-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Chapter 14 - Nikolai confronts the peasants
Well, is she pretty? Ah, friend — my pink one is delicious; her name is Dunyasha. . . . ”
But on glancing at Rostov’s face Ilyin stopped short. He saw that his hero and commander was following quite a different train of thought.
Rostov glanced angrily at Ilyin and without replying strode off with rapid steps to the village.
“What decision have you been pleased to come to?” said he.
“Decision? What decision? Old dotard! . . . ” cried he. “What have you been about? Eh? The peasants are rioting, and you can’t manage them? You’re a traitor5 youself! I know you. I’ll flay6 you all alive! . . . ” And as if afraid of wasting his store of anger, he left Alpatych and went rapidly forward. Alpatych, mastering his offended feelings, kept pace with Rostov at a gliding gait and continued to impart his views. He said the peasants were obdurate7 and that at the present moment it would be imprudent to “overresist” them without an armed force, and would it not be better first to send for the military?
“I’ll give them armed force . . . I’ll ‘overresist’ them!” uttered Rostov meaninglessly, breathless with irrational8 animal fury and the need to vent9 it.
Without considering what he would do he moved unconciously with quick, resolute10 steps toward the crowd. And the nearer he drew to it the more Alpatych felt that this unreasonable11 action might produce good results. The peasants in the crowd were similarly impressed when they saw Rostov’s rapid, firm steps and resolute, frowning face.
After the hussars had come to the village and Rostov had gone to see the princess, a certain confusion and dissension had arisen among the crowd. Some of the peasants said that these new arrivals were Russians and might take it amiss that the mistress was being detained. Dron was of this opinion, but as soon as he expressed it Karp and others attacked their ex-Elder.
“How many years have you been fattening12 on the commune?” Karp shouted at him. “It’s all one to you! You’ll dig up your pot of money and take it away with you. . . . What does it matter to you whether our homes are ruined or not?”
“We’ve been told to keep order, and that no one is to leave their homes or take away a single grain, and that’s all about it!” cried another.
“It was your son’s turn to be conscripted, but no fear! You begrudged13 your lump of a son,” a little old man suddenly began attacking Dron — “and so they took my Vanka to be shaved for a soldier! But we all have to die.”
“To be sure, we all have to die. I’m not against the commune,” said Dron.
The two tall peasants had their say. As soon as Rostov, followed by Ilyin, Lavrushka, and Alpatych, came up to the crowd, Karp, thrusting his fingers into his belt and smiling a little, walked to the front. Dron on the contrary retired15 to the rear and the crowd drew closer together.
“Who is your Elder here? Hey?” shouted Rostov, coming up to the crowd with quick steps.
“The Elder? What do you want with him? . . . ” asked Karp.
But before the words were well out of his mouth, his cap flew off and a fierce blow jerked his head to one side.
“Caps off, traitors16!” shouted Rostov in a wrathful voice. “Where’s the Elder?” he cried furiously.
“The Elder. . . . He wants the Elder! . . . Dron Zakharych, you!” meek17 and flustered18 voices here and there were heard calling and caps began to come off their heads.
“We don’t riot, we’re following the orders,” declared Karp, and at that moment several voices began speaking together.
“Arguing? Mutiny! . . . Brigands! Traitors!” cried Rostov unmeaningly in a voice not his own, gripping Karp by the collar. “Bind20 him, bind him!” he shouted, though there was no one to bind him but Lavrushka and Alpatych.
Lavrushka, however, ran up to Karp and seized him by the arms from behind.
“Shall I call up our men from beyond the hill?” he called out.
Alpatych turned to the peasants and ordered two of them by name to come and bind Karp. The men obediently came out of the crowd and began taking off their belts.
“Where’s the Elder?” demanded Rostov in a loud voice.
With a pale and frowning face Dron stepped out of the crowd.
“Are you the Elder? Bind him, Lavrushka!” shouted Rostov, as if that order, too, could not possibly meet with any opposition21.
And in fact two more peasants began binding22 Dron, who took off his own belt and handed it to them, as if to aid them.
“And you all listen to me!” said Rostov to the peasants. “Be off to your houses at once, and don’t let one of your voices be heard!”
“Why, we’ve not done any harm! We did it just out of foolishness. It’s all nonsense . . . I said then that it was not in order,” voices were heard bickering23 with one another.
“There! What did I say?” said Alpatych, coming into his own again. “It’s wrong, lads!”
“All our stupidity, Yakov Alpatych,” came the answers, and the crowd began at once to disperse24 through the village.
The two bound men were led off to the master’s house. The two drunken peasants followed them.
“Aye, when I look at you! . . . ” said one of them to Karp.
“How can one talk to the masters like that? What were you thinking of, you fool?” added the other — “A real fool!”
Two hours later the carts were standing25 in the courtyard of the Bogucharovo house. The peasants were briskly carrying out the proprietor’s goods and packing them on the carts, and Dron, liberated26 at Princess Marya’s wish from the cupboard where he had been confined, was standing in the yard directing the men.
“Don’t put it in so carelessly,” said one of the peasants, a man with a round smiling face, taking a casket from a housemaid. “You know it has cost money! How can you chuck it in like that or shove it under the cord where it’ll get rubbed? I don’t like that way of doing things. Let it all be done properly, according to rule. Look here, put it under the bast matting and cover it with hay — that’s the way!”
“Eh, books, books!” said another peasant, bringing out Prince Andrey’s library cupboards. “Don’t catch up against it! It’s heavy, lads — solid books.”
“Yes, they worked all day and didn’t play!” remarked the tall, round-faced peasant gravely, pointing with a significant wink27 at the dictionaries that were on the top.
Unwilling28 to obtrude29 himself on the princess, Rostov did not go back to the house but remained in the village awaiting her departure. When her carriage drove out of the house, he mounted and accompanied her eight miles from Bogucharovo to where the road was occupied by our troops. At the inn at Yankovo he respectfully took leave of her, for the first time permitting himself to kiss her hand.
“How can you speak so!” he blushingly replied to Princess Marya’s expressions of gratitude30 for her deliverance, as she termed what had occurred. “Any police officer would have done as much! If we had had only peasants to fight, we should not have let the enemy come so far,” said he with a sense of shame and wishing to change the subject. “I am only happy to have had the opportunity of making your acquaintance. Good-by, Princess. I wish you happiness and consolation31 and hope to meet you again in happier circumstances. If you don’t want to make me blush, please don’t thank me!”
But the princess, if she did not again thank him in words, thanked him with the whole expression of her face, radiant with gratitude and tenderness. She could not believe that there was nothing to thank him for. On the contrary, it seemed to her certain that had he not been there she would have perished at the hands of the mutineers and of the French, and that he had exposed himself to terrible and obvious danger to save her, and even more certain was it that he was a man of lofty and noble soul, able to understand her position and her sorrow. His kind, honest eyes, with the tears rising in them when she herself had begun to cry as she spoke32 of her loss, did leave her memory.
When she had taken leave of him and remained alone she suddenly felt her eyes filling with tears, and then not for the first time the strange question presented itself to her: did she love him?
On the rest of the way to Moscow, though the princess’ position was not a cheerful one, Dunyasha, who went with her in the carriage, more than once noticed that her mistress leaned out of the window and smiled at something with an expression of mingled33 joy and sorrow.
“Well, supposing I do love him?” thought Princess Marya.
Ashamed as she was of acknowledging to herself that she had fallen in love with a man who would perhaps never love her, she comforted herself with the thought that no one would ever know it and that she would not be to blame if, without ever speaking of it to anyone, she continued to the end of her life to love the man with whom she had fallen in love for the first and last time in her life.
Sometimes when she recalled his looks, his sympathy, and his words, happiness did not appear impossible to her. It was at those moments that Dunyasha noticed her smiling as she looked out of the carriage window.
“Was it not fate that brought him to Bogucharovo, and at that very moment?” thought Princess Marya. “And that caused his sister to refuse my brother?” And in all this Princess Marya saw the hand of Providence34.
The impression the princess made on Rostov was a very agreeable one. To remember her gave him pleasure, and when his comrades, hearing of his adventure at Bogucharovo, rallied him on having gone to look for hay and having picked up one of the wealthiest heiresses in Russia, he grew angry. It made him angry just because the idea of marrying the gentle Princess Marya, who was attractive to him and had an enormous fortune, had against his will more than once entered his head. For himself personally Nikolai could not wish for a better wife: by marrying her he would make the countess his mother happy, would be able to put his father’s affairs in order, and would even — he felt it — ensure Princess Marya’s happiness.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
brigands
|
|
| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
gliding
|
|
| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
trot
|
|
| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
clenching
|
|
| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
traitor
|
|
| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
flay
|
|
| vt.剥皮；痛骂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
obdurate
|
|
| adj.固执的，顽固的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
irrational
|
|
| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
vent
|
|
| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
resolute
|
|
| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
unreasonable
|
|
| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
fattening
|
|
| adj.（食物）要使人发胖的v.喂肥( fatten的现在分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
begrudged
|
|
| 嫉妒( begrudge的过去式和过去分词 )； 勉强做； 不乐意地付出； 吝惜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
belly
|
|
| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
retired
|
|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
traitors
|
|
| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
meek
|
|
| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
flustered
|
|
| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
bind
|
|
| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
opposition
|
|
| n.反对，敌对 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
binding
|
|
| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
bickering
|
|
| v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 )；口角；（水等）作潺潺声；闪烁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
disperse
|
|
| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
liberated
|
|
| a.无拘束的，放纵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
wink
|
|
| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
unwilling
|
|
| adj.不情愿的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
obtrude
|
|
| v.闯入；侵入；打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
gratitude
|
|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
consolation
|
|
| n.安慰，慰问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
plighted
|
|
| vt.保证，约定（plight的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
购买
在百度中搜索