Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven Ivan's Dual Personality

The pine forest on the other side of the river, which an hour before had been alive in the bright May sun, was now dimmed and blurred, and then completely dissolved into whiteness. Water poured down from the window.The sky cracked open from time to time, bursting out silver lines.The patient's room is illuminated at intervals by flickering flashes of light, disturbingly. Ivan Nikolayevich sat alone on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the muddy, boiling, white-bubbling river outside the window, weeping softly.Every time there was a thunder, he could not help covering his face with his hands and wailing.Sheets of paper that he had written so densely were scattered on the floor, blown off by a gust of wind before the thunderstorm.

The poet wanted to write a report on the dreaded foreign adviser, but he couldn't get it done.As soon as the stout doctor Praskovya Fedorovna brought him paper and pencil ends, he rubbed his hands solemnly, and at once sat down at the table to write.The first few lines were written very quickly: "Report. Comrade in charge of the police station.Reporter: Member of 'Mo Wenlian', Ivan Nikolaevich Homeless. Yesterday I went to the Patriarch's Lake with the late M. A. Berlioz..." As soon as I wrote this, the poet's thoughts became confused, mainly because the three words "deceased" were obviously unreasonable: how could he "come together" with the deceased?Dead people don't run around in the streets!Really, don't they really think me crazy for that!

After pondering for a while, he began to rewrite: "I and M. A. Berlioz, who died later, came to..." He was not satisfied with this plan, so he drew up a third plan: "... ...I came with Berlioz who was run over by a tram..." But he felt that this was not as good as the first two, and there was a problem with the musician of the same name that no one knew about, so he added "no Musician's "that" words... The two Berliozes confused the poet, so he simply erased them all.He decided to start writing again, trying to catch the reader's attention from the very beginning.He first described how the black cat jumped onto the tram, and then he wrote about the severed head.The severed head and the prophecy of the foreign adviser reminded him of Pontius Pilate, so he decided to add to his persuasiveness by including the whole story about Pilate in his report, from Pilate wearing a blood-red lining The moment when the white cloak appeared on the colonnade of Herod's palace.

Ivan wrote intently, sometimes ticking out a few sentences, and sometimes adding something.He even included in his report a portrait of Pontius Pilate and a black cat walking on its hind legs.But the illustrations did not help the report much, and the further the poet went on, the more incoherent and incomprehensible the report became. When the frightening black clouds with white smoke appeared in the distant sky, and when the black clouds enveloped the pine forest on the opposite bank, and a gust of wind blew into the room, Ivan was exhausted and felt powerless to write this report.He didn't pick up the pieces of paper that fell to the ground, and wept quietly and sadly.

Praskovya Fedorovna, a kind-hearted doctor, saw the storm and thunder outside, and came in to have a look.Seeing the poet crying, she panicked, and hurriedly drew the curtains to prevent the lightning from disturbing the patient.She picked up the papers on the floor and ran out to the doctor with them. The doctor is here.He gave Ivan an injection in the arm and told Ivan that he would not cry any more and that everything would pass and be forgotten. The doctor's words were really good.After a while, the pine forest on the other side of the river returned to its original appearance. Under the clean blue sky, every tree could be seen clearly, and the river flowed quietly as before.After the injection, Ivan's sad mood began to improve. He is now lying quietly on the bed, looking out the window at the rainbow hanging across the blue sky.

He lay like this until evening, not even noticing when the long rainbow disappeared, when the sky faded and became gray, and how the pine forest on the other side turned into a black patch. After drinking a cup of hot milk, Ivan lay down again.He was secretly surprised by the change in his mood.He felt that the hateful demon cat in his memory was no longer so annoying, and the image of the severed human head was not so scary anymore.After getting rid of these terrible thoughts, Ivan began to think calmly: In fact, staying in this hospital is not bad. Stravinsky is smart and famous, and it is very pleasant to deal with him.What's more, the rain is over and the sky is clear, and the evening air is so fresh, sweet and refreshing.

The entire mental hospital is falling asleep.The corridor was quiet, the white frosted glass lights were off, and only the small light blue night lights with soft light were on according to regulations.Outside the door, the footsteps of female doctors walking softly on the rubberized floor became rarer and rarer. Ivan lay lazily on the bed, happy in his heart, sometimes looking at the soft light lampshade on the ceiling, sometimes looking at the bright moon rising behind the black pine forest outside the window, thinking to himself: "Actually, Berlioz was run over by a tram, why am I so excited? Say a thousand, say ten thousand, who is he! Who is he to me? Am I related to him or is there a reason?! If you really think about it, It's not hard to see that I don't really know this man very well. Indeed, what do I know about him? All I know is that he's bald and very eloquent, that's all! Besides, fellow citizens," Ivan seemed to be addressing to whom He continued to think as if speaking, "Let's analyze it again, please explain: why should I be so angry with that mysterious consultant, that magician and professor who has nothing in one eye and bottomless black eye? ? Why did I foolishly chase him in underpants, holding a candle? Why did I play such a ridiculous play in the restaurant afterwards?"

"No, no, no," suddenly the old Ivan spoke sharply to the new Ivan again from nowhere—perhaps from the heart, perhaps in the ear, "Berlioz's head will be cut off. , that person knew this beforehand!! How can this not be exciting?" "That goes without saying, comrade!" new Ivan retorted old Ivan, "even a child knows that there is a ghost here. It's an extraordinary mysterious figure, that's right, absolutely true. But that's the most interesting thing." He met Pontius Pilate in person. Come to think of it, what could be more interesting? If I didn't go around so suspiciously by the Lake of the Patriarchs, but asked him respectfully. Wouldn't it have been wiser for Lado and the captured Nazarene to follow?

"But me, who knows what I did! It seems that the most important event in the world is that a tram ran over and killed a magazine editor! So what if he was run over? Will the magazine stop publishing? Originally, what could be done, people always Mortal, and, as he says, often sudden. Well, let him go to heaven! Then there will be another editor in chief, perhaps more eloquent than the first." The new Ivan took a nap, and then asked the old Ivan in a sarcastic tone: "So, what part did you play in this matter?" "Played a bastard!" a bass voice answered affirmatively from somewhere.The voice was not from any Ivan, it was very much like the bass voice of the counselor at Patriarch Lake.

I don't know why Ivan was not angry when he heard the word "bad boy", but was surprised and delighted; he smiled dimly and stopped talking.Oneiroi quietly walked towards Ivan, he seemed to see some palm trees as thick as elephant legs, and saw a big cat running past in front of him, but its appearance was not scary, it was very pleasant... Anyway , Ivan was about to fall asleep.At this time, the iron fence outside the window suddenly retreated silently, and a mysterious person appeared in the moonlight shadow on the balcony, and he raised a finger to threaten Ivan. Ivan boldly sat up from the bed.He saw: a man was standing on the balcony, the man looked at him, put a finger on his lips, and said softly:

"Hush!"