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Chapter 25 - Prince Andrey's opinions on war. The spirit of the army
The officers were about to take leave, but Prince Andrey, apparently1 reluctant to be left alone with his friend, asked them to stay and have tea. Seats were brought in and so was the tea. The officers gazed with surprise at Pierre’s huge stout2 figure and listened to his talk of Moscow and the position of our army, round which he had ridden. Prince Andrey remained silent, and his expression was so forbidding that Pierre addressed his remarks chiefly to the good-natured battalion4 commander.
“So you understand the whole position of our troops?” Prince Andrey interrupted him.
“Yes — that is, how do you mean?” said Pierre. “Not being a military man I can’t say I have understood it fully5, but I understand the general position.”
“Well, then, you know more than anyone else, be it who it may,” said Prince Andrey.
“Oh!” said Pierre, looking over his spectacles in perplexity at Prince Andrey. “Well, and what do think of Kutuzov’s appointment?” he asked.
“I was very glad of his appointment, that’s all I know,” replied Prince Andrey.
“And tell me your opinion of Barclay de Tolly. In Moscow they are saying heaven knows what about him. . . . What do you think of him?”
“Ask them,” replied Prince Andrey, indicating the officers.
Pierre looked at Timokhin with the condescendingly interrogative smile with which everybody involuntarily addressed that officer.
“We see light again, since his Serenity7 has been appointed, your excellency,” said Timokhin timidly, and continually turning to glance at his colonel.
“Why so?” asked Pierre.
“Well, to mention only firewood and fodder9, let me inform you. Why, when we were retreating from Sventsyani we dare not touch a stick or a wisp of hay or anything. You see, we were going away, so he would get it all; wasn’t it so, your excellency?” and again Timokhin turned to the prince. “But we daren’t. In our regiment10 two officers were court-martialed for that kind of thing. But when his Serenity took command everything became straight forward. Now we see light . . . ”
“Then why was it forbidden?”
Timokhin looked about in confusion, not knowing what or how to answer such a question. Pierre put the same question to Prince Andrey.
“Why, so as not to lay waste the country we were abandoning to the enemy,” said Prince Andrey with venomous irony11. “It is very sound: one can’t permit the land to be pillaged12 and accustom13 the troops to marauding. At Smolensk too he judged correctly that the French might outflank us, as they had larger forces. But he could not understand this,” cried Prince Andrey in a shrill14 voice that seemed to escape him involuntarily: “he could not understand that there, for the first time, we were fighting for Russian soil, and that there was a spirit in the men such as I had never seen before, that we had held the French for two days, and that that success had increased our strength tenfold. He ordered us to retreat, and all our efforts and losses went for nothing. He had no thought of betraying us, he tried to do the best he could, he thought out everything, and that is why he is unsuitable. He is unsuitable now, just because he plans out everything very thoroughly15 and accurately16 as every German has to. How can I explain? . . . Well, say your father has a German valet, and he is a splendid valet and satisfies your father’s requirements better than you could, then it’s all right to let him serve. But if your father is mortally sick you’ll send the valet away and attend to your father with your own unpracticed, awkward hands, and will soothe17 him better than a skilled man who is a stranger could. So it has been with Barclay. While Russia was well, a foreigner could serve her and be a splendid minister; but as soon as she is in danger she needs one of her own kin6. But in your Club they have been making him out a traitor18! They slander19 him as a traitor, and the only result will be that afterwards, ashamed of their false accusations20, they will make him out a hero or a genius instead of a traitor, and that will be still more unjust. He is an honest and very punctilious21 German.”
“And they say he’s a skillful commander,” rejoined Pierre.
“I don’t understand what is meant by ‘a skillful commander,’” replied Prince Andrey ironically.
“A skillful commander?” replied Pierre. “Why, one who foresees all contingencies22 . . . and foresees the adversary’s intentions.”
“But that’s impossible,” said Prince Andrey as if it were a matter settled long ago.
Pierre looked at him in surprise.
“And yet they say that war is like a game of chess?” he remarked.
“Yes,” replied Prince Andrey, “but with this little difference, that in chess you may think over each move as long as you please and are not limited for time, and with this difference too, that a knight23 is always stronger than a pawn24, and two pawns25 are always stronger than one, while in war a battalion is sometimes stronger than a division and sometimes weaker than a company. The relative strength of bodies of troops can never be known to anyone. Believe me,” he went on, “if things depended on arrangements made by the staff, I should be there making arrangements, but instead of that I have the honor to serve here in the regiment with these gentlemen, and I consider that on us tomorrow’s battle will depend and not on those others. . . . Success never depends, and never will depend, on position, or equipment, or even on numbers, and least of all on position.”
“But on what then?”
Prince Andrey glanced at Timokhin, who looked at his commander in alarm and bewilderment. In contrast to his former reticent26 taciturnity Prince Andrey now seemed excited. He could apparently not refrain from expressing the thoughts that had suddenly occurred to him.
“A battle is won by those who firmly resolve to win it! Why did we lose the battle at Austerlitz? The French losses were almost equal to ours, but very early we said to ourselves that we were losing the battle, and we did lose it. And we said so because we had nothing to fight for there, we wanted to get away from the battlefield as soon as we could. ‘We’ve lost, so let us run,’ and we ran. If we had not said that till the evening, heaven knows what might not have happened. But tomorrow we shan’t say it! You talk about our position, the left flank weak and the right flank too extended,” he went on. “That’s all nonsense, there’s nothing of the kind. But what awaits us tomorrow? A hundred million most diverse chances which will be decided27 on the instant by the fact that our men or theirs run or do not run, and that this man or that man is killed, but all that is being done at present is only play. The fact is that those men with whom you have ridden round the position not only do not help matters, but hinder. They are only concerned with their own petty interests.”
“At such a moment?” said Pierre reproachfully.
“At such a moment!” Prince Andrey repeated. “To them it is only a moment affording opportunities to undermine a rival and obtain an extra cross or ribbon. For me tomorrow means this: a Russian army of a hundred thousand and a French army of a hundred thousand have met to fight, and the thing is that these two hundred thousand men will fight and the side that fights more fiercely and spares itself least will win. And if you like I will tell you that whatever happens and whatever muddles28 those at the top may make, we shall win tomorrow’s battle. Tomorrow, happen what may, we shall win!”
“There now, your excellency! That’s the truth, the real truth,” said Timokhin. “Who would spare himself now? The soldiers in my battalion, believe me, wouldn’t drink their vodka! ‘It’s not the day for that!’ they say.”
All were silent. The officers rose. Prince Andrey went out of the shed with them, giving final orders to the adjutant. After they had gone Pierre approached Prince Andrey and was about to start a conversation when they heard the clatter29 of three horses’ hoofs30 on the road not far from the shed, and looking in that direction Prince Andrey recognized Wolzogen and Clausewitz accompanied by a Cossack. They rode close by continuing to converse31, and Prince Andrey involuntarily heard these words:
“Der Krieg muss in Raum verlegt werden. Der Ansicht kann ich nicht genug Preis geben,”* said one of them. — “The war must be extended widely. I cannot sufficiently32 commend that view.”
“Oh, ja,” said the other, “der Zweck ist nur den3 Feind zu schwachen, so kann man gewiss nicht den Verlust der Privat-Personen in Achtung nehmen.” — “Oh, yes, the only aim is to weaken the enemy, so of course one cannot take into account the loss of private individuals.”
“Oh, no,” agreed the other.
“Extend widely!” said Prince Andrey with an angry snort, when they had ridden past. “In that ‘extend’ were my father, son, and sister, at Bald Hills. That’s all the same to him! That’s what I was saying to you — those German gentlemen won’t win the battle tomorrow but will only make all the mess they can, because they have nothing in their German heads but theories not worth an empty eggshell and haven’t in their hearts the one thing needed tomorrow — that which Timokhin has. They have yielded up all Europe to him, and have now come to teach us. Fine teachers!” and again his voice grew shrill.
“So you think we shall win tomorrow’s battle?” asked Pierre.
“Yes, yes,” answered Prince Andrey absently. “One thing I would do if I had the power,” he began again, “I would not take prisoners. Why take prisoners? It’s chivalry33! The French have destroyed my home and are on their way to destroy Moscow, they have outraged34 and are outraging35 me every moment. They are my enemies. In my opinion they are all criminals. And so thinks Timokhin and the whole army. They should be executed! Since they are my foes36 they cannot be my friends, whatever may have been said at Tilsit.”
“Yes, yes,” muttered Pierre, looking with shining eyes at Prince Andrey. “I quite agree with you!”
The question that had perturbed37 Pierre on the Mozhaysk hill and all that day now seemed to him quite clear and completely solved. He now understood the whole meaning and importance of this war and of the impending38 battle. All he had seen that day, all the significant and stern expressions on the faces he had seen in passing, were lit up for him by a new light. He understood that latent heat (as they say in physics) of patriotism39 which was present in all these men he had seen, and this explained to him why they all prepared for death calmly, and as it were lightheartedly.
“Not take prisoners,” Prince Andrey continued: “That by itself would quite change the whole war and make it less cruel. As it is we have played at war — that’s what’s vile40! We play at magnanimity and all that stuff. Such magnanimity and sensibility are like the magnanimity and sensibility of a lady who faints when she sees a calf41 being killed: she is so kind-hearted that she can’t look at blood, but enjoys eating the calf served up with sauce. They talk to us of the rules of war, of chivalry, of flags of truce42, of mercy to the unfortunate and so on. It’s all rubbish! I saw chivalry and flags of truce in 1805; they humbugged us and we humbugged them. They plunder43 other people’s houses, issue false paper money, and worst of all they kill my children and my father, and then talk of rules of war and magnanimity to foes! Take no prisoners, but kill and be killed! He who has come to this as I have through the same sufferings . . . ”
Prince Andrey, who had thought it was all the same to him whether or not Moscow was taken as Smolensk had been, was suddenly checked in his speech by an unexpected cramp44 in his throat. He paced up and down a few times in silence, but his eyes glittered feverishly45 and his lips quivered as he began speaking.
“If there was none of this magnanimity in war, we should go to war only when it was worth while going to certain death, as now. Then there would not be war because Paul Ivanovich had offended Michael Ivanovich. And when there was a war, like this one, it would be war! And then the determination of the troops would be quite different. Then all these Westphalians and Hessians whom Napoleon is leading would not follow him into Russia, and we should not go to fight in Austria and Prussia without knowing why. War is not courtesy but the most horrible thing in life; and we ought to understand that and not play at war. We ought to accept this terrible necessity sternly and seriously. It all lies in that: get rid of falsehood and let war be war and not a game. As it is now, war is the favorite pastime of the idle and frivolous46. The military calling is the most highly honored.
“But what is war? What is needed for success in warfare47? What are the habits of the military? The aim of war is murder; the methods of war are spying, treachery, and their encouragement, the ruin of a country’s inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to provision the army, and fraud and falsehood termed military craft. The habits of the military class are the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, and drunkenness. And in spite of all this it is the highest class, respected by everyone. All the kings, except the Chinese, wear military uniforms, and he who kills most people receives the highest rewards.
“They meet, as we shall meet tomorrow, to murder one another; they kill and maim48 tens of thousands, and then have thanksgiving services for having killed so many people (they even exaggerate the number), and they announce a victory, supposing that the more people they have killed the greater their achievement. How does God above look at them and hear them?” exclaimed Prince Andrey in a shrill, piercing voice. “Ah, my friend, it has of late become hard for me to live. I see that I have begun to understand too much. And it doesn’t do for man to taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. . . . Ah, well, it’s not for long!” he added.
“However, you’re sleepy, and it’s time for me to sleep. Go back to Gorki!” said Prince Andrey suddenly.
“Oh no!” Pierre replied, looking at Prince Andrey with frightened, compassionate49 eyes.
“Go, go! Before a battle one must have one’s sleep out,” repeated Prince Andrey.
He came quickly up to Pierre and embraced and kissed him. “Good-by, be off!” he shouted. “Whether we meet again or not . . . ” and turning away hurriedly he entered the shed.
It was already dark, and Pierre could not make out whether the expression of Prince Andrey’s face was angry or tender.
For some time he stood in silence considering whether he should follow him or go away. “No, he does not want it!” Pierre concluded. “And I know that this is our last meeting!” He sighed deeply and rode back to Gorki.
On re-entering the shed Prince Andrey lay down on a rug, but he could not sleep.
He closed his eyes. One picture succeeded another in his imagination. On one of them he dwelt long and joyfully50. He vividly51 recalled an evening in Petersburg. Natasha with animated52 and excited face was telling him how she had gone to look for mushrooms the previous summer and had lost her way in the big forest. She incoherently described the depths of the forest, her feelings, and a talk with a beekeeper she met, and constantly interrupted her story to say: “No, I can’t! I’m not telling it right; no, you don’t understand,” though he encouraged her by saying that he did understand, and he really had understood all she wanted to say. But Natasha was not satisfied with her own words: she felt that they did not convey the passionately53 poetic54 feeling she had experienced that day and wished to convey. “He was such a delightful55 old man, and it was so dark in the forest . . . and he had such kind . . . No, I can’t describe it,” she had said, flushed and excited. Prince Andrey smiled now the same happy smile as then when he had looked into her eyes. “I understood her,” he thought. “I not only understood her, but it was just that inner, spiritual force, that sincerity56, that frankness of soul — that very soul of hers which seemed to be fettered57 by her body — it was that soul I loved in her . . . loved so strongly and happily . . . ” and suddenly he remembered how his love had ended. “He did not need anything of that kind. He neither saw nor understood anything of the sort. He only saw in her a pretty and fresh young girl, with whom he did not deign58 to unite his fate. And I? . . . and he is still alive and gay!”
Prince Andrey jumped up as if someone had burned him, and again began pacing up and down in front of the shed.
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1
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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2
stout
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| adj.强壮的，粗大的，结实的，勇猛的，矮胖的 | |
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3
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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4
battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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7
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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fodder
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| n.草料；炮灰 | |
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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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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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12
pillaged
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| v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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accustom
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| vt.使适应，使习惯 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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15
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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16
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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17
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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18
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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19
slander
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| n./v.诽谤，污蔑 | |
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20
accusations
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| n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名 | |
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21
punctilious
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| adj.谨慎的，谨小慎微的 | |
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22
contingencies
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| n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一 | |
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23
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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pawn
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| n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押 | |
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25
pawns
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| n.（国际象棋中的）兵( pawn的名词复数 )；卒；被人利用的人；小卒v.典当，抵押( pawn的第三人称单数 )；以（某事物）担保 | |
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26
reticent
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| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
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27
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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28
muddles
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| v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的第三人称单数 )；使糊涂；对付，混日子 | |
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29
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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30
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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31
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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32
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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33
chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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34
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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35
outraging
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| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的现在分词 ) | |
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36
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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37
perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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39
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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40
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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41
calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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42
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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43
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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44
cramp
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| n.痉挛；[pl.](腹)绞痛；vt.限制，束缚 | |
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45
feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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46
frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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47
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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48
maim
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| v.使残废，使不能工作，使伤残 | |
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49
compassionate
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| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
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50
joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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51
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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52
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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53
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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54
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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55
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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56
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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57
fettered
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| v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
deign
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| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
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