WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:05.960 Section thirteen of we featuring Records twenty six and twenty seven. 2 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:10.519 This is LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the 3 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:14.519 public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit 4 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:21.879 LibriVox dot org. Wei by Yevgen Nizamitan, translated by Gregory Zilberg, 5 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:27.399 Record twenty six. The World does exist rash forty one 6 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:34.320 degrees centigrade morning through the ceiling. The sky is as usual, firm, round, 7 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:37.200 red cheeked. I think I should have been less surprised 8 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:41.640 had I found above some extraordinary quadrangular sun, or people 9 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:45.240 clad in many colored dresses made of the skins of animals, 10 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:49.679 or opaque walls of stone. Then the world, our world 11 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:54.039 does still exist? Or is it only inertia? Is the 12 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:57.439 generator already switched out while the armature is still roaring 13 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:01.359 and revolving? Two more revolutions or three? And at the 14 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:04.480 fourth will it die away? Are you familiar with that 15 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.719 strange state in which you wake up in the middle 16 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:09.480 of the night, open your eyes into the darkness, and 17 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:12.159 then suddenly feel you are lost in the dark. You 18 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:15.799 quickly quickly begin to feel around, to seek something familiar 19 00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:19.480 and solid, a wall, a lamp a chair in exactly 20 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:22.400 the same way I felt around. Seeking in the Journal 21 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:26.719 of the United States. Quickly, quickly I found this. The 22 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:30.239 celebration of the day of Unanimity, long awaited by all, 23 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:33.760 took place yesterday. The same well doer, who so often 24 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:37.799 proved his unshakable wisdom was unanimously re elected for the 25 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:41.599 forty eighth time. The celebration was clouded by a little 26 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:45.560 confusion created by the enemies of happiness, who, by their 27 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:48.480 action naturally lost the right to be the bricks for 28 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:51.959 the foundation of the renovated United State. It is clear 29 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:55.560 to everybody that to take into consideration their votes would 30 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:59.680 mean to consider as a part of a magnificent, heroic symphony, 31 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:02.719 the accidental cough of a sick person who happened to 32 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:06.799 be in the concert hall. Oh, great sage, is it 33 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:11.000 really true that despite everything we are saved? What objection 34 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:15.199 indeed can one fine to this most crystalline silologism? And 35 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:19.560 further on a few more lines. Today, at twelve o'clock, 36 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:23.599 a joint meeting of the Administrative Bureau, Medical Bureau, and 37 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:27.520 Bureau of Guardians will take place. An important state decrees 38 00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:32.080 to be expected shortly no The walls still stand erect. 39 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:35.560 Here they are I can feel them, and that strange 40 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:39.360 feeling of being lost somewhere, of not knowing where I am, 41 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:42.800 that feeling is gone. I am not surprised any longer 42 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:45.560 to see the sky blue and the sun round, and 43 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:49.080 all the numbers going to work as usual. I walked 44 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:52.879 along the avenue with a particularly firm, resounding step. It 45 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:55.719 seemed to me that everyone else walked exactly like me. 46 00:02:56.439 --> 00:02:59.439 But at the crossing, on turning the corner, I noticed 47 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:03.120 people rangely shying away going around the corner of a 48 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:06.280 building sidewise, as if a pipe had burst in the wall, 49 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:09.000 as if cold water were spurting like a fountain on 50 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:12.560 the sidewalk, and it was impossible to cross it. Another 51 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:15.280 five or ten steps, and I too felt a spurt 52 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:17.960 of cold water that struck me and threw me from 53 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.599 the sidewalk at a height of approximately two meters. A 54 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:25.280 quadrangular piece of paper was pasted to the wall, and 55 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:30.879 on that sheet of paper unintelligible poisonously green letters methy 56 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:34.840 and under the paper an S like curved back and 57 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:38.680 wing ears shaking with anger or emotion. His right arm 58 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:42.479 lifted as high as possible his left arm hopelessly stretched 59 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:45.319 out backwards like a hurt wing. He was trying to 60 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:47.879 jump high enough to reach the paper and tear it off, 61 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:50.360 but he was unable to do so. He was a 62 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.759 fraction of an inch too short. Probably every one of 63 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:56.639 the passers by had the same thought. If I go 64 00:03:56.759 --> 00:03:59.680 to help him, I only one of the many. Will 65 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.039 he not think that I am guilty of something, and 66 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:05.759 that I am therefore anxious to I must confess. I 67 00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:09.000 had that thought, But remembering how many times he had 68 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:12.199 proved my real guardian angel, and how often he had 69 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:15.520 saved me, I stepped towards him, and with courage and 70 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:18.480 warm assurance, I stretched out my hand and tore off 71 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:22.800 the sheet. S turned around. The little drill sank quickly 72 00:04:22.839 --> 00:04:26.120 into me to the bottom, and found something there. Then 73 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.360 he lifted his left brow winked towards the wall where 74 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:32.040 MEPhI had been hanging a minute ago. The tail of 75 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:35.199 his little smile twinkled even with a certain pleasure, which 76 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:38.920 greatly surprised me. But why should I be surprised? A 77 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:42.600 doctor always prefers a temperature of forty degrees centigrade and 78 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:46.240 a rash to the slow languid rise of temperature during 79 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:49.480 the period of incubation of a disease. It enables him 80 00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:52.680 to determine the character of the disease. MEPhI broke out 81 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:55.439 to day on the walls like a rash I understood 82 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:59.720 his smile. In the passage to the underground whaleway under 83 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:02.439 our feet, on the clean glass of the steps, again 84 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:05.839 a white sheet, Mefi. And also on the walls of 85 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:08.560 the tunnel, and on the benches, and on the mirror 86 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:11.800 of the car, apparently pasted on in some haste, as 87 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:14.879 some were hanging on a slant. Everywhere the same white, 88 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:19.279 gruesome rash I must confess that the exact meaning of 89 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.680 that smile became clear to me only after many days, 90 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:26.639 which were overfilled with the strangest and most unexpected events. 91 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:30.720 The roaring of the wheels, distinct in the general silence, 92 00:05:31.079 --> 00:05:34.000 seemed to be the noise of infected streams of blood. 93 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:37.480 Some number was inadvertently touched on the shoulder, and he 94 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:40.079 started so that a package of papers fell out of 95 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:43.480 his hands. To my left, another number was reading a paper, 96 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:46.959 his eyes fixed always on the same line. The paper 97 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:51.279 perceptibly trembled in his hands. I felt that everywhere, in 98 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:54.920 the wheels, in the hands, in the newspapers, even in 99 00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:58.519 the eyelashes, the pulse was becoming more and more rapid. 100 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.639 And I thought it probable that today, when I three 101 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:05.680 thirty and I should find ourselves there, the temperature would 102 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:10.199 rise to thirty nine forty perhaps forty one degrees. And 103 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:15.800 at the docks the same silence filled with the buzzing 104 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:19.839 of an invisible propeller. The lays were silent, as if brooding. 105 00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:25.079 Only the cranes were moving, almost inaudibly, as if on tiptoe, gliding, 106 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:28.480 bending over, picking up with their tentacles the lumps of 107 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:31.959 frozen air, and loading the tanks of the integral. We 108 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:36.079 were already preparing the Integral for a trial flight. Well 109 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:38.399 shall we have her up in a week? This was 110 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:41.399 my question addressed to the second builder. His face is 111 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:45.040 like porcelain, painted with sweet blue and tender pink flowers, 112 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:48.480 eyes and lips. But today those little flowers looked faded 113 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:51.800 and washed out. We were counting aloud when suddenly I 114 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:54.000 broke off in the midst of a word, and stopped 115 00:06:54.279 --> 00:06:57.839 my mouth wide open above the cupola, above the blue 116 00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:01.720 lump lifted by the crane there's a scarcely noticeable, small 117 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:07.120 white square. I felt my whole body trembling, perhaps with laughter. Yes, 118 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:10.319 I myself heard my own laughter. Did you ever hear 119 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:14.800 your own laughter? No, listen, I said, Imagine you're in 120 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:18.480 an ancient aeroplane. The altimeter shows five thousand meters a 121 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:21.240 wing breaks. You're dashing down like and on the way 122 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:25.800 you calculate tomorrow from twelve to two, from two to six, 123 00:07:26.199 --> 00:07:30.040 and dinner at five. Would it not be absurd? The 124 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:33.160 little blue flowers began to move and bulge out. What 125 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:35.160 if I were made of glass and you could have 126 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:37.360 seen what was going on within me at that moment? 127 00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:40.519 If he knew that, some three or four hours later, 128 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:48.079 record twenty seven no headings, it is impossible. I was 129 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:51.759 alone in the endless corridors. In those same corridors, a 130 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:56.199 mute concrete sky water was dripping somewhere upon a stone, 131 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:00.240 the familiar, heavy, opaque door and the subdued noise from 132 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:03.759 behind it. She said she would come out at sixteen sharp. 133 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:07.800 It was already five minutes, and then ten, then fifteen, 134 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:12.000 pasted sixteen. No one appeared for a second. I was 135 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:14.800 my former self horrified at the thought that the door 136 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:17.839 might open five minutes more, and if she does not 137 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:21.759 come out, water was dripping somewhere upon a stone, no 138 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:26.920 one about. With melancholy pleasure. I felt saved, and slowly 139 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:30.279 I turned and walked back along the corridor, the trembling 140 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:32.879 dots of the small lamps. When the ceiling became dimmer 141 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:36.480 and dimmer. Suddenly a quick rattle of a door behind me, 142 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:39.960 quick steps softly echoing from the ceiling and the walls. 143 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:43.279 It was she, light as a bird, panting somewhat from running. 144 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:46.200 I knew you would be here, you would come. I 145 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:50.720 knew you you. The spears of her eyelashes moved apart 146 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:53.559 to let me in. And how can I describe what 147 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:57.879 effect that ancient, absurd and wonderful right has upon me? 148 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:01.519 When her lips touched mine? Can I find a formula 149 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:07.039 to express that whirlwind which seeps out of my soul, everything, everything, 150 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:11.480 save her? Yes, yes, from my soul. You may laugh 151 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:14.519 at me if you will. She made an effort to 152 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:17.559 raise her eyelids, and her slow words, too came with 153 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:21.679 an effort. No, now we must go. The door opened, 154 00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:26.879 old worn steps, an unbearably multi colored noise whistling in 155 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:31.679 light twenty four hours have passed since then, and everything 156 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:34.240 seems to have settled in me. Yet it is most 157 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:37.679 difficult for me to find words for even unapproximate description. 158 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:41.080 It is as though a bomb had exploded in my head. 159 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:47.440 Open mouths, wings, shouts, leaves, words, stones, all these one 160 00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:51.200 after another in a heap. I remember my first thought 161 00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:54.559 was fast back. But it was clear to me that 162 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:58.159 while I was waiting there in the corridors, they somehow 163 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:02.080 had blasted and destroyed the green Wall, and from behind 164 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:06.480 it everything rushed in and splashed over our city, which 165 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:09.440 until then had been kept clean of that lower world. 166 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:12.320 I must have said something of this sort to I 167 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.600 three thirty. She laughed, No, we have simply come out 168 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:19.840 beyond the green wall. Then I opened my eyes, and 169 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:23.240 close to me, actually I saw those very things which 170 00:10:23.320 --> 00:10:26.759 until then not a single living number had ever seen, 171 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:31.240 otherwise than depreciated a thousand times, dimmed and hazy through 172 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:34.720 the cloudy glass of the wall. The sun it was 173 00:10:34.759 --> 00:10:38.639 no longer our light evenly diffused over the mirror surface 174 00:10:38.679 --> 00:10:42.559 of the pavements. It seemed like an accumulation of living fragments, 175 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:47.320 of incessantly oscillating dizzy spots which blinded the eyes, and 176 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:51.440 the trees like candles rising into the very sky, or 177 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:54.799 like spiders which squatted upon the earth, supported by their 178 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:58.720 clumsy paws, or like mute green fountains. And all this 179 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:03.120 was moving, jump, rustling. Under my feet, some strange little 180 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.600 ball was crawling. I stood as though rooted to the ground. 181 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:09.519 I was enabled to take a step because under my 182 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:13.559 foot there was not even a plane, but imagine something 183 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:22.200 disgustingly soft, yielding, living, springy green. I was dazed. I 184 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:26.639 was strangled. Yes, strangled, it is the best word to 185 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:30.639 express my state. I stood, holding fast with both hands 186 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:34.000 to a swinging branch. It is nothing, It is all right, 187 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:37.559 it is natural. For the first time, it will pass 188 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:41.360 courage at I three point thirty side, bouncing dizzily on 189 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:45.600 a green net. Someone's thinnest profile cut out of paper. No, 190 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:50.279 not someone's. I recognized him. I remembered it was the doctor. 191 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:54.480 I understood everything very clearly. I realized that they both 192 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:58.240 caught me beneath the arms and laughingly dragged me forward. 193 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:05.279 My legs twisted. It glided, terrible noise, cawing stumps, yelling branches, 194 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:10.960 tree trunks, wings, leaves, whistling, the trees ran apart a 195 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:15.159 bright clearing. In the clearing, people, or perhaps, to be 196 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:19.639 more exact, beings, now comes the most difficult part to describe, 197 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:23.559 For this was beyond any bounds of probability. It is 198 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:25.799 clear to me now my I three point thirty was 199 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:29.600 stubbornly silent about it before. I should not have believed it, 200 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:32.559 should not have believed even her. It is possible that 201 00:12:32.600 --> 00:12:35.679 tomorrow I shall not believe myself, shall not believe my 202 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:39.840 own description in these pages. In the clearing around a 203 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:43.320 naked skull like rock, a noisy crowd of three or 204 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:48.320 four hundred people, well, let's call them people. I find 205 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:52.120 it difficult to coin new words. Just as on the stands, 206 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:56.000 you recognize in the general accumulation of faces only those 207 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.240 which are familiar to you. So at first I recognized 208 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:03.240 only our gish blue unifs. But one second later and 209 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:09.519 I saw distinctly and clearly among the unifs dark red, golden, black, brown, 210 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:14.120 and white humans. Apparently they were humans. None of them 211 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:17.039 had any clothes on, and their bodies were covered with short, 212 00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:19.840 glistening hair, like that which may have been seen on 213 00:13:19.879 --> 00:13:23.639 the stuffed horse in the prehistoric museum. But their females 214 00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:27.559 had faces exactly, just exactly like the faces of our women, 215 00:13:28.039 --> 00:13:32.440 tender rosy and not overgrown with hair. Also, their breasts 216 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:36.200 were free of hair, firm breasts, of wonderful geometrical form. 217 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:39.320 As to the males. Only a part of their faces 218 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:42.720 were free from hair like our ancestors, and the organs 219 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:47.480 of reproduction similar to ours. All of this was so unbelievable, 220 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:52.440 so unexpected, that I stood there quietly. I assert positively 221 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:56.440 that I stood quietly and looked around like a scale. 222 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:00.600 Overload one side sufficiently, and then you made put on 223 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:02.960 the other as much as you will, the arrow will 224 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:07.279 not move. Suddenly I felt alone. I three thirty was 225 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:10.039 no longer with me. I don't know how nor where 226 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:14.399 she disappeared. Around me were only those with their hair 227 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:18.639 glistening like silk in the sunlight. I caught someone's warm, strong, 228 00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:22.440 dark shoulder. Listen, please, in the name of the well doer, 229 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:25.000 could you tell me where she went? Awhile a minute ago, 230 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:30.679 she long haired, austere eyebrows turned towards me. Sh sh silence. 231 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:33.639 He made a sign with his head towards the center 232 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:37.919 where there stood the yellow skull like stone there above 233 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:41.200 the heads of all. I saw her. The sun beat 234 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:44.279 straight into my eyes, and because of that, she seemed 235 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:47.600 coal black, standing out on the blue cloth of the sky, 236 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:52.320 a coal black silhouette on a blue background. A little higher, 237 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:55.600 the clouds were floating, and it seemed that not the clouds, 238 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.000 but the rock itself, and she herself upon that rock, 239 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:03.039 and the crowd and the clearing all were silently floating 240 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:06.600 like a ship, and the earth was light and glided 241 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:12.039 away from under the feet. Brothers, it was she, Brothers. 242 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.399 You all know that there inside the wall in the city, 243 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.960 they are building the Integral. And you know also that 244 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:21.600 the day has come for us to destroy that wall 245 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:24.879 and all other walls, so that the green wind may 246 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:28.360 blow all over the earth from end to end. But 247 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:31.440 the Integral is going to take these walls up into 248 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:34.679 the heights, to the thousands of other worlds, which every 249 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:37.720 evening whisper to us with their lights through the black 250 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:42.159 leaves of night. Waves and foam and wind were beating 251 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:47.279 the rock down with the Integral down, No, brothers, not down. 252 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:51.720 The Integral must be ours, and it shall be ours 253 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:55.080 on the day when it first sets sail into the sky. 254 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:58.399 We shall be on board, for the Builder of the 255 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:01.919 Integral is with us. He left the walls. He came 256 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.960 with me here in order to be with us. Long 257 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:08.840 live the Builder. A second and I was somewhere above 258 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:14.039 everything under me heads heads, heads wide open, yelling mouths, 259 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:18.720 arms rising and falling. There was something strange and intoxicating 260 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:22.919 in it all. I felt myself above everybody. I was 261 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:27.919 I a separate world. I ceased to be the usual item. 262 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:33.399 I became unity again. I was below near the rock, 263 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:37.360 my body happy, shaken and rumpled as after an embrace 264 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:41.440 of love, sunlight, voices, and from above the smile of 265 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:46.000 I three thirty. A golden haired woman, her whole body silky, 266 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.639 golden and diffusing an odor of different herbs, was nearby. 267 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:53.799 She held a cup apparently made of wood. She drank 268 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:55.919 a little from it with her red lips, and then 269 00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:59.440 offered the cup to me. I closed my eyes, and 270 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:03.080 with a vide, I drank the sweet, cold, prickly sparks, 271 00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:05.920 pouring them down on the fire which burned within me. 272 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:10.759 Soon afterward, my blood and the whole world began to 273 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:14.359 circulate a thousand times faster. The earth seemed to be 274 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:18.400 flying light as down and within me everything was simple, 275 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:22.680 light and clear. Only then I noticed on the rock 276 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:28.559 the familiar, enormous letters MEFI, and for some reason the 277 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:32.920 inscriptions seemed to me necessary. It seemed to be a 278 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:38.039 simple thread binding everything together. A rather rough picture hewn 279 00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:42.799 in the rock, this too seemed comprehensible. It represented a 280 00:17:42.839 --> 00:17:46.160 youth with wings and with a transparent body, and in 281 00:17:46.200 --> 00:17:50.319 the place ordinarily occupied by the heart, a blinding red, 282 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:56.200 blazing coal. Again I understood that coal or no, I 283 00:17:56.359 --> 00:17:59.920 felt it as I felt, without hearing every word of eye. 284 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:04.119 She continued to speak from above from the rock, and 285 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:06.960 I felt that all of them breathed one breath, and 286 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:09.480 that they were all ready to fly somewhere, like the 287 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:13.839 birds over the wall. From behind, from the confusion of 288 00:18:13.880 --> 00:18:18.319 breathing bodies, a loud voice. But this is folly. It 289 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:20.559 seems to me that it was I. Yes, I am 290 00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:23.160 certain it was I who then jumped on the rock, 291 00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:26.160 and from there I saw the sun heads a green 292 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:30.279 sea on a blue background, and I cried, yes, yes, precisely, 293 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:34.119 all must become insane. We must become insane as soon 294 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:38.319 as possible, we must. I know it. I three thirty 295 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:42.160 was at my side, her smile, two dark lines from 296 00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:45.559 the angles of her mouth, directed upward, and within me 297 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:51.599 a blazing coal. It was momentary light, a little painful, beautiful, 298 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:55.480 and later only stray fragments that remained sticking in me, 299 00:18:56.279 --> 00:18:59.240 very low and slowly. A bird was moving. I saw 300 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:02.359 it was living like me. It was turning its head 301 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:04.319 now to the right and then to the left like 302 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:07.839 a human being, and its round black eyes screwed themselves 303 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:11.880 into me. Then a human back glistening with fur the 304 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.400 color of ancient ivory. A mosquito crawling on that back, 305 00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:19.319 a mosquito with tiny transparent wings. The back twitched to 306 00:19:19.400 --> 00:19:23.279 chase the mosquito away. It twitched again, and yet another thing, 307 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:27.359 a shadow from the leaves, a woven netlike shadow. Some 308 00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:30.839 lay in that shadow, chewing something, something similar to the 309 00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:34.240 legendary food of the ancients, a long yellow fruit and 310 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:36.799 a piece of something dark. They put some of it 311 00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:39.240 in my hand, and it seemed droll to me, for 312 00:19:39.319 --> 00:19:41.240 I did not know whether I might eat it or not. 313 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:47.240 And again a crowd heads, legs, arms, mouths, faces, appearing 314 00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:51.119 for a second and then disappearing like bursting bubbles. For 315 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:54.039 a second, appeared or perhaps it was only a hallucination. 316 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:58.240 The transparent flying wing ears. With all my might, I 317 00:19:58.279 --> 00:20:00.759 pressed the hand of I three thirty. She turned to me. 318 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:05.720 What is the matter? He is here? I thought, I whew. Yes. 319 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:09.119 A second ago in the crowd, the ends of the 320 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:13.519 thin coal black brows moved the temples a smile, like 321 00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:17.400 a sharp triangle. I could not see clearly why she smiled? 322 00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:21.799 How could she smile? But you understand I three thirty. 323 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:25.279 Don't you? You understand what it means if he or 324 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:29.160 one of them is here? He were funny. How could 325 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:31.480 it ever enter the heads of those within the wall 326 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:35.039 that we are here? Remember, take yourself, did you ever 327 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:38.200 think it was possible? They are busy hunting us there? 328 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:43.279 Let them? You were delirious. Her smile was light and cheerful, 329 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:49.680 and I too was smiling, And the earth was drunken, cheerful, light, floating. 330 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:54.240 End of section thirteen.