Briggs: Soldiers talk around the camp-fire under the night sky.
Translation:
VIII.
It would seem that in those, almost unimaginable heavy conditions of existence, in which were found out in that time Russian soldiers — without warm boots, without sheepskin coats, without roofs above their heads, in snow at 18° frost, without even a full quantity of food, not always ripened behind the army, — it seemed, the soldiers must have been presenting the saddest and dull sight.
The opposite, never, in the best material conditions, did the army present as a more fun, busy spectacle. This was happening because of how everyday thrown out of the troops all that what began to lose heart or weaken. All that were physically and morally weak, for a long time now was left back: stayed one color of the troops — by the strength of the spirit and bodies.
In the eighth company, burning the wicker, gathered only more people. two non-commissioned officers sat down by it, and their bonfire blazed brighter than others. They required for a right seat under a hedge offering firewood.
— Hey, Makeev, well you..... — Disappeared? Or the wolves ate you? Carry that firewood, — shouted one redheaded soldier, squinting and blinking from the smoke, but not pushing away from the fire. — You go though, Crow, carry firewood, — he turned to this soldier and to another. The redhead was not a noncommissioned officer and not a corporal, but was a healthy soldier, and because of it commanded those that were weaker than him. A slender, little, with a sharp nose soldier, who was called Black, dutifully got up and went to enforce the order; but at this time in the light of the bonfire marched now the thin beautiful figure of a young soldier carrying the taken firewood.
— Come on here. That’s important!
The firewood was broken, pressed, blown by mouths and the bottoms of overcoats, and the flame hissed and tore apart. The soldiers, moving closer, lit up pipes. The young, nice soldier, who dragged the firewood, propped up his hands at the sides and began to fast and cleverly stomp his chilled feet in location.
— Ah, Mama, a cold dew, and good, and in the musketeers... — he hummed, as if hiccuping at each syllable the songs.
— Hey, the soles fly off! — shouted the redhead, noticing that the dancer’s outsole dangled. — What a poison dance!
The dancer stopped, tore the dangling skin and threw it in the fire.
— And that, brother, — he said; and sitting down, took out of his knapsack a snippet of French blue cloth and began getting it around his foot. — With time has gone, — he added, stretching his legs to the fire.
— Soon let's go new. They speak, interrupt to the end, so to all by double goods.
— But you see, the son of a bitch Petrov, behind the same, — said the sergeant major.
— I for a long time noticed him, — another.
— Yes that soldier...
— But in the third company, they were told, for yesterday nine people were not counted.
— Yes, here judge how legs get cold, where will we go?
— Eh, empty chat! — said the sergeant major.
— And do you want this again? — said an old soldier, with reproach turning to that which said that his legs got cold.
— But you what again think? — suddenly standing up from behind the bonfire, in a squeaky and trembling voice began talking the sharp-eyed soldier, who was called Crow. — Some are smooth, so lose weight, and deathly thin. Here though would I. Mine are not wet, — he said suddenly resolutely, turning to the sergeant major; — led in the hospital sendoff; aches are overpowered; but that all another is behind...
— Well it will be, it will be, — calmly said the sergeant major.
The soldier fell silent, and the conversation went on.
— Whether now a little of these French are taken; but boots, all say not one is present, so, named alone, — started one of the soldiers a new conversation.
— All the Cossacks are instructed. Cleaned for the colonel a hut, carried them out. It was a pity to look, guys, — said the dancer. — Tore them apart; so one alive, whether you believe something mumbled by them.
— But clean people, guys, — said the first. — White, here as a birch white, and the gallant eat, they say, nobly.
— But how do you think? From all ranks he recruited.
— But no one is known by ours, — with a smile of perplexity said the dancer. — I speak to him: "which crown?" but he mumbles. Wonderful people!
— Because that is difficult my brothers, — continued that, which surprised their whiteness, — were told men under Mozhaisky began to so clean up the beaten, where the guard was, so because of that, they say, an honor for a month lied their dead. What the same, they say, they lie, they speak that as paper white, clean, or blue gunpowder that does not smell.
— What but whether or not it is from cold? — asked one.
— What, you are smart! From cold! Because from being hot. If from cold, so ours would also not be rotten. But that, they speak, approach to our, all, they speak, are rotten in worms. So, they speak, we will tie handkerchiefs, yes, turn away faces, and drag: not wet. But theirs, they speak, as paper white; or blue gunpowder that does not smell.
All kept silent.
— Must be from food, — said the sergeant major, — they ate lordly food.
No one objected.
— A peasant told this, under Mozhaisky, where the guards were, they from ten villages drove, 20 day raised, not bringing all the dead. These wolves that, they speak...
— Those guards were real, — said an old soldier. — Only was what I remember; but that all after this... So, only people torment.
— And that, uncle. The day before yesterday we came running, so where those to yourself not admitting it. A lively gun left. On its knees. Pardon — they speak. so, only one example. — We were told ourselves that at Polyon Platov two times took it. The words not known. — take and take: here to those, in hands is a pretend bird, flying off and flying off. And also killed no provisions.
— What a healthy lie to you, Kiselev; I see I am to you.
— What lie, it is really true.
— But if in my custom, I would catch it, and on the land it would be buried. And an aspen stake. But that what people ruined.
— All one end does, it will not walk, — yawning said an old soldier.
The conversation shut up, the soldiers became fit.
— You see those stars, passionately so burning! They say, a woman’s canvases laid out, — said a soldier, admiring the Milky Way.
— This is, guys, a fruitful year.
— More of that firewood will be needed.
— Back is warmed up, but the belly frozen. Here is a miracle.
— Oh, Lord!
— What pushing — whether one of you are about the fire? You see... lounging.
From behind the emerging silence was heard the snore of someone asleep; the rest turned and warmed up, occasionally in conversation. From afar, one hundred steps behind the bonfire was heard friendly, merry laughter.
— You see the rumble in fifth company, — said one soldier. — And what people, — passion!
One soldier rose and went to fifth company.
— That laugh, — he said, returning. — Two guards are stuck. One quite frozen, but the other such a swaggering, misfortune! They are playing songs.
— Oh? Go look... — a few soldiers headed to fifth company.
Mentioned: to-day, a month, twenty days
Locations: see previous chapter
Mentioned: Russian, French, Mozhaysk
Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Building off the last chapter, Tolstoy puts emphasis on how happy the army was at this point, especially because those who "were physically and morally weak had long since stayed behind, leaving only the flower of the army--in strength of spirit and body." The soldiers speak in their normal broken speech patterns and discuss how the Cossacks always get the boots and the French's strange talk and how they always appear to stay white and clean. They also talk about how many villagers it took to clear the battlefield at Mozhaisk.
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 *):
Makayef (a red-haired soldier. "Makyeev" in Wiener. "Makeef" in Bell. "Makeev" in Mandelker and Maude. "Makeyev" in Dunnigan, Briggs, and Edmonds. "Makyev" in Garnett.)
Crow (also "Vorona" in Dole. "Jackdaw" in Mandelker.)
Petrof ("Petrov" in Garnett, Mandelker, and Dunnigan.)
Platof
Napoleon ("'Poleon" in Dole, Edmonds, and Maude. "Boneypart" in Briggs.)
Kiselef ("Kiselev" in Wiener, Maude, and Dunnigan. This section is cut in Bell. "Kiselyov" in Mandelker. "Kiselov" in Garnett and Edmonds.)
(Russian soldiers are mentioned in general. Including two sergeant-majors and then the musketeer in the song. Frenchmen, peasants, and Cossacks are discussed in general. There is also a soldier referenced as the dancer. A pair of Frenchmen are mentioned at the end of the chapter, whose identity is revealed in the next chapter.)
Abridged Versions: No break in Bell.
Gibian: line break instead of chapter break.
Fuller: Entire chapter is cut.
Komroff: Entire chapter is cut.
Kropotkin: Entire chapter is cut.
Simmons: Entire chapter is cut.
Additional Notes: Garnett, on the way the soldiers speak: "This and the other metaphors and similes spoken by common soldiers are drawn from Russian folk epics and songs. Tolstoy uses them here as part of his running argument that the uneducated, non-Westernized Russian is an innate poetizer."
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