above the frame head, and began telling her, as usual, all that occupied him on this morning and between the way of the Bogucharovo headman. Countess Marya, blushing, turning pale and pursing her lips, sat all so the same with a lowered head and answered nothing to the words of her husband.
— A kind of shameless bastard, — he spoke, getting hot at one of the recollections. — Well, would he have said to me that he was drunk, — you have not seen... and what is with you, Marie? — he suddenly asked.
Countess Marya raised her head, wanting to say something, but again hastily looked down and collected her lips.
— What is with you? What is with you, my friend?.. — the not pretty Countess Marya always became prettier when she cried. She never cried from pain or annoyance, but always from sadness and pity. And when she cried, her radiant eyes acquired an irresistible beauty.
Only as Nikolay took for her hand, it was not in her forces to hold on and she cried.
— Nicolas, I see... he is to blame, but you, what for? Nicolas!.. — And she covered her face with her hands.
Nikolay fell silent, blushed red and walked away from her, silently beginning to walk by the room. He got about what she cried; yet suddenly he could not in his soul agree with her in how that, with what he had gotten used to from childhood, what he counted very ordinary, — was bad.
"Are these courtesies, womanish tales, or is she right?" he asked himself. Not having decided with himself this issue, he another time looked on her suffering and affectionate face, and suddenly got that she was right, and he for a long time was now to blame before himself.
— Marie, — he said quietly, coming up to her, — this will not be anymore; I give you my word. Never, — he repeated in a faltered voice, as a boy who asks for forgiveness.
Tears still more often poured from the eyes of the countess. She took the hand of her husband and kissed it.
— Nicolas, when did you break the cameo? — so that to change the conversation, she said looking at his hand, on which was a ring with the head of Laocoon.
— Now; all the same. Ah, Marie, do not remind me about this. — He again flared up. — I give you my word of honor that this will be no more. And let this be in my memory forever, — he said, pointing at the broken ring.
Since, only as in the explanations with the headmen and the steward threw blood to his face, and his hands began to compress to fists, Nikolay whirled the broken ring on his finger and lowered his eyes before the human he was angry with. However two times in a year he forgot and then, coming to his wife, recognizing again his given promise of how already this now was the last time.
— Marie, you are right to despise me? — he spoke to her; — I am worth this.
— You leave, leave soon, if you feel in yourself not the forces to hold on, — with sadness said Countess Marya, trying to console her husband.
In the noble society of the provinces Nikolay was respected, but not loved. Noble interests did not occupy him. And for this by one he was counted proud, by another — a foolish man. All the time of his summer, from spring sowing and to harvest, was passed in exercises by the farm. In the autumn he with that same business of seriousness, with which he was occupied in economy, he indulged in hunting, going away for a month or two in departure with his hunt. In winter he drove by other villages and was occupied by reading. His reading was formed by books predominantly historical, discharged by him annually at a famous amount. He formed himself, as he spoke, a serious library and for a rule delivered to read all those books that he bought. He with a significant look sat out in his office for this reading, first entrusted in himself as a duty, but then made a habitual occupation, delivering him a particular family pleasure and the consciousness that he is busy with a severe business. For the exception of travel by deeds, in winter, the most part of the time he spent in the house, hugging with his family and entering in a small relationship between mother and children. With his wife he came down all nearer and nearer, with every afternoon opening in her soul a new treasure.
Sonya with the time of the marriage of Nikolay lived in his house. Still before his marriage, Nikolay, blaming himself and praising her, told his wife all that was between him and Sonya. He requested Princess Marya be affectionate and good with his cousin. Countess Marya felt quite the blame of her husband; feeling her blame before Sonya; thinking that her state had an impact on the choosing of Nikolay, could not reproach Sonya, wanted to love her; but not only did not love, but often found against her in her soul an evil feeling she could not get over.
Once she got to talking with her friend Natasha about Sonya and about their injustice to her.
— I know that, — said Natasha: — here you read much in the Gospel; there is one place all about Sonya.
— What? — with surprise asked Countess Marya.
—"To the having will be given, but in the have-nots it will be taken away," remember? She is poor: for what? I do not know; — in her is no, maybe, egoism, — I do not know, but in her is the taken away, and all is taken away. I terribly pity her sometimes; I terribly wanted before, so that Nicolas was married to her; but I always as if foresaw that this will not be. She is an empty flower, you know as in a strawberry? Sometimes I pity her, but sometimes I think that she does not feel this, as we would have felt.
And despite how Countess Marya interpreted to Natasha that these words of the Gospel need to be understood otherwise, — looking at Sonya, she agreed with the explanation given by Natasha. Really, it seemed that Sonya was not burdened by her position and completely reconciled with her appointment with emptiness. She cherished, it seemed, not so many people, as much as all the family. She, as a cat, took root not to people, but to the home. She nursed for the old countess, caressed and spoiled the children, was always ready to manifest those small services that she was capable of; but all this was taken unwittingly with too weak of thanks...
The manor of Bald Mountains was again rebuilt, but now not on that leg in which it was with the deceased prince.
The buildings, started in the time of needs, were more than simple. The huge house, on an old stone foundation, was wooden, plastered only inside. The big fit house, with an unpainted pre-dated floor, was furnished with the most simple sofas, armchairs, tables and chairs from their birch trees and the work of their joiners. The house was roomy, with rooms for the courtiers and separate for newcomers. The relatives of the Rostovs and Bolkonsky sometimes came together to stay at Bald Mountains, the family, with their 16 horses, with dozens of servants, lived for months. Besides this, four times in a year, on name day and the birthdays of the hosts, came together to 100 person guests in one or two days. The rest of the year went unviolated in the correctness of life with ordinary occupations, teas, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners from home provisions.
Mentioned: to-day, once or twice a year, fall, a month or two, winter, months at a time, four times a year
Locations: Bogucharovo, Lysyya Gory
Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Nikolai still gets angry and sees the world through the soldier's lens, which he realizes is wrong as his marriage develops. He has an episode that mirrors the one with Dron, who is explicitly referenced, and the one with Mitenka.
"The homely Countess Marya always became pretty when she wept. She never wept from pain or vexation, but always from sadness and pity. And when she wept her luminous eyes became irresistibly lovely."
The broken ring, which broken in his dispute, on his finger serves as reminder to Nikolai when he gets angry and his promise to Marya.
"Among the gentry of the province, Nikolai was respected, but not liked."
Marya and Nikolai decide the biblical passage "To him who has will be given, from him who has not will be taken," applies to Sonya.
Nikolai reconstructs Bald Hills simply.
Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):
Nikolai (also "Nicolas" and "husband")
Dron (the successor of Dron as starosta plays a role in the chapter as a mentioned character)
Countess Mariya (also "Marie", "Princess Mariya", and "wife")
Sonya
Natasha
Countess Rostova ("old countess")
Abridged Versions: Line break after "without any special sense of gratitude" in Dole.
Ellipsis at this point in Garnett and Briggs.
End of chapter 3 in Bell.
Gibian: line break instead of chapter break.
Komroff: Entire chapter is cut.
Kropotkin: Chapter is preserved. End of Chapter 3.
Simmons: cut until how Nicholas is viewed by the gentry. The chapter cuts off, with a line break instead of a chapter break, after Mary and Natasha's discussion.
Additional Notes:
No comments:
Post a Comment