EVER SINCE THE DAY when Pierre had looked up at the comet in the sky on his way home from the Rostovs’, and recalling Natasha’s grateful look, had felt as though some new vista was opening before him, the haunting problem of the vanity and senselessness of all things earthly had ceased to torment him. —
自从皮埃尔在回罗斯托夫家的路上抬头看到天空中的彗星，并回忆起娜塔莎感激的眼神，他觉得一个新的景象正在他面前展开，一直纠缠着他的世间虚荣和无意义的困扰不再折磨他。 —

That terrible question: Why? what for? which had till then haunted him in the midst of every occupation, was not now replaced by any other question, nor by an answer to the old question; —
那个可怕的问题：“为什么？为了什么？”在以前一直在他的每一项工作中纠缠着他，现在却没有被其他问题替代，也没有得到对旧问题的解答； —

its place was filled by the image of her. —
它的位置被她的形象填满了。 —

If he heard or talked of trivialities, or read or was told of some instance of human baseness or folly, he was not cast down as of old; —
如果他听到或谈论琐事，或者读到或听到一些人类卑劣或愚蠢的例子，他不像以前那样沮丧； —

he did not ask himself why people troubled, when all was so brief and uncertain. —
他不再问自己为什么人们烦恼，当一切都是如此短暂和不确定的。 —

But he thought of her as he had seen her last, and all his doubts vanished; —
但他想起了他最后一次见到她的样子，所有的疑虑都消失了； —

not because she had answered the questions that haunted him, but because her image lifted him instantly into another bright realm of spiritual activity, in which there could be neither right nor wrong, into a region of beauty and love which was worth living for. —
不是因为她回答了困扰他的问题，而是因为她的形象立刻把他带入了另一个充满光明的精神活动的领域，那里既没有对错，也没有美丽和爱的地区值得生活。 —

Whatever infamy he thought of, he said to himself, “Well, let so and so rob the state and the Tsar, while the state and the Tsar heap honours on him; —
无论他想到什么恶名，他都对自己说：“好吧，让某某人掠夺国家和沙皇，而国家和沙皇却对他们奖赏有加。” —

but she smiled at me yesterday, and begged me to come, and I love her, and nobody will ever know it,” he thought.
但是她昨天对我微笑，并请求我前去，我爱她，没有人会知道，他想。

Pierre still went into society, drank as much, and led the same idle and aimless life, because, apart from the hours he spent at the Rostovs’, he had to get through the rest of his time somehow, and the habits and the acquaintances he had made in Moscow drew him irresistibly into the same life. —
除了在罗斯托夫家度过的时间外，皮埃尔仍然参加社交，喝酒如故，过着同样的懒散又无目标的生活，因为他必须设法度过其余的时间，而他在莫斯科结交的习惯和朋友们无法无法地将他吸引到同样的生活中。 —

But of late, since the reports from the seat of war had become more and more disquieting, and Natasha’s health had improved, and she had ceased to call for the same tender pity, he had begun to be more and more possessed by a restlessness that he could not explain. —
但是自从战争前线的报道变得越来越令人不安，娜塔莎的健康状况有所改善，并且她已经不再需要同样深情的同情，他开始被一种无法解释的不安所笼罩。 —

He felt that the position he was in could not go on for long, that a catastrophe was coming that would change the whole course of his life, and he sought impatiently for signs of this impending catastrophe. —
他感到自己所处的位置无法持久下去，一个将改变他整个生活轨迹的灾难即将来临，他不耐烦地寻找着这场即将到来的灾难的迹象。 —

One of his brother masons had revealed to Pierre the following prophecy relating to Napoleon, and taken from the Apocalypse of St. John.
“一个同胞共济会会员曾向皮埃尔透露了以下与拿破仑有关的预言，取自圣约翰的启示录。

In the Apocalypse, chapter thirteen, verse seventeen, it is written: “Here is wisdom; —
在启示录第十三章第十七节中，写道：“在这里有智慧： —

let him that hath understanding, count the number of the beast; —
凡有聪明才智的人，请数一下兽的数目； —

for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred three-score and six.”
因为这是一个人的数目，而他的数目是六百六十六。”

And in the fifth verse of the same chapter: —
在同一章第五节： —

“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.”
“并且必赐给他一口说大话亵渎的口，又赐给他权柄，可以任意而行四十二个月。”

If the French alphabet is treated like the Hebrew system of enumeration, by which the first ten letters represent the units, and the next the tens, and so on, the letters have the following value:—
如果法语字母表按照希伯来的计数系统来处理，其中前十个字母代表个位数，接下来的十个字母代表十位数，以此类推，这些字母的权值如下：

a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160
a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160

Turning out the words l’empereur Napoléon into ciphers on this system, it happens that the sum of these numbers equals 666, and Napoleon is thereby seen to be the beast prophesied in the Apocalypse. —
将“l’empereur Napoléon”这个词转化成密码，发现这些数字的总和等于666，因此拿破仑就被视为《启示录》所预言的野兽。 —

Moreover, working out in the same way the words quarante-deux, that is, the term for which the beast was permitted to continue, the sum of these numbers again equals 666, from which it is deduced that the terms of Napoleon’s power had come in 1812, when the French Emperor reached his forty-second year. —
此外，用相同的方式推算出“quarante-deux”这个词（即野兽被允许存在的时间），这些数字的总和同样等于666，由此推断出拿破仑权力的终结发生在1812年，法国皇帝达到四十二岁时。 —

This prophecy made a great impression on Pierre. —
这个预言对皮埃尔产生了很大的影响。 —

He frequently asked himself what would put an end to the power of the beast, that is, of Napoleon; —
他经常问自己是什么会结束野兽（即拿破仑）的统治； —

and he tried by the same system of turning letters into figures, and reckoning them up to find an answer to this question. —
他试图用同样的方式将字母转化为数字，并计算它们以找到这个问题的答案。 —

He wrote down as an answer, l’empereur Alexandre? La nation russe? —
他写下的答案是“l’empereur Alexandre? La nation russe?” —

He reckoned out the figures, but their sum was far more or less than 666. —
他计算出这些数字，但它们的总和与666相差甚远。 —

Once he wrote down his own name “Comte Pierre Bezuhov,” but the sum of the figure was far from being right. —
有一次他写下自己的名字“Comte Pierre Bezuhov”，但数字的总和离正确答案相差甚远。 —

He changed the spelling, putting s for z, added “de,” added the article “le,” and still could not obtain the desired result. —
他改变了拼写，用s代替z，在名字前加上了“de”，还加上了冠词“le”，但仍然无法得到期望的结果。 —

Then it occurred to him that if the answer sought for were to be found in his name, his nationality ought surely to find a place in it too. —
然后，他想到如果寻找的答案可以在他的名字中找到，那么他的国籍也应该占据其中的一部分。 —

He tried Le russe Besuhof, and adding up the figure made the sum 671. This was only five too much; —
他尝试了“Le russe Besuhof”，并计算数字，结果总和是671。只多了5个； —

the 5 was denoted by the letter “e,” the letter dropped in the article in the expression l’empereur Napoléon. —
数字5用字母“e”表示，这个字母在表达“l’empereur Napoléon”中被省略了。 —

Dropping the “e” in a similar way, though of course incorrectly, Pierre obtained the answer he sought in L’russe Besuhof, the letters of which on that system added up to 666. —
以类似的方式省略了字母“e”，尽管这当然是错误的，皮埃尔还是找到了他寻找的答案：“L’russe Besuhof”，按照这个系统计算，字母的总和为666。 —

This discovery greatly excited him. How, by what connection, he was associated with the great event, foretold in the Apocalypse, he could not tell. —
这个发现让他非常激动。他如何与《启示录》中预言的重大事件相关联，他无法说清楚。 —

But he did not for a moment doubt of that connection. —
但他一刻都没有怀疑这种联系的存在。 —

His love for Natasha, Antichrist, Napoleon’s invasion, the comet, the number 666, l’empereur Napoléon, and l’russe Besuhof—all he thought were to develop, and come to some crisis together to extricate him from that spellbound, trivial round of Moscow habits, to which he felt himself in bondage, and to lead him to some great achievement and great happiness.
他对娜塔莎的爱，敌基督，拿破仑的入侵，彗星，数字666，拿破仑大帝和俄国尔斯布霍夫，他认为所有这些都会发展并达到某种危机，使他摆脱被困在莫斯科习惯的束缚，并引领他取得巨大的成就和巨大的幸福。

The day before that Sunday on which the new prayer had been read in the churches, Pierre had promised the Rostovs to call on Count Rastoptchin, whom he knew well, and to get from him the Tsar’s appeal to the country, and the last news from the army. —
在新的祷告在教堂里读出的那个星期天的前一天，皮埃尔答应去拜访他很熟悉的拉斯托普钦伯爵，并从他那里得到沙皇对国家的呼吁和军队的最新消息。 —

On going to Count Rastoptchin’s in the morning, Pierre found there a special courier, who had only just arrived from the army. —
在早晨去拉斯托普钦伯爵那里时，皮埃尔在那里发现了一名刚从军队抵达的特使。 —

The courier was a man whom Pierre knew, and often saw at the Moscow balls.
这个特使是皮埃尔认识的，在莫斯科的舞会上经常见到。

“For mercy’s sake, couldn’t you relieve me of some of my burden,” said the courier; —
“求求你帮我解除一些负担吧”，特使说。 —

“I have a sack full of letters to parents.”
“我有一袋子给父母的信。”

Among these letters was a letter from Nikolay Rostov to his father. Pierre took that; —
在这些信中有一封尼古拉·罗斯托夫写给他父亲的信。皮埃尔拿了那封信。 —

and Count Rastoptchin gave him a copy of the Tsar’s appeal to Moscow, which had just been printed, the last announcements in the army, and his own last placard. —
拉斯托普钦伯爵给了他沙皇对莫斯科的呼吁的副本，这刚刚被印刷出来，还有军队的最新通告和他自己的最新告示。 —

Looking through the army announcements, Pierre found in one of them, among lists of wounded, killed and promoted, the name of Nikolay Rostov, rewarded with the order of St. George, of the fourth degree, for distinguished bravery in the Ostrovna affair, and in the same announcement the appointment of Prince Andrey Bolkonsky to the command of a regiment of light cavalry. —
在浏览军队的通告时，皮埃尔在其中一份通告中找到了尼古拉·罗斯托夫的名字，他因在奥斯特罗夫纳战斗中表现出色被授予圣乔治勋章四级，并在同一份通告中任命了安德烈·博尔科斯基亲王为一支轻骑兵团的指挥官。 —

Though he did not want to remind the Rostovs of Bolkonsky’s existence, Pierre could not resist the inclination to rejoice their hearts with the news of their son’s decoration. —
尽管他不想提醒罗斯托夫家族博尔科斯基的存在，但皮埃尔无法抑制自己想要以他们儿子获得勋章的消息来让他们高兴的愿望。 —

Keeping the Tsar’s appeal, Rastoptchin’s placard, and the other announcement to bring with him at dinner-time, Pierre sent the printed announcement and Nikolay’s letter to the Rostovs.
保留沙皇的呼吁，拉斯托普钦的告示和其他的通告到晚餐时间带去，皮埃尔将印刷的通告和尼古拉的信发送给罗斯托夫家族。

The conversation with Rastoptchin, and his tone of anxiety and hurry, the meeting with the courier, who had casually alluded to the disastrous state of affairs in the army, the rumours of spies being caught in Moscow, of a sheet circulating in the town stating that Napoleon had sworn to be in both capitals before autumn, of the Tsar’s expected arrival next day—all combined to revive in Pierre with fresh intensity that feeling of excitement and expectation, that he had been conscious of ever since the appearance of the comet, and with even greater force since the beginning of the war.
与拉斯托普钦的对话，以及他焦虑和仓促的语调，与信使的会面，他随意提到军队的灾难性状态，莫斯科抓获间谍的谣言，城里流传的一张广告宣称拿破仑发誓在秋天之前会到达两个首都，沙皇预计第二天将到达——这一切使得皮埃尔内心的兴奋和期待感以更强烈的力量重新回来，自从彗星出现以来，自从战争开始以来，他就一直有这种意识。

The idea of entering the army had long before occurred to Pierre, and he would have acted upon it, but that, in the first place, he was pledged by his vow to the Masonic brotherhood, which preached universal peace and the abolition of war; —
进入军队的想法早就在皮埃尔心中浮现过，他本来会采取行动的，但首先，他受制于他对共济会的誓言，共济会宣扬普遍和平和废除战争； —

and secondly, when he looked at the great mass of Moscow gentlemen, who put on uniforms, and professed themselves patriots, he felt somehow ashamed to take the same step. —
并且，当他看着莫斯科那一大批穿上制服并声称自己是爱国者的绅士们时，他不知为何感到有些羞愧，不愿迈出同样的一步。 —

A cause that weighed with him even more in not entering the army was the obscure conception that he, l’russe Besuhof, had somehow the mystic value of the number of the beast, 666, that his share in putting a limit to the power of the beast, “speaking great things and blasphemies,” had been ordained from all eternity, and that therefore it was not for him to take any step whatever; —
使他更不愿进入军队的原因是一种模糊的观念，即他，卢斯·贝苏霍夫，不知何故具有“兽”的秘密价值，即666，他在限制“说了伟大而亵渎的事情”的兽的力量方面有一份命定，这一点从永恒的意义上说是注定的，因此他不应该采取任何行动； —

it was for him to wait for what was bound to come to pass.
应该等待注定要发生的事情。