common stamp of worry,
of soft-heartedness
and of knowing that something
momentous and incomprehensible
was happening at that time.
If God is merciful,
no doctor would be needed.
Princess, someone is coming.
Up the driveway, with lanterns
lighted. Must be the doctor.
Thank God!
I'll go out to meet him.
He doesn't speak Russian.
- Is the Princess well?
- Very well.
No, it can't be!
It would be so incredible!
There is a kind fate!
Masha, my dear!
Oh, darling...
God is merciful.
She was not surprised
at seeing him there.
She didn't understand
that he had returned.
His coming had nothing to do
with her agony,
nor with its relief.
No, you're not allowed in.
Why have they taken
a baby in there?
Why a baby?
Has a baby been born?
I loved you all.
I did no harm to anyone.
And now what have you done
to me? What have you done?
Oh, what have you done to me?
And why?
I can't begin to tell you what
I've been through since then.
Yes, we have all changed
a great deal.
- What are your plans?
- My plans? What can I say?
But why aren't you serving
in the army?
After Austerlitz?
No, thank you very much.
If Bonaparte were here,
near Smolensk,
I wouldn't serve in our army
even then.
- Did you hear about the duel?
- You had to go through that too.
The one thing I thank God for
is he wasn't killed.
Why? Killing a mad dog
is a good thing.
It's evil to kill a man.
It's wrong.
But why is it wrong?
It's not up to men to judge
what is right and what is wrong.
Men will always be wrong,
and never so wrong
as when they decide
what's right and wrong.
Anything that does harm to
another man is wrong.
How can you be sure what will
do harm to another man?
Personally, I know of only two
real evils in life:
Remorse and sickness.
And happiness is the absence
of those two evils.
To live for one's self in such a way
as to avoid these two evils
is my whole philosophy now.
But how can anyone live for
himself alone?
No, no, I couldn't live like that.
I'm feeling
deep in my heart
that I'm part
of this vast, harmonious whole.
I feel that not only
I cannot disappear,
as nothing disappears in this world,
but I have been
and will be forever.
This is Herder's philosophy. But
it's not going to convince me.
Life and death
are the only convincing things.
I'm only convinced when I've seen
someone who's dear to me,
who's close to me,
toward whom I behaved wrongly
and still hoped to make it right,
all of a sudden suffering terrible
pain and breathing her last.
What on earth for?
There must be some answer!
Of course...
I mean it's not argument
that convinces me,
it's setting out in life with
someone you love
and suddenly that
someone disappears...
into nothingness.
You stop before that abyss
and have a look down there.
Just as I have done.
Of course. Isn't that exactly
what I've been saying?
We must live. We must love.
We must believe that we're not only
living now on this lump of earth,
but that we have lived and shall
live forever, in everything.
Your Highness, isn't it good?
- What?
- Isn't it good, Your Highness?
What is he talking about?
Yes, the spring, I suppose.
It's true, everything
is green already. So soon.
The birch, the bird-cherry...
And the alder is opening up. Only
the oak shows no signs of life.
Yes, there's the oak.
Spring...
Love...
Happiness...
Haven't you grown weary of this
same stupid, meaningless delusion?
It's always the same,
and it's always a lie.
There is no spring,
no sun, and no happiness.
I don't believe in your hopes
and in your illusions.
Yes, the oak is right,
a thousand times right.
Let the others, the young,
to be taken in by this delusion.
We who know life know
that it is finished.
Yet we must live out our lives,
doing no harm, and not worrying
or desiring anything.
His obligations as trustee
of the family's Ryazan estate
compelled Prince Andrei
to call upon
the local Marshal of Nobility,