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Chapter 20 - Pierre looks for the “position” occupied by the army
On the morning of the twenty-fifth Pierre was leaving Mozhaysk. At the descent of the high steep hill, down which a winding1 road led out of the town past the cathedral on the right, where a service was being held and the bells were ringing, Pierre got out of his vehicle and proceeded on foot. Behind him a cavalry3 regiment4 was coming down the hill preceded by its singers. Coming up toward him was a train of carts carrying men who had been wounded in the engagement the day before. The peasant drivers, shouting and lashing5 their horses, kept crossing from side to side. The carts, in each of which three or four wounded soldiers were lying or sitting, jolted6 over the stones that had been thrown on the steep incline to make it something like a road. The wounded, bandaged with rags, with pale cheeks, compressed lips, and knitted brows, held on to the sides of the carts as they were jolted against one another. Almost all of them stared with naive7, childlike curiosity at Pierre’s white hat and green swallow-tail coat.
Pierre’s coachman shouted angrily at the convoy8 of wounded to keep to one side of the road. The cavalry regiment, as it descended9 the hill with its singers, surrounded Pierre’s carriage and blocked the road. Pierre stopped, being pressed against the side of the cutting in which the road ran. The sunshine from behind the hill did not penetrate10 into the cutting and there it was cold and damp, but above Pierre’s head was the bright August sunshine and the bells sounded merrily. One of the carts with wounded stopped by the side of the road close to Pierre. The driver in his bast shoes ran panting up to it, placed a stone under one of its tireless hind2 wheels, and began arranging the breech-band on his little horse.
One of the wounded, an old soldier with a bandaged arm who was following the cart on foot, caught hold of it with his sound hand and turned to look at Pierre.
“I say, fellow countryman! Will they set us down here or take us on to Moscow?” he asked.
Pierre was so deep in thought that he did not hear the question. He was looking now at the cavalry regiment that had met the convoy of wounded, now at the cart by which he was standing11, in which two wounded men were sitting and one was lying. One of those sitting up in the cart had probably been wounded in the cheek. His whole head was wrapped in rags and one cheek was swollen12 to the size of a baby’s head. His nose and mouth were twisted to one side. This soldier was looking at the cathedral and crossing himself. Another, a young lad, a fair-haired recruit as white as though there was no blood in his thin face, looked at Pierre kindly13, with a fixed14 smile. The third lay prone15 so that his face was not visible. The cavalry singers were passing close by:
Ah lost, quite lost . . . is my head so keen,
Living in a foreign land.
they sang their soldiers’ dance song.
As if responding to them but with a different sort of merriment, the metallic16 sound of the bells reverberated17 high above and the hot rays of the sun bathed the top of the opposite slope with yet another sort of merriment. But beneath the slope, by the cart with the wounded near the panting little nag18 where Pierre stood, it was damp, somber19, and sad.
The soldier with the swollen cheek looked angrily at the cavalry singers.
“Oh, the coxcombs!” he muttered reproachfully.
“It’s not the soldiers only, but I’ve seen peasants today, too. . . . The peasants — even they have to go,” said the soldier behind the cart, addressing Pierre with a sad smile. “No distinctions made nowadays. . . . They want the whole nation to fall on them — in a word, it’s Moscow! They want to make an end of it.”
In spite of the obscurity of the soldier’s words Pierre understood what he wanted to say and nodded approval.
The road was clear again; Pierre descended the hill and drove on.
He kept looking to either side of the road for familiar faces, but only saw everywhere the unfamiliar20 faces of various military men of different branches of the service, who all looked with astonishment21 at his white hat and green tail coat.
Having gone nearly three miles he at last met an acquaintance and eagerly addressed him. This was one of the head army doctors. He was driving toward Pierre in a covered gig, sitting beside a young surgeon, and on recognizing Pierre he told the Cossack who occupied the driver’s seat to pull up.
“Count! Your excellency, how come you to be here?” asked the doctor.
“Well, you know, I wanted to see . . . ”
“Yes, yes, there will be something to see. . . . ”
Pierre got out and talked to the doctor, explaining his intention of taking part in a battle.
The doctor advised him to apply direct to Kutuzov.
“Why should you be God knows where out of sight, during the battle?” he said, exchanging glances with his young companion. “Anyhow his Serene22 Highness knows you and will receive you graciously. That’s what you must do.”
The doctor seemed tired and in a hurry.
“You think so? . . . Ah, I also wanted to ask you where our position is exactly?” said Pierre.
“The position?” repeated the doctor. “Well, that’s not my line. Drive past Tatarinova, a lot of digging is going on there. Go up the hillock and you’ll see.”
“Can one see from there? . . . If you would . . . ”
But the doctor interrupted him and moved toward his gig.
“I would go with you but on my honor I’m up to here”— and he pointed23 to his throat. “I’m galloping24 to the commander of the corps25. How do matters stand? . . . You know, Count, there’ll be a battle tomorrow. Out of an army of a hundred thousand we must expect at least twenty thousand wounded, and we haven’t stretchers, or bunks26, or dressers, or doctors enough for six thousand. We have ten thousand carts, but we need other things as well — we must manage as best we can!”
The strange thought that of the thousands of men, young and old, who had stared with merry surprise at his hat (perhaps the very men he had noticed), twenty thousand were inevitably27 doomed28 to wounds and death amazed Pierre.
“They may die tomorrow; why are they thinking of anything but death?” And by some latent sequence of thought the descent of the Mozhaysk hill, the carts with the wounded, the ringing bells, the slanting29 rays of the sun, and the songs of the cavalrymen vividly30 recurred31 to his mind.
“The cavalry ride to battle and meet the wounded and do not for a moment think of what awaits them, but pass by, winking32 at the wounded. Yet from among these men twenty thousand are doomed to die, and they wonder at my hat! Strange!” thought Pierre, continuing his way to Tatarinova.
In front of a landowner’s house to the left of the road stood carriages, wagons33, and crowds of orderlies and sentinels. The commander in chief was putting up there, but just when Pierre arrived he was not in and hardly any of the staff were there — they had gone to the church service. Pierre drove on toward Gorki.
When he had ascended34 the hill and reached the little village street, he saw for the first time peasant militiamen in their white shirts and with crosses on their caps, who, talking and laughing loudly, animated35 and perspiring36, were at work on a huge knoll37 overgrown with grass to the right of the road.
Some of them were digging, others were wheeling barrowloads of earth along planks38, while others stood about doing nothing.
Two officers were standing on the knoll, directing the men. On seeing these peasants, who were evidently still amused by the novelty of their position as soldiers, Pierre once more thought of the wounded men at Mozhaysk and understood what the soldier had meant when he said: “They want the whole nation to fall on them.” The sight of these bearded peasants at work on the battlefield, with their queer, clumsy boots and perspiring necks, and their shirts opening from the left toward the middle, unfastened, exposing their sunburned collarbones, impressed Pierre more strongly with the solemnity and importance of the moment than anything he had yet seen or heard.
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1
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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5
lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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jolted
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| （使）摇动， （使）震惊( jolt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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10
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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12
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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14
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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16
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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17
reverberated
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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18
nag
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| v.(对…)不停地唠叨；n.爱唠叨的人 | |
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19
somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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20
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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22
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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24
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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26
bunks
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| n.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的名词复数 )；空话，废话v.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 )；空话，废话 | |
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27
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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28
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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29
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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31
recurred
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| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
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32
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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33
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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34
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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36
perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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37
knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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38
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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