Preparations

Ah, Anatole

Where are you off to?

Pierre, good man,

Tonight I go away, on an adventure

You'll not be seeing me for some time

I've found a new pleasure

And I'm taking her away

I'll send you a letter from Poland

Ha! An elopement!

Fool, you are married already!

Don't talk to me of that!

I will not deprive myself of this one

Tonight!

I take her tonight! Lend me fifty rubles?

Ah, that's a true sage

Living in the moment

What I wouldn't give to be like him

♪

The plan for Natalie Rostova's abduction

Had all been arranged

And the preparations made

On the day that Sonya decided to save her,

That was the day

That the game was to be played

Natasha was to be on her back porch at ten,

Anatole and his troika

Would scoop her up, and then

They'd ride forty miles

To the village of Kamenka,

Where an unfrocked priest

Was to make them get wed

Then back into the troika, off they'd go—

Take the Poland highroad

To the wedding bed

Passports, horses, Ten-thousand rubles I have taken from my sister

And another ten-thousand

Raised with Dolokhov's help

We were gathered in my study,

drinking up some tea,

Just Anatole,

The two wedding witnesses, and me

An abacus and paper money

Strewn on the desk

Persian rugs and bearskins hanging grotesque

Anatole was walking

With his uniform unbuttoned,

Walking to and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro,

To and fro

Now, wait!

You better just

Give it up now,

Why don't you?

While there's still time!

You'd really better drop it all

Give it up, now,

While there's still time!

Do you know—

What, teasing again?

Fool don't talk nonsense!

Go to the devil! Eh? Really!

This is no time for your stupid jokes!

I am not joking, I am talking sense

This is serious business,

A dangerous business

Come here, come here,

Come here, Anatole!

Why would I joke about it,

Me of all people?

Who found the priest,

Raised the money,

Got the passports,

Got the horses?

And well I thank you for it,

Do you think that I am not grateful?

And now you'll carry her away,

But will they let it stop there?

You haven't thought this through,

Or do you just don't care?

Now listen to me tell it to you one last time,

They will take you to the court

And convict you for your crime

Already married

And you're playing with a little girl

Don't you know,

Don't you think,

Don't you know?

Nonsense, nonsense!

I'm scowling and grimacing

Didn't I explain it to you,

Didn't I, what?

And here, Anatole,

With the stubborn attachment

Small-minded people have

For conclusions they've worked out

For themselves

Repeated his argument to me for the

Hundredth time

If this marriage isn't valid,

Then I'm off the hook,

But if it is valid,

It really doesn't matter—

No one abroad is gonna know a thing about it,

Isn't that so, now, don't you know?

Don't talk to me,

Don't, don't

What, what!

Ah, go to hell, now,

I'm a-clutching my hair

It's the very devil!

Here, feel how it beats!

Ah, mon cher, mon cher,

Quel pied, quel regard!

What a foot she has,

A glance!

A goddess!

And my handsome lips

Mutter something tender to myself

It's time,

It's time!

Now then! Nearly ready?

You're dawdling!

The driver is here

The driver is here

Balaga is here!