Collage 175

All of us who have read the book always comment on the following passage. I'm not sure if the page I used in the original text is the same as this quote, but close enough. At some point I stopped noting in my Pevear/Volokhonkky edition.

"There was nothing over him now except the sky -- the lofty sky, not clear, but still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds slowly creeping across it. 'How quiet, calm, and solemn, not at all like when I was running,' thought Prince Andrei, 'not like when we were running, shouting, and fighting; not at all like when the Frenchman and the artillerist, with angry and frightened faces, were pulling at the swab -- it's quite different the way the clouds creep across this lofty, infinite sky. How is it I haven't seen this lofty sky before? And how happy I am that I've finally come to know it. Yes! everything is empty, everything is a deception, except this infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing except that. But there is not even that, there is nothing except silence, tranquility. And thank God!...'

I am a student of Buddhism and this so beautifully describes some of the deeper teachings. Tolstoy has many death scenes in his other books and they have always made a big impression on me. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 357-358 of original text
collage, acrylic paint, stamp
made 7/23/10