And in the midst of this commotion, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov quietly donned the journalist’s hat and coat, shouldered his rucksack, and walked out of the Metropol Hotel.
关于删节
下午花了两个小时总结中世纪英国君主，最后的结语是：1154年到1422年将近三个世纪，历经十位国王的交替，然而历史本身却一直在重复，300年来整个社会结构只有微小的改变。和之后即将发生的大航海探索时代和宗教改革所带来狂风骤雨般的变化(tempestuous change）相比，中世纪几乎就像是一潭死水。
吃完饭继续看莫斯科绅士，Count Rostov去餐厅点佐餐酒被告知只有两种分类，红酒或者白酒。震惊中侍者带他去酒店的酒窖。只见酒窖里将近十万瓶酒的标签全部被撕掉，因为有人举报这些酒名的存在象征着贵族的腐朽，知识分子的软弱和商人的投机行为，和革命的理想和宗旨相违背（“the existence of our wine list runs counter to the ideals of the Revolution. That it is a monument to the privilege of the nobility, the effeteness of the intelligentsia, and the predatory pricing of speculators.“）。于是来了十个革命小将花了十天把十万瓶酒的标签全部撕掉。
Count Rostov愤懑无比，发表了一段对于每一瓶红酒独特性的评价：
不管里面装的是什么酒，有一点是可以肯定的：它和旁边瓶子里的酒绝对不一样。正好相反，他手中的那个瓶子里装的是历史的产物，而那段历史又同它的原产国及其人民一样复杂而独特。它的颜色、香气和味道反映的是它的产地所特有的地质、地形和气候。除此之外，它还能反映出它出产那年的自然条件和天气现象。轻轻抿上一口，它便能使人想到那年冬天冰雪开始消融的时间，夏天雨水的充足程度，盛行风的风速，以及多云天出现的频率。
是的，这一瓶瓶酒是经过时间和空间的蒸馏后留下的精华；每一瓶都表现出独特的诗意。可在这儿，它们却被扔到一片匿名的汪洋大海之中，一个平平凡凡、默默无闻的王国里。
（“On the contrary, the contents of the bottle in his hand was the product of a history as unique and complex as that of a nation, or a man. In its color, aroma, and taste, it would certainly express the idiosyncratic geology and prevailing climate of its home terrain. But in addition, it would express all the natural phenomena of its vintage. In a sip, it would evoke the timing of that winter’s thaw, the extent of that summer’s rain, the prevailing winds, and the frequency of clouds.
Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself. Yet here it was, cast back into the sea of anonymity, that realm of averages and unknowns.”）
最后是一段我认为和我今天的写作非常应景的评论：
As we age, we are bound to find comfort from the notion that it takes generations for a way of life to fade. We are familiar with the songs our grandparents favored, after all, even though we never danced to them ourselves. At festive holidays, the recipes we pull from the drawer are routinely decades old, and in some cases even written in the hand of a relative long since dead. And the objects in “the hand of a relative long since dead. And the objects in our homes? The oriental coffee tables and well-worn desks that have been handed down from generation to generation? Despite being “out of fashion,” not only do they add beauty to our daily lives, they lend material credibility to our presumption that the passing of an era will be glacial.
But under certain circumstances, the Count finally acknowledged, this process can occur in the comparative blink of an eye. Popular upheaval, political turmoil, industrial progress—any combination of these can cause the evolution of a society to leapfrog generations, sweeping aside aspects of the past that might otherwise have lingered for decades.
（随着年岁的增长，我们一定会越来越认同这样的观点，即一种生活方式需要经过好几代人才会逐渐消逝。我们的祖父母们喜欢的歌曲我们也都非常熟悉，但我们不像他们那样一听到那些歌就要载歌载舞。每逢节日，我们都要从抽屉里翻出几十年前的食谱为宴会做准备，有些食谱甚至是某位早已过世的亲戚亲手写的。还有我们家中的物件呢？比如说，那张世代相传的具有东方格调的咖啡桌和旧书桌？除了有些“过时”，它们不但为我们的日常生活增添了美感，还让我们认识到一个时代的逝去是个极其缓慢的过程这句话不无道理。
但是在某些情形下，一个时代的逝去可能就在眨、眨眼转瞬之间。民众起义，政治动荡，工业革命，以上任意情形的结合都能使社会迅速发生改变，那些我们从前认为会持续多年的传统突然也就消失了。当新的当权者拒绝信任一切同时对自己有着近乎盲目的自信时，这样的事情尤其可能发生）
为了写下这些感想我特意去找了这本书的中文版想看看译者是怎么翻的同时自己偷个懒。这本书中文版豆瓣评分8.9，但我看了一下翻译感觉质量真的很一般。首先是整体文风，原文给我的感觉是一种充满忧郁和沉重偶尔加上一些明快点缀的倒序式回忆。粗略看了看中文觉得很多地方都带着原文没有体现出来的戏谑和轻浮，或许是我自己没有体会到精髓吧。一些地方翻译腔极重。
还让我们认识到一个时代的逝去是个极其缓慢的过程这句话不无道理
这种强行嵌套的结构都出来了。我知道翻译是极其辛劳的再创作，戴着脚铐跳舞，而自己也只是很不负责任的随便点评。但是，我在原文中最想看到的那段关于时代可能突然发生剧烈变化的描述竟然在中文般里完全没有出现！我反复对照，又去找了另一个版本，确实是中文版就删掉了这一段。
非常惊讶，这一段
But under certain circumstances, the Count finally acknowledged, this process can occur in the comparative blink of an eye. Popular upheaval, political turmoil, industrial progress—any combination of these can cause the evolution of a society to leapfrog generations, sweeping aside aspects of the past that might otherwise have lingered for decades.
我自己稍微翻译了一下是：“但是在某些情形下，一个时代的逝去可能就在眨眼转瞬之间。民众起义，政治动荡，工业革命，以上任意情形的结合都能使社会迅速发生改变，那些我们从前认为会持续多年的传统突然也就消失了。”
感觉没有什么特别敏感的地方。然而真的就被删节了，光看中文似乎也看不出什么过渡不自然。无意去揣测更多，只觉得如果有能力看原文而选择了看译文，很有可能在没有意识到的情况下，错失一些细节和来自作者本人想要传递的况味。
这本书翻译整体还是很不错的。但是翻着翻着翻出东北味也是没谁了…
Audio Book
每天晚饭后边听边读，花了半个月。
听书也是很神奇的过程，一开始听不进去后来嫌读太慢了，但是又舍不得光看。觉得别人读的故事带着各种对话和腔调像是看电影一样，可以加入个人想象的电影，非常漫长的电影。
ASSORTED EXCERPTS
Life, History & Fate
- I have lived under the impression that a man’s purpose is known only to God.
- As such, the two young men hardly seemed fated for friendship. But Fate would not have the reputation it has if it simply did what it seemed it would do
- By some extraordinary conspiracy of fate, at the very instant Nina made this pronouncement, the accordion player concluded an old favorite and the sparsely populated room broke into applause. Sitting back, Nina gestured to her fellow customers with both hands as if their ovation were the final proof of her position.
- But for the virtuous who have lost their way, the Fates often provide a guide. On the island of Crete, Theseus had his Ariadne and her magical ball of thread to lead him safely from the lair of the Minotaur. Through those caverns where ghostly shadows dwell, Odysseus had his Tiresias just as Dante had his Virgil. And in the Metropol Hotel, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov had a nine-year-old girl by the name of Nina Kulikova.
- History has shown charm to be the final ambition of the leisure class
- As we age, we are bound to find comfort from the notion that it takes generations for a way of life to fade. We are familiar with the songs our grandparents favored, after all, even though we never danced to them ourselves. At festive holidays, the recipes we pull from the drawer are routinely decades old, and in some cases even written in the hand of a relative long since dead. And the objects in our homes? The oriental coffee tables and well-worn desks that have been handed down from generation to generation? Despite being “out of fashion,” not only do they add beauty to our daily lives, they lend material credibility to our presumption that the passing of an era will be glacial.
- But under certain circumstances, the Count finally acknowledged, this process can occur in the comparative blink of an eye. Popular upheaval, political turmoil, industrial progress—any combination of these can cause the evolution of a society to leapfrog generations, sweeping aside aspects of the past that might otherwise have lingered for decades.
- Even men in the most trying of circumstances—like those lost at sea or confined to prison—will find the means to carefully account the passing of a year.
- And he believed, most especially, in the reshaping of destinies by the slightest change in the thermometer.
- History is the business of identifying momentous events from the comfort of a high-back chair. With the benefit of time, the historian looks back and points to a date in the manner of a gray-haired field marshal pointing to a bend in a river on a map: There it was, he says. The turning point. The decisive factor. The fateful day that fundamentally altered all that was to follow.
- But when all is said and done, I can’t help suspecting that grand things persist.
一种幸存者偏差，有多少伟大的事物就无声无息的堙灭在历史的长河中，我们再也无法看见。很多留存下来的东西都是出于偶然，比如陆游家里是开出版社的。每一件事物流传下来都是极为不易且随机的。 - Then you must trust in her. And even if she is single-minded to a fault, you must trust that life will find her in time. For eventually, it finds us all.
- Life will follow her in a taxi. It will bump into her by chance. It will work its way into her affections. And to do so, it will beg, barter, collude, and if necessary, resort to chicanery.
- I guess the point I’m trying to make is that as a species we’re just no good at writing obituaries. We don’t know how a man or his achievements will be perceived three generations from now, any more than we know what his great-great-grandchildren will be having for breakfast on a Tuesday in March. Because when Fate hands something down to posterity, it does so behind its back.”
- For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.”
- As much as we hate to admit the fact, Fate does not take sides. It is fair-minded and generally prefers to maintain some balance between the likelihood of success and failure in all our endeavors.
- “But when the Count had made this calculation, what he had failed to take into account was the impact upon a twenty-one-year-old girl of seeing the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre lit up at night for the very first time. True, Sofia had seen them both the day before, along with plenty of other sights; but just as the Count had imagined, she had seen them through the window of a bus. It was a different thing altogether to see them at the onset of summer, having received an ovation, changed one’s appearance, and escaped into the night….”
- …our lives are steered by uncertainties, many of which are disruptive or even daunting; but that if we persevere and remain generous of heart, we may be granted a moment of supreme lucidity—a moment in which all that has happened to us suddenly comes into focus as a necessary course of events, even as we find ourselves on the threshold of a bold new life that we had been meant to lead all along.
- “When her father had made this claim, it had seemed so outlandish, so overblown that it had not assuaged Sofia’s distress in the least. But turning in place on the Place de la Concorde, seeing the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower, and the Tuileries, and the cars and Vespas zipping around the great obelisk, Sofia had an inkling of what her father had been trying to say.”
Knowledge & Worldviews
Whether through careful consideration spawned by books and spirited debate over coffee at two in the morning, or simply from a natural proclivity, we must all eventually adopt a fundamental framework, some reasonably coherent system of causes and effects that will help us make sense not simply of momentous events, but of all the little actions and interactions that constitute our daily lives—be they deliberate or spontaneous, inevitable or unforeseen.
it is a fundamental rule of academic study that whether a student has read every word of a work matters less than whether he has established a reasonable familiarity with its essential material.”
Honor
When a gentleman has been offended and demands satisfaction on the field of honor, he and his counterpart each appoint seconds—in essence, their lieutenants. It is the seconds who settle upon the rules of engagement.”
Some, no doubt, would simply dismiss it as a by-product of barbarism. Given Russia’s long, heartless winters, its familiarity with famine, its rough sense of justice, and so on, and so on, it was perfectly natural for its gentry to adopt an act of definitive violence as the means of resolving disputes. But in the Count’s considered opinion, the reason that dueling prevailed among Russian gentlemen stemmed from nothing more than their passion for the glorious and grandiose.
But were they fought behind ash heaps or in scrapyards? Of course not! They were fought in a clearing among the birch trees with a dusting of snow. Or on the banks of a winding rivulet. Or at the edge of a family estate where the breezes shake the blossoms from the trees…. That is, they were fought in settings that one might have expected to see in the second act of an opera.
Count Rostov
The young Count’s self-mastery did not stem from a precocious admiration of military regimentation, nor a priggish adherence to household rules. By the time he was ten, it was perfectly clear that the Count was neither priggish nor regimental (as a phalanx of educators, caretakers, and constables could attest). No, if the Count mastered the discipline of marching past the closed drawing-room doors, it was because experience had taught him that this was the best means of ensuring the splendor of the season.
But had the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come suddenly appeared and roused the Count to give him a glimpse of the future, he would have seen that his sense of well-being had been premature. For less than four years later, after another careful accounting of the twice-tolling clock’s twelve chimes, Alexander Ilyich Rostov would be climbing to the roof of the Metropol Hotel in his finest jacket and gamely approaching its parapet in order to throw himself into the street below.
一开始看到这里有点懵，一开始看到很悲伤，作者怎么就提前剧透了，四年之后就跳楼自杀了？结果并没有啊。the Count tried to identify the few that he had learned in his youth: Perseus, Orion, the Great Bear, each flawless and eternal. To what end, he wondered, had the Divine created the stars in heaven to fill a man with feelings of inspiration one day and insignificance the next?
“Who would have imagined,” he said, “when you were sentenced to life in the Metropol all those years ago, that you had just become the luckiest man in all of Russia.”
Love & Romance
That sense of loss is exactly what we must anticipate, prepare for, and cherish to the last of our days; for it is only our heartbreak that finally refutes all that is ephemeral in love.
Crossing gracefully to the Count’s side and delicately placing her hand at the small of his back, Anna studied the expressions of the two men in the doorway then addressed the Bishop with a smile. “Why, Manager Leplevsky, you look as if you’ve never seen a beautiful woman step from a closet before.”
It isn’t any one thing,” the Count said after a moment. “It is an assembly of small details.”
all young, beautiful, and wearing black dresses hemmed above the knee. With what charm and elegance they moved among the patrons of the bar, gracing the air with their slender silhouettes, delicate laughter, and hints of perfume
Nina & Sofia
Were they in love with the same woman?”
“I don’t think a woman was involved.”
The girl looked at the Count with an expression of incredulity.
“A woman is always involved,” she said.
My father says that princesses personify the decadence of a vanquished era.”
By broadening your horizons,” he ventured, “what I meant is that education will give you a sense of the world’s scope, of its wonders, of its many and varied ways of life.”
We are talking about horizons, aren’t we? That horizontal line at the limit of sight? Rather than sitting in orderly rows in a schoolhouse, wouldn’t one be better served by working her way toward an actual horizon, so that she could see what lay beyond it? That’s what Marco Polo did when he traveled to China. And what Columbus did when he traveled to America. And what Peter the Great did when he traveled through Europe incognito!”
Setting the empty box aside, the Count nodded again to the cat, pulled the strands of the second bow, and lifted the second lid… only to discover a third box. Dutifully, the Count repeated the debowing and unlidding with the next three boxes, until he held one the size of a matchbox. But when he untied the bow and lifted the lid on this box, inside the cozy chamber, strung on a bit of the dark green ribbon, was Nina’s passkey to the hotel.
“Even though these hypotheses have been tested over time, I think you were perfectly right to test them again.” Nina studied the Count for a moment. “Yes,” she said with a nod. “You have always known me the best.”
that is because she is such an independent spirit.”
“What is it, my dear? Is there something on your mind?” Sofia struggled for another moment, then worked up the nerve: “Can we still have dessert, Uncle Alexander?” Now, it was the Count who looked relieved. “Without a doubt, my dear. Without a doubt.”
she seemed to understand instinctively that such a setting deserved an elevated standard of behavior.
“Sofia, you do know how to count to two hundred?” “No,” she admitted. “But I can count to one hundred twice.
But she maintained an infuriatingly disinterested expression, as if she hadn’t the slightest awareness of the hunt that was underway. And all the while, swinging her little feet back and forth.
But what was particularly impressive was her otherworldly repose upon discovery. For no matter how far or how fast she had traveled, there was not a hint of exertion about her. Not a patter of the heart, not a panting of the breath, not a drop of perspiration on her brow. Nor would she emit a giggle or exhibit the slightest smirk. On the contrary. With an expression that was studious, shy, and well behaved, she would acknowledge the Count with a friendly nod, and looking back at her book, turn the page, demurely.
And where Nina would not hesitate to cut someone off in midassertion in order to make a contrary point and then declare the matter decided once and for all, Sofia would listen so attentively and with such a sympathetic smile that her interlocutor, having been given free rein to express his views at considerable length, often found his voice petering out as he began to question his own premises….
He, a master of nuance and sleight of hand, had been played at every turn. When she had called him back to insist he not peek and had so sweetly tugged at his sleeve, that was a ploy to mask the slipping of the thimble into his pocket.
But how, the question remained, could a seventeen-year-old girl achieve this feat of expression, if not by channeling a sense of loss and longing of her own?
To have played the opening measures of that piece with feelings so perfectly evocative of heartache, one can only assume that you have drawn on some wellspring of sorrow within yourself.”
she seemed serene beyond her years
Daily Routines
A student of both the Stoics and Montaigne, the Count’s father believed that our Creator had set aside the morning hours for industry. That is, if a man woke no later than six, engaged in a light repast, and then applied himself without interruption, by the hour of noon he should have accomplished a full day’s labor.
Rather, having been suitably industrious before lunch, he should spend his afternoon in wise liberty. That is, he should walk among the willows, read a timeless text, converse with a friend beneath the pergola, or reflect before the fire—engaging in those endeavors that have no appointed hour, and that dictate their own beginnings and ends.
So the second chime of the twice-tolling clock was most definitely a remonstrance. What are you doing up? it was meant to say. Were you so profligate with your daylight that you must hunt about for things to do in the dark?
Russia
“Every country has its grand canvas, Sasha—the so-called masterpiece that hangs in a hallowed hall and sums up the national identity for generations to come. For the French it is Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People; for the Dutch, Rembrandt’s Night Watch; for the Americans, Washington Crossing the Delaware; and for we Russians? It is a pair of twins: Nikolai Ge’s Peter the Great Interrogating Alexei and Ilya Repin’s Ivan the Terrible and His Son.
“How can we understand this, Sasha? What is it about a nation that would foster a willingness in its people to destroy their own artworks, ravage their own cities, and kill their own progeny without compunction?
“The Bolsheviks are not Visigoths, Alexander. We are not the barbarian hordes descending upon Rome and destroying all that is fine out of ignorance and envy. It is the opposite. In 1916, Russia was a barbarian state. It was the most illiterate nation in Europe, with the majority of its population living in modified serfdom: tilling the fields with wooden plows, beating their wives by candlelight, collapsing on their benches drunk with vodka, and then waking at dawn to humble themselves before their icons. That is, living exactly as their forefathers had lived five hundred years before. Is it not possible that our reverence for all the statues and cathedrals and ancient institutions was precisely what was holding us back?”
But with a dour expression, the German replied that the only contribution the Russians had made to the West was the invention of vodka
Excuse me, gentlemen. I couldn’t help but overhear your exchange. I have no doubt, mein Herr, that your remark regarding Russia’s contributions to the West was a form of inverted hyperbole—an exaggerated diminution of the facts for poetic effect. Nonetheless,
…“Yes, exactly,” said the Count to the Brit. “It is commonly said that the English know how to celebrate Advent best. But with all due respect, to witness the essence of winter cheer one must venture farther north than London. One must venture above the fiftieth parallel to where the course of the sun is its most elliptical and the force of the wind its most unforgiving. Dark, cold, and snowbound, Russia has the sort of climate in which the spirit of Christmas burns brightest. And that is why Tchaikovsky seems to have captured the sound of it better than anyone else. I tell you that not only will every European child of the twentieth century know the melodies of The Nutcracker, they will imagine their Christmas just as it is depicted in the ballet; and on the Christmas Eves of their dotage, Tchaikovsky’s tree will grow from the floor of their memories until they are gazing up in wonder once again.”
“Third,” said the Count. Then in lieu of explanation, he simply gestured to the Shalyapin’s entrance where a waiter suddenly appeared with a silver platter balanced on the palm of his hand. Placing the platter on the bar between the two foreigners, he lifted the dome to reveal a generous serving of caviar accompanied by blini and sour cream.
Yes, exile was as old as mankind. But the Russians were the first people to master the notion of sending a man into exile at home.
He described Mishka and his notion that Russians were somehow unusually adept at destroying that which they have created. Then he described Osip and his notion that Mishka was perfectly right, but that the destruction of monuments and masterpieces was essential to the progress of a nation
Food and Drink
At its best, a cocktail should be crisp, elegant, sincere—and limited to two ingredients.”
Yes. But they must be two ingredients that complement each other; that laugh at each other’s jokes and make allowances for each other’s faults; and that never shout over each other in conversation. Like gin and tonic,” he said, pointing to his drink. “Or bourbon and water… Or whiskey and soda
All told, there were almost ten thousand cases. More than a hundred thousand bottles. And every one of them without a label. “What has happened!” gasped the Count. Andrey nodded in grim acknowledgment. “A complaint was filed with comrade Teodorov, the Commissar of Food, claiming that the existence of our wine list runs counter to the ideals of the Revolution. That it is a monument to the privilege of the nobility, the effeteness of the intelligentsia, and the predatory pricing of speculators.”
…On the contrary, the contents of the bottle in his hand was the product of a history as unique and complex as that of a nation, or a man. In its color, aroma, and taste, it would certainly express the idiosyncratic geology and prevailing climate of its home terrain. But in addition, it would express all the natural phenomena of its vintage. In a sip, it would evoke the timing of that winter’s thaw, the extent of that summer’s rain, the prevailing winds, and the frequency of clouds.
Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself. Yet here it was, cast back into the sea of anonymity, that realm of averages and unknowns.
For what is more versatile? As at home in tin as it is in Limoges, coffee can energize the industrious at dawn, calm the reflective at noon, or raise the spirits of the beleagured in the middle of the night.
The Rioja? Now there was a wine that would clash with the stew as Achilles clashed with Hector. It would slay the dish with a blow to the head and drag it behind its chariot until it tested the fortitude of every man in Troy.
And just as he’d suspected, it was the perfect dish for the season. The onions thoroughly caramelized, the pork slowly braised, and the apricots briefly stewed, the three ingredients came together in a sweet and smoky medley that simultaneously suggested the comfort of a snowed-in tavern and the jangle of a Gypsy tambourine.
Friendships, Relationships & Compliments
Now, when a man has been underestimated by a friend, he has some cause for taking offense—since it is our friends who should overestimate our capacities. They should have an exaggerated opinion of our moral fortitude, our aesthetic sensibilities, and our intellectual scope. Why, they should practically imagine us leaping through a window in the nick of time with the works of Shakespeare in one hand and a pistol in the other!
“It is a sad but unavoidable fact of life,” he began, “that as we age our social circles grow smaller. Whether from increased habit or diminished vigor, we suddenly find ourselves in the company of just a few familiar faces. So I view it as an incredible stroke of good fortune at this stage in my life to have found such a fine new friend
Some might wonder that the two men should consider themselves to be old friends having only known each other for four years; but the tenure of friendships has never been governed by the passage of time. These two would have felt like old friends had they met just hours before. To some degree, this was because they were kindred spirits—finding ample evidence of common ground and cause for laughter in the midst of effortless conversation;
I know a man of erudition when I meet one.
There are no more sympathetic souls than strangers
I think that both of your friends are very sharp. I mean it takes a good bit of dexterity to pull a thread out of the fabric all in one piece
Perhaps it is a matter of celestial balance,” he reflected. “A sort of cosmic equilibrium.
A life too brief, a heart too kind
Similies & Classical Citations
he was clearly as villainous a viper as had ever slithered from the underbrush of Eden.
Rather, he traveled across their menus like Mr. Livingstone traveled across Africa and Magellan the seven seas
“Delightful conversations! I’ll have you know, dear sister, that careless seating has torn asunder the best of marriages and led to the collapse of the longest-standing détentes. In fact, if Paris had not been seated next to Helen when he dined in the court of Menelaus, there never would have been a Trojan War.
“Boreas, Zephyrus, Notos, and Euros—the Four Winds.
“Yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm—the Four Humors,”
If one has been absent for decades from a place that one once held dear, the wise would generally counsel that one should never return there again. History abounds with sobering examples: After decades of wandering the seas and overcoming all manner of deadly hazards, Odysseus finally returned to Ithaca, only to leave it again a few years later. Robinson Crusoe, having made it back to England after years of isolation, shortly thereafter set sail for that very same island from which he had so fervently prayed for deliverance.
The Rioja? Now there was a wine that would clash with the stew as Achilles clashed with Hector. It would slay the dish with a blow to the head and drag it behind its chariot until it tested the fortitude of every man in Troy.
Grand Hotels & Gossips
In their heyday, these retreats were so conducive to frank expressions of sentiment that if one were to eavesdrop at their tables for a month, one would be able to anticipate all of the bankruptcies, weddings, and wars of the year to come.
The Nizhny Novgorod Province had a hundred prominent families, which over the course of two centuries had intermarried and divorced, borrowed and lent, accepted and regretted, offended, defended, and dueled—while championing an array of conflicting positions that varied by generation, gender, and house. And at the center of this maelstrom was the Countess Rostov’s dining room with its two tables for twenty standing side by side.
a greater factor in the difference between the two rooms was their provenance. For if a room that exists under the governance, authority, and intent of others seems smaller than it is, then a room that exists in secret can, regardless of its dimensions, seem as vast as one cares to imagine.
but it was also almost certainly a matter of upbringing. Raised in grand homes in cosmopolitan cities, educated in the liberal arts, graced with idle hours, and exposed to the finest things, though the Count and the American had been born ten years and four thousand miles apart, they had more in common with each other than they had with the majority of their own countrymen
This, of course, is why the grand hotels of the world’s capitals all look alike. The Plaza in New York, the Ritz in Paris, Claridge’s in London, the Metropol in Moscow—built within fifteen years of each other, they too were kindred spirits, the first hotels in their cities with central heating, with hot water and telephones in the rooms, with international newspapers in the lobbies, international cuisine in the restaurants, and American bars off the lobby. These hotels were built for the likes of Richard Vanderwhile and Alexander Rostov, so that when they traveled to a foreign city, they would find themselves very much at home and in the company of kin.
Revolutions & Politics
Because the Bolsheviks, who were so intent upon recasting the future from a mold of their own making, would not rest until every last vestige of his Russia had been uprooted, shattered, or erased.
Since the war, relations between our countries may not have been especially chummy, but they have been predictable. We launch the Marshall Plan, you launch the Molotov Plan. We form NATO; you form the Cominform. We develop an atom bomb, you develop an atom bomb. It’s been like a game of tennis—which is not only a good form of exercise, but awfully entertaining to watch
At the mention of the round-faced Minister of Culture, the director stood up so straight he added an inch to his stature
Ghost
- Of course they would judge a spirit’s nocturnal wanderings as the product of earthly memories. When, in fact, if these restless souls wanted to harrow the bustling avenues of noon, there is nothing to stop them from doing so. No. If they wander the halls of night, it is not from a grievance with or envy of the living. Rather, it is because they have no desire to see the living at all. Any more than snakes hope to see gardeners, or foxes the hounds. They wander about at midnight because at that hour they can generally do so without being harried by the sound and fury of earthly emotions.
This imagery of kaleidoscope is hauntingly beautiful
- At the bottom of a kaleidoscope’s cylinder lie shards of colored glass in random arrangement; but thanks to a glint of sunlight, the interplay of mirrors, and the magic of symmetry, when one peers inside what one finds is a pattern so colorful, so perfectly intricate, it seems certain to have been designed with the utmost care. Then by the slightest turn of the wrist, the shards begin to shift and settle into a new configuration—a configuration with its own symmetry of shapes, its own intricacy of colors, its own hints of design.
Versatility of the word comrade
A wonder of semantic efficiency, comrade could be used as a greeting, or a word of parting. As a congratulations, or a caution. As a call to action, or a remonstrance. Or it could simply be the means of securing someone’s attention in the crowded lobby of a grand hotel. And thanks to the word’s versatility, the Russian people had finally been able to dispense with tired formalities, antiquated titles, bothersome idioms—even names! Where else in all of Europe could one shout a single word to hail any of one’s countrymen be they male or female, young or old, friend or foe?
Yes, he continued in his thoughts, how fine almost any human endeavor can be made to sound when expressed in the proper French…
Cruelty
- Cruelty knows that it has no need of histrionics. It can be as calm and quiet as it likes. It can sigh, or lightly shake its head in disbelief, or offer a sympathetic apology for whatever it must do. It can move slowly, methodically, inevitably
Order
- the saloonkeeper’s cool response to Ugarte’s arrest and his instruction for the band to play on could suggest a certain indifference to the fates of men. But in setting upright the cocktail glass in the aftermath of the commotion, didn’t he also exhibit an essential faith that by the smallest of one’s actions one can restore some sense of order to the world?
Homesick
- Why after so many years of longing for home did these sojourners abandon it so shortly upon their return? It is hard to say. But perhaps for those returning after a long absence, the combination of heartfelt sentiments and the ruthless influence of time can only spawn disappointments
And in the midst of this commotion, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov quietly donned the journalist’s hat and coat, shouldered his rucksack, and walked out of the Metropol Hotel.
Vocabulary
- Thank you, gentlemen, for delivering me safely. I shall no longer be in need of your assistance.”
- By Diverse Means We Arrive at the Same End.
- The girl gave another canine tilt to her head.
- This? It is filet of sole.”菲力鱼排
- “With my compliments.”
- My father says that princesses personify the decadence of a vanquished era.”
- When a gentleman has been offended and demands satisfaction on the field of honor, he and his counterpart each appoint seconds—in essence, their lieutenants. It is the seconds who settle upon the rules of engagement.”
- She said this in a hushed voice, as if quoting the events of Pushkin’s poem required discretion.
- “I prefer you without your mustaches,” she said. “Their absence improves your countenance
- aperitif
- comport
- I concede that there is some merit to your argument
- But this saintly abstinence did not prove a tonic to his soul
- ennui
- desultory
- with a palpable sense of foreboding
- “How can I be of service to you?”
- “Well, yes. I suppose that some of your staff address me in that fashion.”
- but their expressions had yet to acquire the aloofness of his more seasoned ballerinas.
- Yes, those were Elysian days, thought Mishka
- kowtow: Chinese
- You know me better than anyone,” she said after a moment. “I shall treasure them to my dying day.”
- And with that disarming memory
- There’s certainly some allure to the idea of a fresh start; but how could I relinquish my memories of home, of my sister, of my school years.” The Count gestured to the table. “How could I relinquish my memory of this?”
- Delightful conversations! I’ll have you know, dear sister, that careless seating has torn asunder the best of marriages and led to the collapse of the longest-standing détentes.
- And in that venue I suppose a certain lack of experience is to be tolerated, or even expected.
- foist on: force someone to do, dutch
- With its archways of brick and its cool, dark climate, the Metropol’s wine cellar recalled the somber beauty of a catacomb.
- moment of lucidity
- The oriental coffee tables and well-worn desks that have been handed down from generation to generation? Despite being “out of fashion,” not only do they add beauty to our daily lives, they lend material credibility to our presumption that the passing of an era will be glacial.
- Because the Bolsheviks, who were so intent upon recasting the future from a mold of their own making, would not rest until **every last vestige **of his Russia had been uprooted, shattered, or erased.
- Thus, the very precipitation that might have soured the evening, instead lends it an aura of magic.
- physique
- suffice it to say
- suddenly the Princess has sought you out in order to express her gratitude for this act of gallantry.
- The Princess waltzes divinely.
- Excuse me, gentlemen. I couldn’t help but overhear your exchange. I have no doubt, mein Herr, that your remark regarding Russia’s contributions to the West was a form of inverted hyperbole—an exaggerated diminution of the facts for poetic effect. Nonetheless,
- I know a man of erudition when I meet one.
- retch: vomit
- but I think I can safely say that you have **assumed more than your share of **guilt for these events.”
- A life too brief, a heart too kind
- fennel: 茴香, latin
- echelon: position in a social hierarchy, French
- saffron: 藏红花, French
- Fraulein: a German courtesy title or form of address for an unmarried woman
- tiger lily: (img), 卷丹
- rendezvous: /‘rɑndevʊ/, a date of romance, French
- Or it could simply be the means of securing someone’s attention in the crowded lobby of a grand hotel.
- peevish: childishly cranky
- vichyssoise: 维希冷汤（用土豆、韭葱、奶油烹制而成, 常冷却后食用, French
- assignation: a secret date
- bouillabaisse: 法式杂鱼汤; 浓味炖鱼。
- black hair and ivory skin
- her religious upbringing:宗教教养
- she seemed to understand instinctively that such a setting deserved an elevated standard of behavior.
- read a timeless text
- remonstrance: protest
- a cavalcade of Whys: vast amount of
- sustenance: maintainance
- litany of queries: 一连串
- veal: 小牛肉(小牛肉，指牛犊的肉，通常指生长22周，体重达150公斤之内的牛犊，生长期间主要用乳制品饲料喂养，其肉色呈粉红色，较一般牛肉颜色淡，脂肪含量低于成年牛的肉，有一种特殊的香味，是一种高档食品。)
- privy to: be allowed secret information
- recount the events
- In it friendships were formed and romances kindled; patience was fostered; civility practiced; even wisdom attained.
- proletariat: working class, latin to French
- And where Nina would not hesitate to cut someone off in mid assertion in order to make a contrary point and then declare the matter decided once and for all, Sofia would listen so attentively and with such a sympathetic smile that her interlocutor, having been given free rein to express his views at considerable length, often found his voice petering out as he began to question his own premises….
- drubbing: beating, debacle
- mise-en-scène: putting on stage, 舞台调度, French
- To have played the opening measures of that piece with feelings so perfectly evocative of heartache, one can only assume that you have drawn on some wellspring of sorrow within yourself.”
- they were kindred spirits
- Château d’Yquem
- collapsing into his chair
- at the turn of the century
- His voice trailed off diminuendo
- infirmary: hospital
- disservice:
- For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.”
- harrumphed: 咳咳，清嗓子以打断或者表示不满
- I must now bid you adieu.” Then with a nod the Count disappeared French
- arrondissement: 郡, French
- polymath: savant, pundit, Greek
- egret: 白鹭
- apotheosis: the epitome; Perfection. the elevation of someone to divine status. Latin and Greek
- our lives are steered by uncertainties, many of which are disruptive or even daunting; but that if we persevere and remain generous of heart, we may be granted a moment of supreme lucidity—a moment in which all that has happened to us suddenly comes into focus as a necessary course of events, even as we find ourselves on the threshold of a bold new life that we had been meant to lead all along
- other-worldly: 超凡脱俗的
- exacting their toll/revenge, 复仇
- without the fortitude to: strength against adversity
- In it friendships were formed and romances kindled; patience was fostered; civility practiced; even wisdom attained.