"Can this be death?" thought Prince Andrei, gazing with completely new, envious eyes at the grass, at the wormwood, and at the little stream of smoke curling up from the spinning black ball. "I can't, I don't want to die, I love life, I love this grass, the earth, the air..." He was thinking all that and at the same time remembered that he was being looked at.
"Shame on you officer!" he said to the adjutant. "What an..." He did not finish. At one and the same time there was the sound of an explosion, a whistling of splinters as if from a shattered window, a choking smell of powder-- and Prince Andrei hurtled sideways and, raising his arm, fell on his chest.
Several officers ran to him. From the right side of his stomach a large stain of blood was spreading onto the grass.
- pp. 810-11 in P/V
from page 259-260, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 5/6/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation pages 810-811
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