on! More!
Please, dear Uncle!
Now then, my dear niece...
Where, when, how had this little
Countess, reared in silk and velvet
by a French governess,
ever managed to absorb,
with only the air she breathed,
this manner that was so typically
Russian?
And yet the spirit and gestures
were precisely
and inimitably Russian, which
her uncle expected to find in her.
How did she manage to grasp
everything that was in Anisya,
in Anisya's father, in her mother,
in every Russian man or woman?
Well done, my little Countess!
That's my niece!
All you need now is to pick out
a worthy young man for a husband!
He's already picked out.
Yes, and a very good one!
What did Nikolai's smile mean when
he said, "he's already picked out"?
He acts as if he thought that my
Bolkonsky wouldn't understand,
wouldn't approve of this wonderful
time we're having.
But he would understand.
Where is he now?
But I mustn't think about him.
Night has laid out a blanket
Of the newly-fallen snow.
Swept it over every pathway
In the field of predawn glow.
It's not sorrow that's eating
A good fellow, it's woe.
A good fellow is grieving...
- What are you thinking about?
- Me? Wait.
I was thinking that here we're
driving thinking we're going home.
But actually, we're going Heaven
knows where
and finally we'd arrive and find
we weren't at Otradnoye,
but that we were in a fairy land.
And then I thought...
No, that was all.
- You were certainly thinking of him.
- No.
And also I was thinking
how beautiful Anisya was.
I know that I shall never be
as happy as I am now.
Nonsense, gibberish, folly.
What a treasure my Natasha is!
I have no other friend like her
and I'll never have.
Why does she have to marry? We
could have gone like this forever.
What a treasure my Nikolai is.
Oh, if he'd only come back sooner.
I'm afraid we'll never get married.
Worst of all, I'm getting older...
I shall no longer be
what I am now.
But what if he comes today?
Perhaps he came yesterday,
and I've forgotten it?
What am I to do with them?
Oh yes, Nikita, will you please
go and...
Where am I to send him?
Yes, will you please go to the yard
and bring me a rooster?
Nastasya Ivanovna,
what shall I give birth to?
You? Fleas.
Dragon-flies, grasshoppers.
Oh, my God, the same old thing.
Where am I to go?
What am I to do with myself?
The Island of Mad-a-gas-car.
Mad-a-gas-car. Madagascar.
Do you feel sometimes that nothing
is going to happen to you anymore,
that everything good had already
happened,
and you feel not so much bored,
as sad?
Oh yes, very often!
I remember moments, when
everybody around is cheerful,
it suddenly strikes me that I'm
sick of it all, and all must die.
I didn't go to a squadron party once,
and there the music was playing,
and I felt all at once so dreary.
I know it. I know it.
Even when I was quite little,
I used to have that feeling.
Do you remember, I was punished
once for eating some plums,
and you were all dancing,
and I sat in the study sobbing?
I shall never forget it.
I felt so miserable and sorry for
everyone.
And what's most important,
I wasn't to blame.
I remember that I came to you later
and I longed to comfort you.
We used to be so funny.
I had a dummy toy then,
and I wanted to give it to you.
- Do you remember it, Sonya?
- Yes, I do remember something.
How strange it is, as though
it were a dream. I like that.
And do you remember how Papa,
in his blue fur coat,
fired a gun off on the porch?
Do you remember what fun it was?
- They've brought a rooster, Miss.
- Tell them to take it back.
I think that when one goes on
remembering and remembering,
one remembers till one recalls
what happened before one was
in this world.
That's metempsychosis.
The Egyptians used to believe that
our souls had been in animals,
and would go into animals again.
I don't believe
we were once in animals,
but I know for certain
that we were once angels somewhere,