IN THE year 1808 the Emperor Alexander visited Erfurt for another interview with the Emperor Napoleon; and in the highest Petersburg society a great deal was said of the great significance of this meeting.

In 1809 the amity between the two sovereigns of the world, as Napoleon and Alexander used to be called, had become so close that when Napoleon declared war that year with Austria, a Russian corps crossed the frontier to co-operate with their old enemy Bonaparte against their old ally, the Austrian Emperor; so close that in the highest society there was talk of a possible marriage between Napoleon and one of the sisters of the Emperor Alexander. But, apart from foreign policy, the attention of Russian society was at that time drawn with special interest to the internal changes taking place in all departments of the government.

Life meanwhile, the actual life of men with their real interests of health and sickness, labour and rest, with their interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, affection, hatred, passion, went its way, as always, independently, apart from the political amity or enmity of Napoleon Bonaparte, and apart from all possible reforms.

Prince Andrey had spent two years without a break in the country. All those projects which Pierre had attempted on his estates, and changing continually from one enterprise to another, had never carried out to any real result—all those projects had been carried out by Prince Andrey without display to any one and without any perceptible exertion. He possessed in the highest degree the quality Pierre lacked, that practical tenacity which, without fuss or any great effort on his part, set things in working order.

On one estate of his, three hundred serfs were transformed into free cultivators (it was one of the first examples in Russia), in others forced labour was replaced by payment of rent. On Bogutcharovo a trained midwife had been engaged at his expense to assist the peasant-women in childbirth, and a priest, at a fixed salary, was teaching the children of the peasants and house servants to read and write.

Half his time Prince Andrey spent at Bleak Hills with his father and his son, who was still in the nursery. The other half he passed at his Bogutcharovo retreat, as his father called his estate. In spite of the indifference to all the external events of the world that he had shown to Pierre, he studiously followed them, received many books, and, to his own surprise, when people coming fresh from Petersburg, the very vortex of life, visited him or his father, he noticed that those people, in knowledge of all that was passing in home and foreign politics, were far behind him, though he had never left the country.

Besides looking after his estates, and much general reading of the most varied kind, Prince Andrey was busily engaged at this time upon a critical survey of our two late disastrous campaigns and the composition of a proposal for reforms in our army rules and regulations.

In the spring of 1809 Prince Andrey set off to visit the Ryazan estates, the heritage of his son, whose trustee he was.

Warmed by the spring sunshine he sat in the carriage, looking at the first grass, the first birch leaves and the first flecks of white spring clouds floating over the bright blue of the sky. He was thinking of nothing, but looking about him, light-hearted and thoughtless.

They crossed the ford where he had talked with Pierre a year before. They drove through a muddy village, by threshing floors, and patches of green corn; down hill by a drift of snow still lying near the bridge, up hill along a clay road hollowed out by the rain, by strips of stubble-field, with copse turning green here and there; and drove at last into a birch forest that lay on both sides of the road. In the forest it was almost hot, the wind could not be felt. The birches, all studded with sticky, green leaves, did not stir, and lilac-coloured flowers and the first grass lifted the last year's leaves and peeped out green from under them. Tiny fir-trees, dotted here and there among the birches, brought a jarring reminder of winter with their coarse, unchanging green. The horses neighed as they entered the forest and were visibly heated.

Pyotr the footman said something to the coachman; the coachman assented. But apparently the coachman's sympathy was not enough for Pyotr. He turned round on the box to his master.

“Your excellency, how soft it is!” he said, smiling respectfully.

“Eh?”

“It is soft, your excellency.”

“What does he mean?” wondered Prince Andrey. “Oh, the weather, most likely,” he thought, looking from side to side. “And, indeed, everything's green already…how soon! And the birch and the wild cherry and the alder beginning to come out.…But I haven't noticed the oak. Yes, here he is, the oak!”

At the edge of the wood stood an oak. Probably ten times the age of the birch-trees that formed the bulk of the forest, it was ten times the thickness and twice the height of any birch-tree. It was a huge oak, double a man's span, with branches broken off, long ago it seemed, and with bark torn off, and seared with old scars. With its huge, uncouth, gnarled arms and fingers sprawling unsymmetrically, it stood an aged, angry, and scornful monster among the smiling birches. Only the few dead-looking, evergreen firs dotted about the forest, and this oak, refused to yield to the spell of spring, and would see neither spring nor sunshine.

“Spring and love and happiness!” that oak seemed to say. “Are you not sick of that ever-same, stupid, and meaningless cheat? Always the same, and always a cheat! There is no spring, nor sunshine, nor happiness. See yonder stand the cramped, dead fir-trees, ever the same, and here I have flung my torn and broken fingers wherever they have grown out of my back or my sides. As they have grown, so I stand, and I put no faith in your hopes and deceptions.”

Prince Andrey looked round several times at that oak as though he expected something from it. There were flowers and grass under the oak too, but still it stood, scowling, rigid, weird and grim, among them.

“Yes, he's right, a thousand times right, the old oak,” thought Prince Andrey. “Others, young creatures, may be caught anew by that deception, but we know life—our life is over!” A whole fresh train of ideas, hopeless, but mournfully sweet, stirred up in Prince Andrey's soul in connection with that oak. During this journey he thought over his whole life as it were anew, and came to the same hopeless but calming conclusion, that it was not for him to begin anything fresh, that he must live his life, content to do no harm, dreading nothing and desiring nothing.

一八○八年，亚历山大皇帝去埃尔富特城和拿破仑皇帝再次会晤，因此彼得堡上流社会中谈论许多关于这次隆重会晤的伟大意义。

一八○九年，拿破仑和亚历山大宣称，世界的两位主宰的密切联系已经达到那种程度，致使拿破仑于是年对奥宣战时，俄国军团竟前往境外协助从前的敌人波拿巴以反对从前的盟友奥地利皇帝，而且上流社会正在谈论拿破仑和亚历山大皇帝的一个妹妹可能成婚的事。但是除开对外政策而外，当时俄国社会特别深切地关注这个时期国家行政管理的各个部门中所实施的内部改革。

与此同时，生活，人们的真正生活，他们对健康、疾病、劳动、休息这些实际利益的关注，他们对思想、科学、诗歌、音乐、爱情、友谊、仇恨、激情的关注，——一切与平日无异，不以政治上与拿破仑·波拿巴亲近或敌对为转移，也不以各种可能实行的改革为转移。

安德烈公爵从不外出，在农村定居已两年。皮埃尔意欲做的那些经营领地的事业，因为不断地转换工种，没有取得任何成果，而安德烈公爵不向任何人声张，也没有花费多大的劳力，就完成了这全部事业。

他在颇大程度上赋有皮埃尔所缺乏的百折不回的实干能力，凭藉这种能力可以不吃力地促使事业进展。

他的一个拥有三百农奴的领地被改革了，农奴都变成自由庄稼人（这是俄国最初的范例之一），在其他领地，代役租制已取代徭役租制。在博古恰罗沃，他出钱函请一位有文化的接生婆，替产妇助产，神甫也领取薪水，教农民子女和仆人子女识字。

安德烈公爵在童山和父亲以及尚在保姆身边抚养的儿子一块消磨自己的一半时间，在博古恰罗沃（他父亲把它称为农村）修道院消磨自己的另一半时间。尽管他对皮埃尔表示，他对外界发生的各种重大事件漠不关心，但是他仍然尽心竭力地注视着发生的一切，他经常接到许多书籍，使他觉得惊奇的是，他发现那些于新近自彼得堡，即是从生活的漩涡中前来访问他或者访问他父亲的人，在熟谙对内对外政策方面，远远落后于他这个待在农村足不出户的人。

除开领地方面的业务之外，除开浏阅各种书籍之外，这时安德烈公爵还批判地分析我军最近两次不利的战役，并且制订有关修改我们的军事条令和决议的草案。

一八○九年春天，安德烈公爵前往由他监护的儿子名下的梁赞领地。

他坐在四轮马车上，晒晒初春的太阳，不时地望望最早放青的野草，最先出现的白桦树叶和一团团在明朗的蔚蓝色的天空中飘浮的初春的白云。他什么也不思考，只是用那愉快的茫然目光向四下观望。

他们驶过了渡口，即是他和皮埃尔一年前在那里谈话的渡口。他们驶过了肮脏的村庄、打谷场、绿荫、下坡路、桥边的积雪、一层粘土已被冲洗的上坡路、一段段茬地、有的地方已经发绿的灌木林，驶进了沿着道路两旁蔓生的白桦树林。树林里几乎很热，听不到一点风声。白桦树长满粘粘的绿叶，没有在风中颤动，最早发青的小草和浅紫色的花朵从去年的败叶底下钻出来了。矮小的枞树不知散布在桦树林中的什么地方，长出一簇簇常绿的粗粗的叶子，令人不悦意地联想起冬天。几匹马儿走进树林里，都打着响鼻，可以更加明显地看出，身上开始出汗了。

仆役彼得对马车夫说了一句什么话，马车夫作了肯定的回答。看来彼得心里觉得马车夫光表示赞同还是不够的，他在马车夫的坐位上向老爷转过身来。

“大人，这多么畅快！”他恭敬地面露笑容说。

“什么！”

“大人，这多么畅快。”

“他在说什么？”安德烈公爵想了想。“对，他想必是说春天，”他环顾四周，想道，“而且什么都放青了……多么快啊！无论是桦树、稠李、还是赤杨都已经开始……可是没有看见橡树，瞧，这就是橡树。”

路边有一株橡树。它大概比那长成树林的桦树老九倍，粗九倍，比每株桦树高一倍。这是一棵两抱粗的大橡树，有许多树枝看来早就折断了，裂开的树皮满布着旧的伤痕。它那弯曲多节的笨拙的巨臂和手指不对称地伸开，它这棵老气横秋的、鄙夷一切的畸形的橡树耸立在笑容可掬的桦树之间。唯独它不欲屈从于春日的魅力，不欲目睹春季，亦不欲目睹旭日。

“春季、爱情和幸福呀！”这棵橡树好像在说话，“总是一样愚蠢的毫无意义的欺骗，怎能不使您们觉得厌恶啊！总是老样子，总是骗局！既没有春季，也没有旭日，也没有幸福啊！你们看，那些永远是孤单的被压死的枞树还栖在那里，我也在那里伸开我那被折断的、被剥皮肤的手指，无论手指从哪里——从背脊或从肋部——长出来，不管怎样长出来，我还是那个样子，我不相信你们的冀望和欺骗。”

安德烈公爵在经过森林时，接连有几次回过头来看这棵橡树，好像对它有所期待似的。橡树底下也长着花朵和野草，但是它仍然皱着眉头，一动不动地，像个畸形儿屹立在它们中间。

“是啊，它是正确的，这颗橡树千倍地正确，”安德烈公爵想道。“让其他的年轻人又去受骗吧，不过我们是知道人生的，——我们的一生已经完结了！”由于这棵老橡树的关系，又有一序列绝望的、但都是忧喜掺半的思想在安德烈公爵的心灵中出现了。在这次旅行中，他仿佛又考虑到自己的一生，并得出从前那种于心无愧的、无所指望的结论，他无须从头做起，既不为非作歹，也不自我惊扰，不怀抱任何欲望，应该好好地度过一辈子。