Book 2 Part 4 Chapter 5 (Chapter 134 Overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Nikolai's prayer. Milka and Lubim. The wolf.
Briggs: A wolf is caught.
Maude: The wolf is taken

Translation:

V. Nikolay Rostov between them stood at his location, expecting the beast. By the approach and distance of the rutting, by the sounds of the famous for him voices of his dogs, by the approach of the distance and elevation of the voices arriving, he felt what was committed on the island. He knew that on the island were the arrived (young) and seasoned (old) wolves; he knew that the hounds broke into two flocks, that somewhere they hounded, and that something dysfunctional happened. He the entire second on his side was waiting for the beast. He made a thousand institutions and assumptions about how and with what parties will run the animal and how he would bait him. Hopes replaced despair. A few times he approached to God with a plea about the wolf going out to him; he prayed with that passionate and conscientious feeling with which praying people in minutes of strong excitement, dependent from insignificant causes. "Well, what does it cost you, — he spoke to God, — to do this is for me! I know that you are great, and that it is a sin to ask you about this; but for God makes, so that it has gotten me seasoned, and so that Karay, in the eyes of "uncle", whom is out from there watching, hits him with a death grip in the throat." A thousand times in this stubborn half an hour, tense and anxious looks were cast around by Rostov to the edge of the forests with two rare oak trees above an aspen squat, and a ravine with a washed out edge, and the hat of uncle, a little bit seen from behind a bush to the right. "No, this will not be happiness, — thought Rostov, — but what would it cost! It will not! I am always, in cards, and in war, in all misfortune." Austerlitz and Dolohov brightly, but fastly taking turns, flashed in his imagination. “Would only one time in life to hunt down a seasoned wolf, I do not want more!" he thought, straining his hearing and vision, looking back left and again to the right and listening to the slightest shades of the noises of the rutting. He looked again to the right and saw that by the deserted weeds towards him ran something. "No, this may not be!" thought Rostov, heavily sighing, as sighs a person in committing to what was long expected of them. The subject of greatest happiness — and so simply, without noise, without shine, without commemoration. Rostov did not believe his eyes and this doubt went on more than a few seconds. The wolf ran forward and jumped over the heavy pothole, which was in its way. This was an old animal, with a gray haired back and with an eaten reddish belly. It ran not hastily, obviously convinced that nothing saw it. Rostov, not breathing, turned back to his dogs. They lied, were standing, and did not see the wolf and did not understand. Old Karay, wrapping its head and grinning its yellow teeth, angrily looking for flea, snapped at them on its rear thighs. — Ulyulyulyu, — whispered, protruding his lips, spoke Rostov. The dog, with trembling glands, jumped up with alert ears. Karay scratched its thigh and got up, with alert ears and a little shake of the tail, on which hung felt wool. "Let? Not let?" spoke Nikolay to himself in that time as the wolf moved to him, separating from the forest. Suddenly all the physiognomy of the wolf changed; it flinched, seeing the still probably never seen by it human eyes, aspiring in it, and turning a little to the hunter its head stopped — “backwards or forward? Eh! I don’t care, forward!.." It appeared, — as if it talked to itself, and started up forward, now not looking back, in a soft, rare, free, but decisive gallop. — Ulyulyu!... — in not his voice shouted Nikolay, and by himself headlong raced his good horse below the mountain, leaping across ponds in crosswise of the wolf; and still faster, overtaking him, carried the dog. Nikolay did not hear a scream, did not feel how he rode, did not see the dogs, or places by which he rode; he saw only the wolf, which, strengthening its run, galloped, not changing directions, by the hollow. The first appearing near the beast was the black-footed, wide-backed Milka and it began approaching to the beast. Nearer, nearer... here she came in time to it. Yet the wolf a little bit squinted at her, and instead so that to put on, as she always did, Milka suddenly, holding up its tail, had become abut on its front legs. — Ulyuyuyuyu! — shouted Nikolay. Red Lyubim (Love) jumped out from behind Milka, swiftly rushed at the wolf and grabbed it behind the pants (the thighs of the rear feet), but at that same second scaredly jumped over on the other side. The wolf sat down, with clicked teeth and again rose and galloped forward, accompanying in an arshin's distance by all the dogs, not approaching to it. "It will leave! No, this is impossible," — thought Nikolay, forced to shout in a hoarse voice. — Karay! Ulyulyu!... — he shouted, looking for the eyes of the old male, his only hope. Karay from all of its old forces, stretched out how much it could, looking at the wolf, heavily galloping at the side of the beast, across it. Yet by the quickness of the lope of the wolf and the slowness of the lope of the dog it was seen that the calculations of Karay were wrong. Nikolay already not long away ahead saw that the forest to which he reached, that the wolf will leave for sure. Ahead appeared a dog and hunter, galloping almost in a meet. There were still hopes. An unfamiliar to Nikolay, reddish-brown young, long male foreign pack swiftly flew up in front of the wolf and almost knocked it over. The wolf was fast, as could not be expected from it, and rose and rushed to the reddish-brown male, with clicked teeth — and bloody, with the ripped open sideways male, piercingly screeched and poked its head into the land. — Karayushka! Father!.. — cried Nikolay... The old male, with his own dangling in shreds thighs, thanks to the stop that occurred, cutting the road of the wolf, was now five steps from it. As if feeling danger, the wolf squinted at Karay, still farther hid the log (tail) between its feet and gave a gallop. Yet here — Nikolay saw only that something was made with Karay — he instantly found himself with the wolf and with him together fell down head over heels in the pond, which was before them. That minute when Nikolay saw in the pond the swarming wolf dogs, from below which could be seen the gray hair of the coat of the wolf, his stretched back leg, and with pinned ears and a scared and choking head (Karay held him behind the throat), the minute when Nikolay saw this was the happiest minute of his life. He took now behind the bow of the saddle, so that to get off and prick the wolf, as suddenly from this mass of dogs leaned up the head of the beast, then the front legs became on the edge of the pond. The wolf lashed out with teeth (Karay now did not hold him behind the throat), jumped its back feet out from the pond and, tucking its tail, again separating from the dogs, moved forward. Karay with bristling wool, probably bruised or wounded, with labor got out of the pond. — My God! For what?... — with despair shouted Nikolay. The hunter uncle with different parties galloped to the intersection of the wolf, and his dog again stopped the beast. Again it was surrounded. Nikolay, his stirrup, the uncle and his hunter spun above the beast, hooting, shouting, all in a moment going to get off, when the wolf sat down on its backside and at any time getting down forward, when the wolf shook and moved to the mark which should save it. Still in the beginning of this bullying, Danilo, upon hearing the hooting, jumped out to the edge of the forest. He saw how Karay took the wolf and stopped the horse, believing that the business was over. Yet when the hunters did not get off, the wolf shook himself and again went to fly by, Danilo released his brown not to the wolf, but in a straight line to the mark so the same as Karay, — in the intersection of the beast. Thanks to this direction, he jumped to the wolf in that time as in the second time he stopped the uncle’s dog. Danilo galloped silently, held a taken out dagger in his left hand and as a flail of milk his whip by the tight sides of his brown. Nikolay did not see and did not hear Danilo until, while passing himself his not puffed out heavily breathing brown, and he heard the sound of the falls of bodies and saw that Danilo now lied in the middle of the dogs, at the rear wolf, trying to catch him behind the ears. It was obvious for the dogs, for the hunters, and for the wolf that now all was over. The animal, scaredly pressed its ears, tried to go up, but the dog stuck him. Danilo, standing up, made a fall step and all the weight, as if lying down resting, fell down on the wolf, grabbing it behind the ears. Nikolay wanted to prick it, but Danilo whispered: "do not need to make fun of it,"— and changing position, advanced his foot on the neck of the wolf. On the fall the wolf laid as a stick, tied up, as would bridging its pack, with tied up legs, and Danilo two times from one side to the other passed the wolf. With happy, exhausted faces, the living, seasoned wolf was piled on the shy and snorting horse and, associated with the screeching at it dogs, was carried to that place where all must gather. The young two took the hounds and three greyhounds. The hunters came together with their own loot and stories, and all approached to look at the mature wolf, which was dangling its forehead with a bitten stick in its mouth, its large, glass eyes watched all this crowd of dogs and people surrounding it. When it was touched, it, with a start of its tied up feet, wildly and together with that simply watched all. Count Ilya Andreich also drove and touched the wolf. — Ah, what a maternal one, — he said. — Seasoned, ah? — he asked Danilo, standing beside him. — Seasoned, your excellency, — was the response of Danilo, hastily taking off hat. The count remembered his missed wolf and his collision with Danilo. — However, brother, you are angry, — said count. Danilo said nothing and only shyly smiled a childishly meek and nice smile.
Time: that half-hour

Locations: see previous chapter
Mentioned: Austerlitz

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Again, the overseriousness of the situation, with Nikolai praying to God and "Hope alternated with despair". He wants to kill the wolf (or rather, his dog kill the wolf) in front of his uncle's eyes (just as he wanted to die in front of the Tsar's eyes).

"'I'm always unlucky, in cards, in war, in everything." Austerlitz and Dolokhov vividly but fleetingly flashed in his imagination."

Tolstoy gives us the perspective of the wolf: "Suddenly the wolf's entire physiognomy changed; he shuddered at the sight of human eyes, which he had probably never seen before, directed at him, and turning his head
slightly towards the hunter, stopped--go back or go on? "Eh! it makes no difference, I'll go on!" he seemed to say to himself..."

"That moment, when Nikolai saw the dogs swarming over the wolf in the ditch, saw under them the wolf's gray fur, his outstretched hind leg, and his frightened and gasping head with its ears laid back (Karai had him by
the throat)--the moment when Nikolai saw that was the happiest moment of his life."

The end of the chapter: "The count remembered how he had let the wolf slip and his confrontation with Danilo. "You do get angry, though, brother," said the count. Danilo said nothing and just shyly smiled his childishly
meek and pleasant smile."

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 Rostof

Karai (also called "Karaiushka" in Dole. Maude, Edmonds, Bell, Wiener, and Briggs do not use this alternate name.)

The little uncle

Dolokhof

Milka

Liubim (as in Dole. "Lyubim" in Briggs, Dunnigan, and Edmonds. "Lyubin" in Wiener. "Lyubima" in Garnett. "Liubime" in Bell.)

Danilo (and his "chestnut")

Count Ilya Andreyitch (also "your illustriousness")

(many wolves and undifferentiated hounds. There are also hunters and dogs Rostov doesn't recognize and "The "little uncle's" whipper-in", Nikolai's "whipper-in", and "huntsmen".)

Abridged Versions: End of Chapter 11 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 5.

Fuller: Entire Chapter is cut.

Komroff: Entire Chapter is cut.

Kropotkin: Entire Chapter is cut.

Bromfield: the explicit references to Dolokhov and Austerlitz are absent. No chapter break.
Simmons: Chapter 5: Austerlitz and Dolokhov are turned into cards and war. The ending conversation with the count is removed.

Additional Notes:

Morson: Why this, of all the rich moments of Rostov’s life, should be the happiest moment is a mystery, is radically inexplicable. Tolstoy deliberately leaves the cause of this

moment’s supreme importance in obscurity. He knows for certain that it is, and knows as well that an adequate reason is not to be discovered..

The Cossacks (Maude/Briggs): Page xiv: Olenin...when the Russian encounters a true representative of the Cossack people, a huge, old Falstaffian figure called Yeroshka

(based on a real person, Yepishka Sekhin, with whom the author had been billeted in 1851 during his service in the region), the simpler man triumphs in every way. He may

be hard-living, cruel and quite unsophisticated, but he is a great hunter, a thoughtful person, a captivating ranconteur, even a philosopher, and it is he who teaches the other

man how to live.”

Hosking: Page 115: "Ivan IV was the first Russian ruler to try to solve the nagging problem of the southern frontiers by drawing the Cassacks into a permanent alliance.

The Cossacks were the hunters and brigands, horsemen and stockraisers who roamed the "wild country" (dikoe pole) left by the breakup of the Golden Horde. This was

indeterminate steppe territory surrounded by established states: Muscovy, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean khanate, the Nogai Horde, and the north Caucasian

tribal kingdoms. Cossacks had no state formation of their own, but lived in loose military fraternities, cultivating the skills of horsemanship crucial to survival on the plains.

The name by which they were known is Turkic and means "free man." In its essentials they adopted the lifestyle of the nomads. The first concentrations of Cossacks

were in the lower reaches of two great rivers, the Don and the Dnieper. In the early stages many of them were Tatars, survivors perhaps of the Golden Horde or other

nomadic hosts, but many too were Slavs, hunters, fishermen, and traders who had strayed from the borders of Poland and Muscovy, peasants or even landowners

fleeing from justice or injustice in their homeland.