ONE MORNING Colonel Adolphe Berg, whom Pierre knew just as he knew every one in Moscow and Petersburg, called upon him. —
一天早上，阿多尔夫·贝格上校来拜访皮埃尔，正如他认识莫斯科和圣彼得堡的每个人一样。 —

He was wearing a brand-new uniform, and had his powdered locks standing up over his forehead, as worn by the Tsar Alexander Pavlovitch.
他穿着一套崭新的制服，头发粉笔般地竖立在额头上，就像亚历山大·巴甫洛维奇沙皇一样。

“I have just been calling on the countess, your spouse, and to my misfortune, my request could not be granted. —
“我刚刚拜访了你的妻子女伯爵，可惜我的请求没有得到满足。 —

I hope I shall be more fortunate with you, count,” he said, smiling.
我希望在你这里能更加幸运，伯爵，”他笑着说。

“What is it you desire, colonel? I am at your disposal.”
“你有什么事情需要，上校？我随时待命。

“I am by now, quite settled in my new quarters,” Berg informed him with perfect conviction that to hear this fact could not but be agreeable; —
“我已经安顿下来了，”贝格自信地告诉他，他的这个事实听起来一定很令人愉快。 —

“and so I was desirous of giving a little soirée for my friends and my spouse. —
“所以我想为我的朋友和妻子举办一个小型的晚会。 —

” (He smiled still more blandly.) “I meant to ask the countess and you to do me the honour to come to us for a cup of tea, and … to supper.”
” （他的微笑更加和蔼。） “我打算请女伯爵和你光临我们喝杯茶，还有……吃晚饭。”

Only the Countess Elena Vassilyevna, who considered it beneath her to associate with nobodies like the Bergs, could have had the cruelty to refuse such an invitation. —
只有埃琳娜·瓦西里耶芙娜女伯爵，认为和伯格这样的无名小卒交往是低贱的，才能如此残忍地拒绝这样的邀请。 —

Berg explained so clearly why he wanted to gather together a small and select company at his new rooms; —
伯格清楚地解释了为什么他想在他的新房间聚集一个小而精选的团体; —

and why it would be agreeable to him to do so; —
以及为什么这对他来说是令人愉快的事情; —

and why he would grudge spending money on cards, or anything else harmful; —
为什么他会勉强花钱在纸牌或其他有害的东西上; —

but was ready for the sake of good society to incur expense, that Pierre could not refuse, and promised to come.
但出于对良好社交的考虑，彼得不得不答应了，并承诺会去。

“Only not late, count, if I may venture to beg. Ten minutes to eight, I venture to beg. —
“只是不要太晚，伯爵，如果我敢请求的话。八点前十分钟，我敢请求。 —

We will make up a party for boston. Our general is coming; he is very kind to me. —
我们要组织一场东方战争的聚会。我们的将军要来了，他对我非常友善。 —

We will have a little supper, count, so I shall esteem it an honour.”
我们会准备一点晚餐，伯爵，这样我会非常荣幸。”

Contrary to his usual habit (he was almost always late) Pierre arrived at the Bergs’ not at ten minutes to eight, but at a quarter to eight.
与他通常的习惯相反（他几乎总是迟到），彼得不是在八点前十分钟，而是在八点前十五分钟到达了伯格家。

The Bergs had made all necessary preparations for their little party, and were quite ready to receive their guests.
伯格一家为他们的小聚会做了一切必要的准备，并且很准备好接待客人。

Berg and his wife were sitting in a new, clean, light study, furnished with little busts and pictures and new furniture. —
伯格和他的妻子坐在一间新的、干净、明亮的书房里，里面摆满了小半身像和画作以及新家具。 —

Berg, with his new uniform closely buttoned up, sat beside his wife, and was explaining to her that one always could and ought to cultivate the acquaintance of people above one—for only then is there anything agreeable in acquaintances. —
伯格穿着他的新制服，扣得很紧，坐在他妻子旁边，给她讲解说，一个人总是能够并且应该培养与自己高出一筹的人的熟人关系，只有这样才会有愉快的交往。 —

“You pick up something, you can put in a word for something. —
你的言行举止会给你带来一些好处，你可以为某些事物说上一句话。 —

Look at me now, how I used to manage in the lower grades (Berg reckoned his life not by years but by promotions). —
看看我现在，我过去在低级别的时候是如何管理的（伯格不是按年数，而是按晋升来计算他的生活）。 —

“My comrades are nothing still, while I’m a lieutenant-colonel. —
我的同僚还什么都不是，而我已经是一名中校了。 —

I have the happiness of being your husband” (he got up and kissed Vera’s hand, but on the way turned back the corner of the rug, which was rucked-up). —
我有成为你丈夫的幸福（他站起来亲吻了维拉的手，但在离开时把褶皱起来的地毯翻了过来）。 —

“And how did I obtain all this? Chiefly by knowing how to select my acquaintances. —
我是如何获得这一切的呢？主要是通过懂得选择自己的熟人关系。 —

It goes without saying, of course, that one has to be conscientious and punctual in the discharge of one’s duties.”
不言自明，当然，在履行职责时要有责任感和守时。

Berg smiled with a sense of his own superiority over a mere weak woman, and paused, reflecting that this charming wife of his was, after all, a weak woman, who could never attain all that constituted a man’s dignity,—ein Mann zu sein. —
伯格自鸣得意地微笑着，他觉得自己比一个纯弱女子更出色，同时他反思着，他迷人的妻子，终究是一个纯弱女子，无法达到体现一个男人尊严的一切——ein Mann zu sein。 —

Vera smiled, too, at the same time with a sense of her superiority over her conscientious, excellent husband, who yet, like all men, according to Vera’s ideas of them, took such a mistaken view of life. —
维拉也微笑着，同时她觉得自己比她尽责优秀的丈夫更优越，尽管按照维拉对他们的看法，所有的男人都对生活有着如此错误的观点。 —

Berg, judging from his wife, considered all women weak and foolish. —
根据他妻子的表现，伯格认为所有的女人都是软弱愚蠢的。 —

Vera, judging from her husband only, and generalising from her observation of him, supposed that all men ascribed common-sense to none but themselves, and at the same time had no understanding for anything, and were conceited and egoistic.
维拉则只根据她丈夫，并从对他的观察加以归纳，认为所有的男人除了自己以外都不讲常识，同时对任何事情都没有理解力，自负而自私。

Berg got up, and cautiously embracing his wife so as not to crush the lace bertha, for which he had paid a round sum, he kissed her just on her lips.
伯格站了起来，小心翼翼地拥抱着妻子，以免弄皱了他花了一大笔钱买的花边领巾，他只在她的唇上亲了一下。

“There’s only one thing: we mustn’t have children too soon,” he said, by a connection of ideas of which he was himself unconscious.
“只有一件事：我们不要太快要孩子，”他说，他自己不知道是怎么想到这一点的。

“Yes,” answered Vera, “I don’t at all desire that. We must live for society.”
“是的，”维拉回答道，”我一点也不想要孩子。我们必须为社会而活。”

“Princess Yusupov was wearing one just like that,” said Berg, pointing with a happy and good-humoured smile to the bertha.
“尤苏波夫公主也戴着这样的,“伯格指着那个花边领巾高兴而和善地笑着说。

At that moment they were informed that Count Bezuhov had arrived. —
就在那时，有人通知他们贝祖霍夫伯爵已经到了。 —

Both the young couple exchanged glances of self-satisfaction, each mentally claiming the credit of this visit.
年轻夫妇互相交换了满意的眼神，每个人心里都认为自己功劳最大，为这次访问负责。

“See what comes of knowing how to make acquaintances,” thought Berg. “See what comes of behaving properly!”
“看看会人脉广泛的好处，”伯格心想。”看看行为得体的好处!”

“But, please, when I am entertaining guests,” said Vera, “don’t you interrupt me, because I know with what to entertain each of them, and what to say in the company of different people.”
“但是，请你在我招待客人的时候不要打断我，”维拉说，”因为我知道如何招待每一个人，知道在不同的人面前说些什么。”

Berg, too, smiled.
伯格也微笑着。

“Oh, but sometimes men must have their masculine conversation,” he said.
“哦，但有时候男人必须进行他们的男性谈话，”他说。

Pierre was shown into the little drawing-room, in which it was impossible to sit down without disturbing the symmetry, tidiness, and order; —
皮埃尔被领进了一个小客厅，里面坐下就不可能不打破对称、整洁和秩序； —

and consequently it was quite comprehensible, and not strange, that Berg should magnanimously offer to disturb the symmetry of the armchair or of the sofa for an honoured guest, and apparently finding himself in miserable indecision in the matter, should leave his guest to solve the question of selection. —
因此，伯格慷慨地提供打破扶手椅或沙发的对称性给一位尊贵的客人，并显然感到在这个问题上自己陷入了痛苦的犹豫不决，并把选择的问题留给了他的客人来解决。 —

Pierre destroyed the symmetry, moved out a chair for himself, and Berg and Vera promptly began their soirée, interrupting each other in their efforts to entertain their guest.
皮埃尔破坏了对称性，给自己搬了把椅子，伯格和维拉迅速开始他们的晚会，彼此打断对方，努力取悦他们的客人。

Vera, deciding in her own mind that Pierre ought to be entertained with conversation about the French Embassy, promptly embarked upon that subject. —
维拉在心里决定皮埃尔应该被关于法国大使馆的谈话所娱乐，立即着手这个话题。 —

Berg, deciding that masculine conversation was what was required, interrupted his wife’s remarks by reference to the question of war with Austria, and made an unconscious jump from that general subject to personal considerations upon the proposal made him to take part in the Austrain campaign, and the reasons which had led him to decline it. —
伯格决定需要男性对话，所以他打断了妻子的发言，转到了与奥地利战争的问题，并不自觉地跳到了关于自己参与奥地利战役以及拒绝的原因的个人考虑。 —

Although the conversation was extremely disconnected, and Vera resented the intervention of the masculine element, both the young people felt with satisfaction that although only one guest was present, the soirée had begun very well, and that their soirée was as like every other soirée as two drops of water,—with the same conversation and tea and lighted candles.
尽管对话非常零碎，维拉对男性成分的干预感到不满，但两个年轻人都满意地感到，虽然只有一个客人，晚会已经很好地开始了，他们的晚会与其他任何晚会都一样——有相同的对话、茶和点燃的蜡烛。

The next to arrive was Boris, an old comrade of Berg’s. —
接下来到达的是伯格的老战友鲍里斯。 —

There was a certain shade of patronage and condescension in his manner to Berg and Vera. After Boris came the colonel and his lady, then the general himself, then the Rostovs, and the soirée now began to be exactly, incontestably, like all other soirées. —
他对伯格和维拉的态度有一种特定的赞扬和居高临下的色彩。在鲍里斯之后，来的是上校和他的夫人，然后是将军本人，接着是罗斯托夫一家，现在的晚会开始变得正是象所有其他的晚会一样。 —

Berg and Vera could hardly repress their smiles of glee at the sight of all this movement in their drawing-room, at the sound of the disconnected chatter, and the rustle of skirts and of curtsies. —
伯格和维拉几乎忍不住为他们的客厅里所有这一切活动而露出喜悦的微笑，为断断续续的闲聊声、衣裙的沙沙声和礼节性的鞠躬声所吸引。 —

Everything was precisely as everybody always has it; —
一切都与人人所熟悉的一模一样； —

especially so was the general, who admired their rooms, clapped Berg on the shoulder, and with paternal authority insisted on arranging the table for boston. —
尤其是将军，他欣赏他们的房间，拍了拍伯格的肩膀，以父亲般的权威坚持要为游戏牌桌安排座位。 —

The general sat by Count Ilya Andreivitch, as the guest next in precedence to himself. —
将军坐在伊利亚·安德烈维奇伯爵旁边，作为在他之后的贵宾。 —

The elderly guests were together, the younger people together, the hostess at the tea-table, on which there were cakes in the silver cake-basket exactly like the cakes at the Panins’ soirées. —
年长的客人在一起，年轻人也在一起，女主人在茶几旁，上面放着银色的蛋糕篮，里面的蛋糕与帕宁家晚会上的蛋糕完全一样。 —

Everything was precisely like what everybody else had.
每件事都如同其他人一样精确无误。