Chapter 36 Section five

Pnin and I have long agreed on a rather annoying but seldom-discussed matter, which is that no matter what institution you're on the faculty, you can't just find a dentist or The local postmaster, and one could find a twin in his line of work.Seriously, I know of one instance of triplets at a fairly small college, according to the discerning headmaster, Frank Reed, the central figure of the troika, which is absurd to say the least. , my lord; I still remember the late Olga Krautky telling me once, just as she, a poor lady with only half a lung, had to teach Wangchuan and Fenugreba to a war family In the language college at that time, among only about fifty teachers, besides this real and unique treasure to me, there were actually six other Puning.So even Pnin, who was so sloppy in his daily life (in his ninth year teaching at Wendell), could not help noticing a tall, thin, bespectacled old man with wisps of pedantic blue-gray hair hanging To the right of his small furrowed brow, and on either side of his pointed nose, a deep furrow ran to the corners of his long upper lip—Pnin knew this man as Professor Thomas Wayne, head of the Department of Ornithology, who had once There was talk of cheerful orioles, melancholy cuckoos, and other birds of the Russian countryside—but not necessarily Professor Wayne.On a few occasions, he seemed to have mistook someone for Professor Wayne, whom Pnin could not name, but with the grace of a foreigner's pun, he classified the man as "Twayne" (or "Twin" as Pnin pronounced it) and the like.My friend and countryman soon learned that he would never be able to figure out how many places he was on campus every other day, between the office and the classroom, between the classroom and the stairs, between the drinking fountain and the restroom, Was the owl-faced, swift-footed gentleman he met the ornithologist he had met whom he thought he should say hello to, or some other stranger who looked a lot like Wayne A casual greeting to Pnin would be followed by a slight nod out of polite habit, like anyone who had met once.This meeting lasted only a fraction of a second, because both Pnin and Wayne (or Twayne) walked fairly quickly; and sometimes Pnin would pretend to read a letter while hurrying to avoid exchanging one of these gentle barks. If he hadn't received a letter, or tried to get out of the way of his hasty oncoming colleague and tormentor, he would suddenly turn to the landing and continue down the passageway of the next floor; One day, when he was repeating his old tricks, he almost bumped into Twen (or Wen) in the passageway on the lower floor.This boredom was exacerbated by the new fall term (Pnin's tenth year on the faculty) and the change in his class schedule, which he had learned to rely on in order to avoid Wayne and his ilk as much as possible. Certain methods had to be given up.It seemed he would have to live with this forever.Thinking back to some similar situation in the past—the confusing resemblance that only he could see, Pnin, annoyed, told himself that it was of little use to ask someone else to help solve this double Tor Wayne riddle.

On the day of the treat, he was finishing a very late lunch in the Frieze Building dining room when Wayne or someone very similar to him suddenly sat down next to him, neither of whom had been there before. Here came the face, and the man said: "I've wanted to ask you something for a long time—you teach Russian, don't you? Last summer I read a magazine article about birds..." ("Wen! This is Wen!" thought Pnin, immediately aware of what a decisive step could be taken.) "...Well, the author of the article - I can't remember his name, I think he was a Russian - mentioned that in the Skov region, I hope I pronounced it correctly, the locals bake a bird-shaped Cake. Of course, it basically symbolizes the penis, I wonder if you know such a custom?"

Just then the brilliant idea flashed into Pnin's mind. "I'm at your command, sir," he said, his voice quivering in his throat with delight—for he was now quite sure that the man was undoubtedly the original bird-loving Wayne, "yes." Sir, I'm very familiar with those zhavoronki, those alouettes, those--we'll have to look up a dictionary to find its English equivalent. So I take this opportunity to ask you to come to the house tonight. Eight-thirty in the afternoon. A little The party when you move into the new house, nothing else. Please bring your wife with you—or, don’t you be a bachelor of hearts?”

(Alas, pun-loving Pnin!) The other party said he was not married yet.He is more than willing to come.Where is the address? "No. 999, Tao De Road, easy to remember! It's at the top end of that Lu (road), where it connects with the cliff (wall) and Dajun (street). A small (small) turn (Brick) house, behind there is a Da (Dahe) (black) cliff (wall)."