'War and Peace,' a tome, a slog, the sort of book you shouldn't read in bed
《战争与和平》是一部巨著，也是一部呕心沥血的作品，它并不是一本枕边书，
because if you fall asleep, it could give you a concussion, right? Only partly.
因为如果你打算睡了，它会冲击你的心灵，不是吗？不过，这也只是对一部分人来说。
'War and Peace' is a long book, sure, but it's also a thrilling examination of history,
《战争与和平》确实是一本很厚的书，但它精彩地展现了历史，
populated with some of the deepest, most realistic characters you'll find anywhere.
书中充满了现实、却不乏深刻的人物。
And if its length intimidates you, just image how poor Tolstoy felt.
如果读这个大部头令你止步，可以想象托尔斯泰写它时将多么痛苦。
In 1863, he set out to write a short novel about a political dissident returning from exile in Siberia.
1863年，托尔斯泰本来打算写一本关于政见不合的短篇小说，此时他刚从西伯利亚流亡回来。
Five years later, he had produced a 1,200 page epic featuring love stories,
5年后，他洋洋洒洒写了1200页，这部著作中包含了爱情故事、
battlefields, bankruptcies, firing squads, religious visions, the burning of Moscow, and a semi-domesticated bear,
战争、经济破产、消防队员、宗教、莫斯科大火以及半驯化的熊，
but no exile and no political dissidents. Here's how it happened.
但是书中并未讲到流亡和政见不合。其原因如下。
Tolstoy, a volcanic soul, was born to a famously eccentric aristocratic family in 1828.
托尔斯泰这个暴脾气的人，1828年出生于贵族家庭，此家庭以性格古怪而闻名。
By the time he was 30, he had already dropped out of Kazan University, gambled away the family fortune,
三十岁时，他从喀山大学辍学，挥霍着家族的财富，
joined the army, written memoirs, and rejected the literary establishment to travel Europe.
参了军，写了回忆录，选择去西欧旅游而不是潜心文学。
He then settled into Yasnaya Polyana, his ancestral mansion, to write about the return of the Decembrists,
他后来定居在Yasnaya Polyana，这也是他的祖居，在这里他写下了十二月党人的回归，
a band of well-born revolutionaries pardoned in 1856 after 30 years in exile.
即一群出身良好的改革分子在经历30年流放后于1856年被赦免。
But, Tolstoy thought, how could he tell the story of the Decembrists return from exile
但托尔斯泰认为，该如何描写十二月党人的结束流放，
without telling the story of 1825, when they revolted against the conservative Tsar Nicholas I?
如果不描述十二月党人在1825年对沙皇尼古拉斯二世进行的起义？
And how could he do that without telling the story of 1812, when Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia
这又不得不谈到1812年时拿破仑对俄罗斯的入侵事件，
helped trigger the authoritarianism the Decembrists were rebelling against?
触发了十二月党人所反对的专制主义。
And how could he tell the story of 1812 without talking about 1805,
而描述1812年则需要描述1805年，
when the Russians first learned of the threat Napoleon posed after their defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz?
当时俄罗斯在奥斯特里茨战役中失败，从而开始感受到拿破仑的威胁。
So Tolstoy began writing, both about the big events of history and the small lives that inhabit those events.
因此，托尔斯泰决定了他既要描写历史上的重要事件，也要描写历史洪流中小人物的生活。
He focused on aristocrats, the class he knew best.
他把目标放在自己熟悉的贵族阶层。
The book only occasionally touches on the lives of the vast majority of the Russian population,
书中只是偶尔涉及到俄罗斯的普通大众，
who were peasants, or even serfs, farmers bound to serve the owners of the land on which they lived.
其中包括农民，甚至农奴，这些人在当时不得不为地主服务。

'War and Peace' opens on the eve of war between France and Russia.
《战争与和平》的故事以法俄战争前夕为开始。
Aristocrats at a cocktail party fret about the looming violence,
鸡尾酒会上的贵族们为逼近的战事而担忧，
but then change the topic to those things aristocrats always seem to care about: money, sex, and death.
但话题迅速转向贵族们一向关注的问题：钱、色、死亡。
This first scene is indicative of the way the book bounces between the political and personal over an ever-widening canvas.
书的第一节也暗示了在一个前所未有的宏大背景下，情节同时在政治和个人两方面展开。
There are no main characters in 'War and Peace.'
《战争与和平》中并没有主角。
Instead, readers enter a vast interlocking web of relationships and questions.
相反，读者们会看到一张巨大的关系和问题交错的网。
Will the hapless and illegitimate son of a count marry a beautiful but conniving princess?
那个不幸的私生子能够娶到美丽但却骄纵的公主吗？
Will his only friend survive the battlefields of Austria?
他唯一的朋友能够在战争中活下来吗？
And what about that nice young girl falling in love with both men at once?
那个对两个男人一见钟情的年轻女孩又会如何呢？
Real historical figures mix and mingle with all these fictional folk,
真实的历史人物和虚构的形象彼此交叉，
Napoleon appears several times, and even one of Tolstoy's ancestors plays a background part.
拿破仑在书中出现数次，托尔斯泰的祖先甚至都在书中扮演了角色。
But while the characters and their psychologies are gripping,
尽管人物及其心理描写扣人心弦，
Tolstoy is not afraid to interrupt the narrative to pose insightful questions about history.
托尔斯泰并不担心打断原有的叙述，而提出深刻的、关于历史的问题。
Why do wars start? What are good battlefield tactics?
为什么战争会爆发？什么是好的战场战术？
Do nations rise and fall on the actions of so-called great men like Napoleon,
伟大人物，例如拿破仑，是否决定了国家的兴亡，
or are there larger cultural and economic forces at play?
还是说更大的文化和经济力量起着决定作用？
These extended digressions are part of what make 'War and Peace' so panoramic in scope.
这些延伸出的题外话也成就了这本巨著，使其拥有更加宏大的格局。
But for some 19th century critics, this meant 'War and Peace' barely felt like a novel at all.
但19世纪的一些评论认为，很难说《战争与和平》是一部小说。
It was a 'large, loose, baggy monster,' in the words of Henry James.
Henry Jame认为这是“大块头、松散、拖沓的怪物。”
Tolstoy, in fact, agreed. To him, novels were a western European form.
事实上，托尔斯泰也承认这点。于他而言，小说是西欧的一种文学形式。
Russian writers had to write differently because Russian people lived differently.
而俄罗斯人民的生活方式和西欧不同，这使得俄罗斯作家需要做出改变。
'What is 'War and Peace'?' he asked.
他自问“什么是《战争与和平》？”
'It is not a novel. Still less an epic poem. Still less a historical chronicle.
“它并不是部小说，也不像一部史诗，也不是编年体历史。
'War and Peace' is what the author wanted and was able to express in the form in which it was expressed.'
它是作者用一种能够表达的题材去表达他想要、并且能够表达的内容。
It is, in other words, the sum total of Tolstoy's imaginative powers, and nothing less.
换句话说，这是托尔斯泰全部的想象力，仅此而已。
By the time 'War and Peace' ends, Tolstoy has brought his characters to the year 1820,
《战争与和平》结尾时，书中的时间已经回溯到1820年，
36 years before the events he originally hoped to write about.
这比托尔斯泰最初设想的1856年早了36年。
In trying to understand his own times, he had become immersed in the years piled up behind him.
在试图了解自己所处的时代的情况下，他沉浸于背后多年的历史。
The result is a grand interrogation into history, culture, philosophy, psychology, and the human response to war.
结果成就一场伟大的诘问，涉及历史、文化、哲学、心理和人对于战争的反应。