WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:05.719 Chapter one of Death in Venice by Thomas Mahnn. On 2 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:10.119 a spring afternoon of the year nineteen blank, when our 3 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:14.320 continent lay under such threatening weather for whole months, Gustav 4 00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:19.359 Oschenbach or Fawn Oschenbach, as his name read officially, after 5 00:00:19.399 --> 00:00:23.440 his fiftieth birthday, had left his apartment on the Prince 6 00:00:23.559 --> 00:00:27.879 Regentinstrasse in Munich and had gone for a long walk 7 00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:31.920 Overwrought by the trying and precarious work of the forenoon, 8 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:37.280 which had demanded a maximum wariness, prudence, penetration, and rigor 9 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:40.479 of the will, the writer had not been able, even 10 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:43.399 after the noon meal, to break the impetus of the 11 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:49.640 productive mechanism within him, that motus animi continuous, which constitutes, 12 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:54.600 according to Cicero, the foundation of eloquence. And he had 13 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:58.359 not attained the healing sleep, which, what with the increasing 14 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:01.439 exhaustion of his strength, he kneaded in the middle of 15 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:05.239 each day. So he had gone outdoors soon after tea, 16 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:08.920 in the hopes that air and movement would restore him 17 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:12.920 and prepare him for a profitable evening. It was the 18 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:17.280 beginning of May, and after cold, damp weeks, the false 19 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:21.799 Midsummer had set in the English gardens, although the foliage 20 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:25.640 was still fresh and sparse, were as pungent as in August, 21 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:28.799 and in the parts nearer the city had been full 22 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:33.640 of conveyances and promenaders. At the Almeister, which he had 23 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:38.319 reached by quieter and quieter paths, Achenbach had surveyed for 24 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:42.640 a short time the Verstgarden, with its lively crowds and 25 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:46.439 its border of cabs and carriages. From here, as the 26 00:01:46.519 --> 00:01:50.400 sun was sinking, he had started home outside the park 27 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:54.640 across the open fields, and since he felt tired and 28 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:58.319 a storm was threatening from the direction of feeling, he 29 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:01.599 waited at the North Cemetery for the tram which would 30 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:05.239 take him directly back to the city. It happened that 31 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:08.000 he found no one in the station or its vicinity. 32 00:02:08.599 --> 00:02:11.199 There was not a vehicle to be seen, either on 33 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:16.560 the paved ungr Strasse with its solitary glistening rails stretching 34 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:22.240 out towards Schwabing, or on the fillinger Shau Sea. Behind 35 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:26.759 the fences of the Stonemason's establishments, where the crosses, memorial 36 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:31.960 tablets and monuments standing for sale formed a second uninhabited 37 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.240 burial ground. There was no sign of life and opposite him, 38 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:40.240 the Byzantine structure of the funeral hall lay silent in 39 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:44.719 the reflection of the departing day, its facade ornamented in 40 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:49.599 luminous colors with Greek crosses and hieratic paintings, above which 41 00:02:49.639 --> 00:02:55.039 were displayed inscriptions symmetrically arranged in gold letters and texts 42 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:59.039 chosen to bear on the life beyond, such as they 43 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:02.400 enter into the dwelling of the Lord, or the light 44 00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:06.840 of eternity shall shine upon them. And for some time 45 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:10.840 as he stood waiting, he found a grave diversion in 46 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:14.400 spelling out the formulas and letting his mind's eye lose 47 00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:19.560 itself in the transparent mysticism. When returning from his reveries, 48 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:23.800 he noticed in the portico above the two apocalyptic animals 49 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:28.199 guarding the steps the man, whose somewhat unusual appearance gave 50 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:32.159 his thoughts an entirely new direction. Whether he had just 51 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:35.439 now come out from the inside through the bronze door, 52 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:41.960 or had approached and mounted from the outside unobserved, remained uncertain. Aschenbach, 53 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:46.520 without applying himself especially to the matter, was inclined to 54 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:51.800 believe the former of medium height, thin, smooth shaven, and 55 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.560 noticeably pug nosed, the man belonged to the red haired 56 00:03:55.680 --> 00:04:01.199 type and possessed the appropriate fresh milky complexion. Obviously, he 57 00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:04.919 was not of Bavarian extraction, since at least the white 58 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:08.400 and straight brimmed straw hat that covered his head gave 59 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:12.000 his appearance the stamp of a foreigner, of someone who 60 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:15.280 had come from a long distance. To be sure, he 61 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:19.720 was wearing the customary knapsack strapped across his shoulders and 62 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:23.240 a belted suit of rough yellow wool. His left arm 63 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:26.759 was resting on his thigh, and his gray storm cape 64 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:30.160 was thrown across it. In his right hand, he held 65 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:33.079 a cane with an iron ferule, which he had struck 66 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:37.279 diagonally into the ground, and with his feet crossed, was 67 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:40.800 leaning his hip against the crook. His head was raised 68 00:04:41.079 --> 00:04:44.360 so that the Adam's apple protruded hard and bare on 69 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:48.199 a scrawny neck emerging from a loose sport shirt, and 70 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.680 he was staring sharply off into the distance with colorless, 71 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:56.439 red lidded eyes, between which stood two strong vertical wrinkles 72 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:01.680 peculiarly suited to his short, turned up nose. Thus, and 73 00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:05.879 perhaps his elevated position helped to give the impression. His 74 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:10.560 bearing had something majestic and commanding about it, something bold 75 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:14.439 or even savage. For whether he was grimacing because he 76 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:17.399 was blinded by the setting sun, or whether it was 77 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:21.279 a case of a permanent distortion of the physiognomy, his 78 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:24.800 lips seemed too short. They were so completely pulled back 79 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:28.399 from his teeth that these were exposed even to the gums, 80 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:32.800 and stood out white and long. It is quite possible 81 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:38.160 that Aushenbach, in his half distracted, half inquisitive examination of 82 00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:42.639 the stranger, had been somewhat inconsiderate, For he suddenly became 83 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:47.279 aware that his look was being answered, and indeed so militantly, 84 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.720 so straight in the eye, so plainly, with the intention 85 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:54.000 of driving the thing through to the very end, and 86 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:58.519 compelling him to capitulate that he turned away uncomfortably and 87 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:02.879 began walking along by the fences, deciding casually that he 88 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:06.759 would pay no further attention to the man. The next minute, 89 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:10.560 he had forgotten him. But perhaps the exotic element in 90 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:14.720 the stranger's appearance had worked on his imagination, or a 91 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:18.600 new physical or spiritual influence of some sort had come 92 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:22.800 into play. He was quite astonished to note the peculiar 93 00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:27.319 inner expansion, a kind of roving unrest, a youthful longing 94 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:31.639 after far off places, a feeling so vivid, so new, 95 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:35.680 or so long dormant and neglected that with his hands 96 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:38.839 behind his back and his eyes on the ground, he 97 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:42.279 came to a sudden stop and examined into the nature 98 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:46.639 and purport of this emotion. It was the desire for travel, 99 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:50.920 nothing more, although to be sure, it had attacked him 100 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:54.839 violently and was heightened to a passion, even to the 101 00:06:54.879 --> 00:07:00.920 point of an hallucination. His yearnings crystallized. His imagination, still 102 00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:04.480 in ferment from his hours of work, actually pictured all 103 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.120 the marbles and terrors of a manifold world which it 104 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:12.319 was suddenly struggling to conceive. He saw a landscape, a 105 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:17.680 tropical swamp land under a heavy, murky sky, damp, luxuriant 106 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:22.759 and enormous, a kind of prehistoric wilderness of islands, bogs, 107 00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:27.279 and arms of water sluggish with mud. He saw near 108 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:30.839 him and in the distance, the hairy shafts of palms 109 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:34.600 rising out of a rank, lecherous thicket, out of places 110 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:38.879 where the plant life was fat, swollen, and blossoming exorbitantly. 111 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:43.399 He saw strangely misshapen trees, sending their roots into the 112 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:49.000 ground into stagnant pools with greenish reflections. And here between 113 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:52.639 floating flowers which were milk white and large as dishes, 114 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:57.000 birds of a strange nature, high shouldered with crooked bills, 115 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:01.800 were standing in the muck and looking motionless to one side. 116 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:05.680 Between dense knotted stalks of bamboo, he saw the glint 117 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:08.759 from the eyes of a crouching tiger, and he felt 118 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:13.160 his heart knocking with fear and with puzzling desires. Then 119 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:16.240 the image disappeared, and with a shake of his head, 120 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.680 Aschenbach resumed his walk along past the fences of the 121 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:25.879 Stonemason's establishments. Since the time, at least when he could 122 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:29.279 command the means to enjoy the advantages of moving about 123 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:33.840 the world as he pleased, he had considered traveling simply 124 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.919 as an hygienic precaution which must be complied with now 125 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:42.519 and then, despite one's feeling and one's preferences. Too busy 126 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:45.080 with the tasks arranged for him by his interest, in 127 00:08:45.159 --> 00:08:48.480 his own ego and in the problems of Europe, too 128 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.480 burdened with the onus of production, too little, prone to diversion, 129 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:55.960 and in no sense an amateur of the varied amusements 130 00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:59.279 of the great world. He had been thoroughly satisfied with 131 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.519 such knowledge of the Earth's surface as any one can 132 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:06.080 get without moving far out of his own circle, and 133 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.879 he had never even been tempted to leave Europe, especially 134 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.320 now that his life was slowly on the decline, and 135 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:17.240 that the artist's fear of not having finished this uneasiness 136 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.879 lest the clock run down before he had done his 137 00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:24.399 part and given himself completely, could no longer be waived. 138 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:28.120 Aside as mere whim. He had confined his outer existence 139 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:32.759 almost exclusively to the beautiful city which had become his home, 140 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.120 and to the rough country house which he had built 141 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:40.600 in the mountains, and where he spent the rainy summers. Further, 142 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:44.039 this thing, which had laid hold of him so belatedly 143 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:48.879 but with such suddenness, was very readily moderated and adjusted 144 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:52.039 by the force of his reason and of a discipline 145 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:56.320 which he had practiced since youth. He had intended carrying 146 00:09:56.360 --> 00:09:59.840 his life work forward to a certain point before he 147 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.159 moving to the country, and the thought of knocking about 148 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:06.399 the world for months and neglecting his work during this 149 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:10.639 time seemed much too lax and contrary to his plans. 150 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:15.039 It really could not be considered seriously. Yet he knew 151 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:18.879 only too well what the reasons were for this unexpected temptation. 152 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:22.799 It was the urge to escape, he admitted to himself, 153 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:26.639 this yearning for the new and the remote, this appetite 154 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:31.799 for freedom, for unburdening, for forgetfulness. It was a pressure 155 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:34.879 away from his work, from the steady drudgery of a 156 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:39.279 coldly passionate service. To be sure, he loved this work, 157 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:42.919 and almost loved the innovating battle that was fought daily 158 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:47.600 between a proud, tenacious will, so often tested, and this 159 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:51.399 growing weariness, which no one was to suspect, and which 160 00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:55.399 must not betray itself in his productions by any sign 161 00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:59.279 of weakness or negligence. But it seemed wise not to 162 00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:03.360 draw the bow overtightly, and not to strangle by sheer 163 00:11:03.399 --> 00:11:08.679 obstinacy so strongly persistent an appetite. He thought of his work, 164 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:12.000 thought of the place at which, yesterday and now again 165 00:11:12.039 --> 00:11:15.039 to day he had been forced to leave off, and 166 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:18.799 which it seemed would yield neither to patience and coaxing, 167 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:23.240 nor to a definite attack. He examined it again, trying 168 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:26.600 to break through or to circumvent the dedlock, but he 169 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:29.919 gave up with a shudder of repugnance. There was no 170 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:34.120 unusual difficulty here. What balked him were the scruples of 171 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:39.320 aversion which took the form of a fastidious insatiability. Even 172 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:42.720 as a young man, this insatiability had meant to him 173 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:46.679 the very nature, the fullest essence of talent, and for 174 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:51.200 that reason he had restrained and chilled his emotions, since 175 00:11:51.240 --> 00:11:54.440 he was aware that they inclined to content themselves with 176 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:59.120 a happy approximation, a state of semi completion. Were these 177 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:03.440 enslaved emotions now taking their vengeance on him by leaving 178 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:06.720 him in the lurch, by refusing to forward and lubricate 179 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:10.639 his art, And were they bearing off with them every enjoyment, 180 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:15.440 every live interest in form and expression. Not that he 181 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:18.919 was producing anything bad. His years gave him at least 182 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:22.519 this advantage that he felt himself at all times in 183 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.320 full and easy possession of his craftsmanship. But while the 184 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:29.960 nation honored him for this, he himself was not content, 185 00:12:30.519 --> 00:12:33.080 and it seemed to him that his work lacked the 186 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:37.279 marks of that fiery and fluctuating emotionalism which is an 187 00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:41.120 enormous thing in one's favor, and which, while it argues 188 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:44.879 an enjoyment on the part of the author, also constitutes 189 00:12:45.159 --> 00:12:48.799 more than any depth of content, the enjoyment of the amateur. 190 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:52.000 He feared the summer in the country, alone in the 191 00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:55.360 little house, with the maid who prepared his meals and 192 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:58.399 the servant who brought them to him. He feared the 193 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:01.559 familiar view of the mountain peak and the slopes which 194 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:06.600 would stand about him, and his boredom and his discontent. Consequently, 195 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:09.320 there was need of a break in some new direction. 196 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:13.360 If the summer was to be endurable and productive, he 197 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:17.279 must attempt something out of his usual orbit. He must relax, 198 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:20.519 get a change of air, bring an element of freshness 199 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:24.720 into the blood to travel. Then that much was settled. 200 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:28.600 Not far, not all the way to the tigers, but 201 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:31.360 one night on the sleeper and a rest of three 202 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:34.279 or four weeks at some pleasant resort in the south. 203 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:37.799 He thought this out while the noise of the electric 204 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:42.039 tram came nearer along the Ungler Strasse, and as he 205 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:45.440 boarded it he decided to devote the evening to the 206 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:49.639 study of maps and timetables. On the platform, it occurred 207 00:13:49.720 --> 00:13:52.120 to him to look around for the man in the 208 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:56.879 straw hat his companion during that most significant time spent 209 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:01.480 waiting at the station, but his whereabouts remas uncertain, as 210 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:03.759 he was not to be seen either at the place 211 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:07.200 where he was formerly standing, or anywhere else in the 212 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:13.279 vicinity of the station, or on the car itself. End 213 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:19.000 of chapter one, Chapter two, the author of that lucid 214 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:22.799 and powerful prose epic built around the life of Frederick 215 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:27.919 of Prussia, the tenacious artist, who, after long application, wove 216 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:32.320 rich varied strands of human destiny together under one single 217 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:37.000 predominating theme in the fictional tapestry known as Maya, the 218 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:40.480 creator of that stark tale which is called the Wretch, 219 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:44.720 and which pointed out for an entire oncoming generation the 220 00:14:44.840 --> 00:14:50.519 possibility of some moral certainty beyond pure knowledge. Finally the writer, 221 00:14:51.080 --> 00:14:54.200 and this sums up briefly the works of his mature 222 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:58.000 period of the impassioned Treatise on Art and the Spirit, 223 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:03.279 whose capacity for mustering facts and further whose fluency in 224 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:08.639 their presentation led cautious judges to place this treatise alongside 225 00:15:08.679 --> 00:15:14.799 Schiller's conclusions on naive and sentimental poetry. Gustav Aschenbach, then 226 00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:18.039 was the son of a higher law official and was 227 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:22.320 born in El, a leading city in the province of Silesia. 228 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:28.440 His forebears had been officers, magistrates, government functionaries, men who 229 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:32.519 had led severe, steady lives, serving their king, their state. 230 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:36.759 A deeper strain of spirituality had been manifest in them 231 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:40.639 once in the person of a preacher. The preceding generation 232 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:44.559 had brought a brisker, more sensuous blood into the family 233 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.240 through the author's mother, daughter of a bohemian bandmaster. The 234 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:53.080 traces of foreigness in his features came from her. A 235 00:15:53.159 --> 00:15:58.200 marriage of sober, painstaking conscientiousness with impulses of a darker, 236 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:02.240 more fiery nature had an artist as its result, and 237 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:07.080 this particular artist, since his whole nature was centered around 238 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:12.159 acquiring a reputation, he showed himself, if not exactly precocious, 239 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:16.720 at least thanks to the firmness and pithiness of his personality. 240 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.879 His accent ripened and adjusted to the public at an 241 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:24.840 early age, almost as a schoolboy, he had made a 242 00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:28.320 name for himself. Within ten years he had learned to 243 00:16:28.360 --> 00:16:31.360 face the world through the medium of his writing table 244 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:35.960 to discharge the obligations of his fame in a correspondence which, 245 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:40.159 since many claims are pressed on the successful, the trustworthy 246 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:43.279 had to be brief as well as pleasant, and to 247 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:47.720 the point at forty wearied by the vicissitudes and the 248 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:50.440 exertion of his own work, he had to manage a 249 00:16:50.519 --> 00:16:54.240 daily mail which bore the postmarks of countries in all 250 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:58.360 parts of the world, equally removed from the banal and 251 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:02.919 the eccentric. His talents were so constituted as to gain 252 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.359 both the confidence of the general public and the stable 253 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:10.160 admiration and sympathy of the critical. Thus, even as a 254 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:14.720 young man continually devoted to the pursuit of craftsmanship and 255 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:17.920 that of no ordinary kind, he had never known the 256 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:21.960 careless freedom of youth. When around thirty five years of 257 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:25.400 age he had been taken ill in Vienna, one sharp 258 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:29.400 observer said of him in company, you see Aschenbach has 259 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:33.799 always lived like this. And the speaker contracted the fingers 260 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:37.440 of his left hand into a fist, never like this, 261 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:41.079 and he let his open hand droop comfortably from the 262 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:45.359 arm of his chair. That hit the mark and the heroic. 263 00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:48.240 The ethical about it all was that he was not 264 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.960 of a strong constitution, and though he was pledged by 265 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:55.519 his nature to these steady efforts, he was not really 266 00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:59.720 born to them. Considerations of ill health had kept him 267 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:03.119 from attending school as a boy, and had compelled him 268 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:06.920 to receive instruction at home. He had grown up alone, 269 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:11.039 without comrades, and he was forced to realize soon enough 270 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:14.960 that he belonged to a race which often lacked not talent, 271 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:19.240 but that physical substructure which talent relies on for its 272 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:23.880 fullest fruition. A race accustomed to giving its best early 273 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:28.359 and seldom extending its faculties over the years. But his 274 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:33.319 favorite phrase was carrying through. In his novel On Frederick, 275 00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:37.279 he saw the pure apotheosis of this command, which struck 276 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:42.799 him as the essential concept of the virtuous inaction and passion. Also, 277 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:46.519 he wished earnestly to grow old, since he had always 278 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:51.359 maintained that the only artistry which can be called truly great, comprehensive, 279 00:18:51.799 --> 00:18:55.640 yes even truly admirable, is that which is permitted to 280 00:18:55.680 --> 00:19:00.480 bear fruits characteristic of each stage in human development. Since 281 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:03.839 he must carry the responsibilities of his talent on frail 282 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:07.880 shoulders and wanted to go a long way, the primary 283 00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:13.160 requirement was discipline, and fortunately, discipline was his direct inheritance 284 00:19:13.240 --> 00:19:17.200 from his father's side. By forty fifty, or at an 285 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:21.319 earlier age, when others are still slashing about with enthusiasm 286 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:25.000 and are contentedly putting off to some later date the 287 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:28.559 execution of plans on a large scale. He would start 288 00:19:28.599 --> 00:19:32.480 the day early, dashing cold water over his chest and back, 289 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:35.880 and then with a couple of tall wax candles in 290 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:40.079 silver candlesticks at the head of his manuscript, he would 291 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:42.880 pay out to his art in two or three eager, 292 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:47.759 scrupulous morning hours, the strength which he had accumulated in sleep. 293 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:52.039 It was pardonable. Indeed, it was a direct tribute to 294 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:56.279 the effectiveness of his moral scheme that the uninitiated took 295 00:19:56.319 --> 00:20:00.599 his Maya world and the massive epic machinery upon which 296 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:04.160 the life of the hero Frederick was unrolled as evidence 297 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:08.559 of long breath and sustaining power, while actually they had 298 00:20:08.599 --> 00:20:12.200 been built up layer by layer in small daily allotments, 299 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:16.480 through hundreds and hundreds of single inspirations, and if they 300 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:20.200 were so excellent in both composition and texture, it was 301 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:24.119 solely because their creator had held out for years under 302 00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:27.279 the strain of one single work, with a steadiness of 303 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:30.839 will and a tenacity comparable to that which conquered his 304 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:35.160 native province. And because finally he had turned over his 305 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:39.640 most vital and valuable hours to the problem of minute revision. 306 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:43.480 In order that a significant work of the mind may 307 00:20:43.519 --> 00:20:48.079 exert immediately some broad and deep effect, a secret relationship 308 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:52.640 or even conformity must exist between the personal destiny of 309 00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:57.440 the author and the common destiny of his contemporaries. People 310 00:20:57.480 --> 00:20:59.559 do not know why they raise a work of art 311 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:03.839 to fame. Far from being connoisseurs. They believe that they 312 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:08.200 see in it hundreds of virtues which justify so much interest. 313 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:12.839 But the true interest for their applause is an unconscious sympathy. 314 00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:18.039 Aschenbach had once stated, quite plainly in some remote place, 315 00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:21.960 that nearly everything great which comes into being does so 316 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:27.519 in spite of something, in spite of sorrow or suffering, poverty, destitution, 317 00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:33.759 physical weakness, depravity, passion, or a thousand other handicaps. But 318 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:37.319 that was not merely an observation. It was a discovery, 319 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.119 the formula of his life and reputation, the key to 320 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:44.640 his work. And what wonder then, that it was also 321 00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:49.039 the distinguishing moral trait, the dominating gesture of his most 322 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:54.720 characteristic figures. Years before, one shrewd analyst had written of 323 00:21:54.759 --> 00:21:58.119 the new hero type to which this author gave preference, 324 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:02.279 and which kept turning up variations of one sort or another. 325 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:07.440 He called it the conception of an intellectual and youthful masculinity, 326 00:22:07.960 --> 00:22:13.319 which stands motionless, haughty, ashamed, with jaw set, while swords 327 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:17.839 and spear points beset the body. That was beautiful and ingenious, 328 00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:20.759 and it was exact, although it may have seemed to 329 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:25.559 suggest too much passivity for to be poised against fatality. 330 00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:30.599 To meet adverse conditions gracefully is more than simple endurance. 331 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:35.079 It is an act of aggression, a positive triumph. And 332 00:22:35.240 --> 00:22:39.000 the figure of Sebastian is the most beautiful figure, if 333 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:41.559 not of art as a whole, at least of the 334 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:45.720 art of literature. Looking into this fictional world, one saw 335 00:22:46.119 --> 00:22:50.680 a delicate self mastery by which any inner deterioration, any 336 00:22:50.759 --> 00:22:54.839 biological decay, was kept concealed from the eyes of the world. 337 00:22:55.359 --> 00:23:00.000 A crude, vicious sensuality capable of fanning its rising passions 338 00:23:00.359 --> 00:23:04.519 into pure flame, yes, even of mounting to dominance in 339 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:08.480 the realm of beauty. A pallid weakness which draws from 340 00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:11.400 the glowing depths of the soul the strength to bow 341 00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:15.279 whole arrogant peoples before the foot of the cross, or 342 00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:19.559 before the feet of weakness itself, a charming manner maintained 343 00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:24.000 in his cold, strict service to form a false, precarious 344 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:28.279 mode of living, and the keenly enervating, melancholy and artifice 345 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:31.920 of the born deceiver to observe such trials as this 346 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:35.400 was enough to make one question whether there really was 347 00:23:35.480 --> 00:23:39.680 any heroism other than weakness, And in any case, what 348 00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:43.640 heroism could be more in keeping with the times. Gustav 349 00:23:43.720 --> 00:23:46.799 Aschenbach was the one poet among the many workers on 350 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:52.039 the verge of exhaustion, all those overburdened, used up, tenacious 351 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:56.880 moralists of production, who delicately built and destitute of means, 352 00:23:57.319 --> 00:24:00.359 can rely for a time at least on wilp power 353 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:03.960 and the shrewd husbandry of the resources to secure the 354 00:24:04.039 --> 00:24:07.920 effects of greatness. There are many such, There are the 355 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:11.440 heroes of the period, and they all found themselves in 356 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:17.359 his works. Here they were indeed upheld, intensified, applauded. They 357 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:21.440 were grateful to him, they acclaimed him. In his time, 358 00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:25.319 he had been young and raw, and misled by his age. 359 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:30.000 He had blundered in public, he had stumbled, had exposed himself. 360 00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:33.440 Both in writing and in talk. He had offended against 361 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:37.319 caution and tact, but he had acquired the dignity, which, 362 00:24:37.559 --> 00:24:41.279 as he insisted, is the innate, good and craving of 363 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:44.880 every great talent. In fact, it could be said that 364 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:49.759 his entire development had been a conscious, undeviating progression away 365 00:24:49.759 --> 00:24:54.279 from the embarrassments of skepticism and irony, and towards dignity. 366 00:24:55.359 --> 00:24:59.960 The general masses are satisfied by vigor and tangibility of treatment, 367 00:25:00.599 --> 00:25:04.720 rather than by any close intellectual processes. But youth, with 368 00:25:04.839 --> 00:25:09.160 its passion for absolute, can be arrested only by the problematical. 369 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:14.160 And Aschenbach had been absolute problematical as only a youth 370 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:17.160 could be. He had been a slave to the intellect, 371 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:21.200 had played havoc with knowledge, had ground up his seed crops, 372 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:26.640 had divulged secrets, had discredited talent, had betrayed art. Yes, 373 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:31.039 while his modelings were entertaining the faithful votaries, filling them 374 00:25:31.079 --> 00:25:35.759 with enthusiasm, making their lives more keen. This youthful artist 375 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:39.039 was taking the breath away from the generation than in 376 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:43.079 its twenties by his cynicisms on the questionable nature of art, 377 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:47.799 of artistry, itself. But it seems that nothing blunts the 378 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:51.480 edge of a noble, robust mind more quickly and more 379 00:25:51.559 --> 00:25:56.319 thoroughly than the sharp and bitter corrosion of knowledge, And certainly, 380 00:25:56.640 --> 00:26:00.480 the moody radicalism of the youth, no matter how conscious anxious, 381 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:04.920 was shallow in comparison with his firm determination as an 382 00:26:04.920 --> 00:26:08.920 older man and a master, to deny knowledge, to reject it, 383 00:26:09.200 --> 00:26:12.160 to pass it with raised head, in so far as 384 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:16.200 it is capable of crippling, discouraging, or degrading to the 385 00:26:16.279 --> 00:26:22.400 slightest degree our will, acts, feelings, or even passions. How 386 00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:25.680 else could the famous story of the Wretch be understood 387 00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:30.559 than as an outburst of repugnance against the disreputable psychologism 388 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:33.960 of the times, embodied in the figure of that soft 389 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:37.960 and stupid half clown who pilfers a destiny for himself 390 00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:43.160 by guiding his wife from powerlessness, from lusciviousness, from ethical 391 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:47.599 frailty into the arms of an adolescent, and believes that 392 00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:52.640 he may, through profundity commit vileness. The verbal pressure with 393 00:26:52.759 --> 00:26:56.440 which he here cast out the outcast announced the return 394 00:26:56.559 --> 00:27:00.400 from every moral skepticism, from all fellow feelings. With the 395 00:27:00.440 --> 00:27:03.759 engulfed it was the counter move to the laxity of 396 00:27:03.799 --> 00:27:08.240 the sympathetic principle that to understand all is to forgive all. 397 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:12.680 And the thing that was here well begun even nearly completed. 398 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:17.359 Was that miracle of reborn ingenuousness, which was taken up 399 00:27:17.400 --> 00:27:20.440 a little later in one of the author's dialogues expressly 400 00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:26.240 and not without a certain discrete emphasis strange coincidences. Was 401 00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:29.279 it as a result of this rebirth, this new dignity 402 00:27:29.400 --> 00:27:34.079 and sternness, that his feeling for beauty, a discriminating purity, 403 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:39.359 simplicity and evenness of attack, which henceforth gave his productions 404 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:43.599 such an obvious, even such a deliberate stamp of mastery 405 00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:48.480 and classicism showed an almost excessive strengthening about this time. 406 00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:53.799 But ethical resoluteness in the exclusion of science, of emancipatory 407 00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:58.920 and restrictive knowledge. Does this not in turn signify simplification, 408 00:27:59.480 --> 00:28:02.920 the reduction morally of the world to two limited terms, 409 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:08.160 and thus also a strengthened capacity for the forbidden, the evil, 410 00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:13.079 the morally impossible, And does not form have two aspects? 411 00:28:13.759 --> 00:28:17.000 Is it not moral and unmoral at once? Moral in 412 00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:21.000 that it is the result and expression of discipline but unmoral, 413 00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:25.039 and even immoral, in that, by nature it contains an 414 00:28:25.079 --> 00:28:29.720 indifference to morality, is calculated in fact, to make morality 415 00:28:29.799 --> 00:28:34.279 bend beneath its proud and unencumbered scepter. Be that as 416 00:28:34.319 --> 00:28:37.960 it may, an evolution is a destiny, And why should 417 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:41.680 his evolution, which has been upheld by the general confidence 418 00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:44.960 of a vast public, not run through a different course 419 00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:49.359 from one accomplished outside the luster and the entanglements of fame. 420 00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:54.519 Only chronic vagabondage will find it tedious and be inclined 421 00:28:54.599 --> 00:28:59.279 to scoff. When a great talent outgrows the libertine chrysalis stage, 422 00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:03.240 learn to seize upon and express the dignity of the mind, 423 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:07.960 and superimposes the formal etiquette upon a solitude which had 424 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.680 been filled with unchastened and rigidly isolated sufferings and struggles, 425 00:29:13.039 --> 00:29:15.200 and had brought all this to a point of power 426 00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:20.880 and honor among men. Further, how much sport, defiance, indulgence 427 00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:25.079 there is in the self formation of a talent. Gradually, 428 00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:31.279 something official didactic crept into Gustav Boschenbach's productions. His style 429 00:29:31.359 --> 00:29:35.200 in later life fought shy of any abruptness and boldness 430 00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:40.240 any subtle and unexpected contrasts. He inclined towards the fixed 431 00:29:40.359 --> 00:29:48.039 and standardized, the conventionally elegant, the conservative, the formal, the formulated. Nearly, and, 432 00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:52.720 as is traditionally said of Lewis fourteen, with the advancing years, 433 00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:56.440 he came to omit every common word from his vocabulary. 434 00:29:57.119 --> 00:30:01.039 And about this time it happened that the educationtional authorities 435 00:30:01.240 --> 00:30:05.440 included selected pages by him in their prescribed school readers. 436 00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:09.240 This was deeply sympathetic to his nature, and he did 437 00:30:09.240 --> 00:30:12.759 not decline when a German prince, who had just mounted 438 00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:16.079 to the throne raised the author of the Frederick to 439 00:30:16.200 --> 00:30:20.480 nobility on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. After a 440 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:24.359 few years of unrest a few tentative stopping places here 441 00:30:24.359 --> 00:30:28.200 and there, he soon chose Munich as his permanent home, 442 00:30:28.759 --> 00:30:31.839 and lived there in a state of middle class respectability, 443 00:30:32.440 --> 00:30:34.559 such as fits in with the life of the mind 444 00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:39.680 in certain individual instances. The marriage, which when still young 445 00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:43.000 he had contracted with a girl of an educated family, 446 00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:46.119 came to an end with her death. After a short 447 00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:50.160 period of happiness, he was left with a daughter, now married. 448 00:30:50.680 --> 00:30:55.119 He had never had a son, Gustav Vawn Ochenbach was 449 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:59.480 somewhat below average height, dark and smooth shaven. His head 450 00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:02.640 seemed to be too large in comparison with his almost 451 00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:07.119 dapper figure. His hair was brushed straight back, thinning out 452 00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:10.720 towards the crown, but very full about the temples and 453 00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:14.960 strongly marked with gray. It framed a high, ridged forehead. 454 00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:19.240 Gold spectacles with rimless lenses cut into the bridge of 455 00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:24.000 his bold, heavy nose. The mouth was big, sometimes drooping, 456 00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:29.640 sometimes suddenly pinched and firm. His cheeks were thin and wrinkled. 457 00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:34.160 His well formed chin had a slight cleft. This head, 458 00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:38.240 usually bent patiently to one side, seemed to have gone 459 00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:41.839 through momentous experiences, and yet it was his art which 460 00:31:41.880 --> 00:31:45.519 had produced those effects in his face, effects which are 461 00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:50.440 elsewhere the result of hard and agitated living. Behind this brow, 462 00:31:50.799 --> 00:31:54.759 the brilliant repartee of the dialog on war between Voltaire 463 00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:59.240 and the King had been born. These eyes, peering steadily 464 00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:03.160 and wearily from behind their glasses, had seen the bloody 465 00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:07.119 inferno of the lazarette in the Seven Years War. Even 466 00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.599 as it applies to the individual, art is a heightened 467 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:14.880 mode of existence. It gives deeper pleasures, It consumes more 468 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:19.039 quickly it carves into its servants faces the marks of 469 00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:23.920 imaginary and spiritual adventures, and though their external activities may 470 00:32:23.960 --> 00:32:27.480 be as quiet as a cloister, it produces the lasting 471 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:33.519 voluptuousness over refinement, fatigue, and curiosity of the nerves, such 472 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:36.920 as can barely result from a life filled with illicit 473 00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:45.920 passions and enjoyments. End of Chapter two, Chapter three, Part one. 474 00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:50.759 Various matters of a literary and social nature delayed his 475 00:32:50.920 --> 00:32:55.880 departure until about two weeks after that walk in Munich. Finally, 476 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:59.119 he gave orders to have his country house ready for 477 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:02.960 occupancy within a month and one day. Between the middle 478 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:05.799 and the end of May, he took the night train 479 00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:08.920 for Trieste, where he made a stop over of only 480 00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:12.880 twenty four hours, and embarked the following morning for Pola. 481 00:33:13.920 --> 00:33:18.039 What he was hunting was something foreigned and unrelated to himself, 482 00:33:18.359 --> 00:33:21.559 which would at the same time be quickly within reach, 483 00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:24.920 and so he stopped at an island in the Adriatic 484 00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:28.559 which had become well known in recent years. It lay 485 00:33:28.599 --> 00:33:33.200 not far off the Eastrian coast, with beautifully rugged cliffs 486 00:33:33.359 --> 00:33:38.160 fronting the open sea, and natives who dressed invariegated tatters 487 00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:42.039 and made strange sounds when they spoke. But rain and 488 00:33:42.160 --> 00:33:47.079 a heavy atmosphere, a provincial and exclusively Austrian patronage at 489 00:33:47.079 --> 00:33:51.039 the hotel, and the lack of that restfully intimate association 490 00:33:51.240 --> 00:33:54.039 with the sea which can be gotten only by a 491 00:33:54.079 --> 00:33:58.880 soft sandy beach irritated him and prevented him from feeling 492 00:33:59.079 --> 00:34:01.519 that he had found the place he was looking for. 493 00:34:02.279 --> 00:34:06.279 Something within him was disturbing him and drawing him. He 494 00:34:06.359 --> 00:34:10.360 was not sure where he studied sailing dates. He looked 495 00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:13.960 about him questioningly, and of a sudden as a thing 496 00:34:14.039 --> 00:34:18.239 both astounding and self evident. His goal was before him. 497 00:34:18.920 --> 00:34:22.599 If you wanted to reach overnight, the unique, the fabulously different, 498 00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:26.559 where did you go? But that was plain? What was 499 00:34:26.599 --> 00:34:30.000 he doing here? He had lost the trail he had 500 00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:33.199 wanted to go there. He did not delay in giving 501 00:34:33.239 --> 00:34:36.679 notice of his mistake in stopping here. In the early 502 00:34:36.719 --> 00:34:39.679 morning mist a week and a half after his arrival 503 00:34:39.719 --> 00:34:43.000 on the island, a fast motor boat was carrying him 504 00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:46.280 and his luggage back over the water to the naval port, 505 00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:49.519 and he landed there just long enough to cross the 506 00:34:49.599 --> 00:34:52.840 gangplank to the damp deck of a ship which was 507 00:34:52.920 --> 00:34:57.119 lying under steam ready for the voyage to Venice. It 508 00:34:57.239 --> 00:35:01.599 was an old hulk flying the Italian flag, decrepit, sooty 509 00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:06.400 and mournful in a cave like artificially lighted inside cabin 510 00:35:06.800 --> 00:35:11.280 where Aschenbach immediately upon boarding the ship was conducted by 511 00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:16.400 a dirty, punchbacked sailor who smirked politely. There was sitting 512 00:35:16.440 --> 00:35:20.000 behind a table, his hat cocked over his forehead and 513 00:35:20.039 --> 00:35:23.039 a cigarette stump in the corner of his mouth, a 514 00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:25.760 man with a goatee and with the face of an 515 00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:29.800 old style circus director, who was taking down the particulars 516 00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:34.880 of the passengers with professional grimaces and distributing the tickets 517 00:35:35.800 --> 00:35:40.840 to Venice. He repeated Aschenbach's request as he extended his arm, 518 00:35:41.280 --> 00:35:44.480 then plunged his pen into the pasty dregs of a 519 00:35:44.519 --> 00:35:50.639 precariously tilted ink. Well to Venice, first class, at your service, sir, 520 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:54.639 And he wrote a generous scrawl, sprinkled it with blue 521 00:35:54.679 --> 00:35:57.480 sand out of a box, let the sand run off 522 00:35:57.519 --> 00:36:01.800 into a clay bowl, folded the paper with sallow, bony fingers, 523 00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:07.440 and began writing again A happily chosen destination. He chatted 524 00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:12.679 on ah Venice, a splendid city, a city of irresistible 525 00:36:12.719 --> 00:36:16.679 attractiveness for the educated, on account of its history as 526 00:36:16.719 --> 00:36:20.840 well as its present day charms. The smooth rapidity of 527 00:36:20.840 --> 00:36:25.079 his movements and the empty words accompanying them had something 528 00:36:25.119 --> 00:36:29.280 anesthetic and reassuring about them, much as though he feared 529 00:36:29.679 --> 00:36:33.079 lest the traveler might still be vacillating in his decision 530 00:36:33.159 --> 00:36:37.079 to go to Venice. He handled the cash briskly and 531 00:36:37.280 --> 00:36:40.239 let the change fall on the spotted table cover with 532 00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:44.719 the skill of a croupier. A pleasant journey, sir, he said, 533 00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:48.599 with a theatrical bow. Gentlemen, I have the honor of 534 00:36:48.679 --> 00:36:53.119 serving you, he called out immediately after, with his arm upraised, 535 00:36:53.519 --> 00:36:56.159 and he acted as if business were in full swing, 536 00:36:56.679 --> 00:36:59.360 although no one else was there to require his attention. 537 00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:04.639 Haschenbach returned to the deck with one arm on the railing. 538 00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:08.440 He watched the passengers on board and the idlers who 539 00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:11.559 loitered about the dock waiting for the ship to sail. 540 00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:16.760 The second class passengers, men and women, were huddled together 541 00:37:16.840 --> 00:37:20.320 on the fore deck, using boxes and bundles as seats. 542 00:37:20.920 --> 00:37:23.519 A group of young people made up the travelers on 543 00:37:23.559 --> 00:37:27.360 the first deck, clerks from Pola, it seemed, who had 544 00:37:27.400 --> 00:37:30.880 gathered in the greatest excitement for an excursion to Italy. 545 00:37:31.400 --> 00:37:36.800 They made a considerable fuss about themselves and their enterprise, chattered, laughed, 546 00:37:37.079 --> 00:37:41.119 enjoyed their own antics self contentedly, and leaning over the 547 00:37:41.159 --> 00:37:46.199 hand rails, shouted flippantly and mockingly at their comrades, who, 548 00:37:46.239 --> 00:37:49.800 with portfolios under their arms, were going up and down 549 00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:53.920 the water front on business and kept threatening the picnickers 550 00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:57.960 with their canes. One in a bright yellow summer suit 551 00:37:58.159 --> 00:38:01.760 of ultra fashionable cut, with a red necktie and a 552 00:38:01.840 --> 00:38:06.360 rakishly tilted panama, surpassed all the others in his crowing 553 00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:09.800 good humor. But as soon as Aschenbach looked at him 554 00:38:09.840 --> 00:38:12.800 a bit more carefully, he discovered with a kind of 555 00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:16.400 horror that the youth was a cheat. He was old, 556 00:38:16.679 --> 00:38:21.360 that was unquestionable. There were wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. 557 00:38:21.880 --> 00:38:24.960 The faint crimson of the cheeks was paint. The hair 558 00:38:25.079 --> 00:38:28.960 under his brilliantly decorated straw hat was a wig. His 559 00:38:29.119 --> 00:38:33.239 neck was hollow and stringy, His turned up mustache and 560 00:38:33.400 --> 00:38:36.800 the imperial on his chin were dyed. The full set 561 00:38:36.840 --> 00:38:40.000 of yellow teeth, which he displayed when he laughed a 562 00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:44.360 cheap artificial plate, and his hands, with signet rings on 563 00:38:44.480 --> 00:38:49.320 both index fingers, were those of an old man. Fascinated 564 00:38:49.360 --> 00:38:53.920 with loathing. Aschenbach watched him in his intercourse with his friends. 565 00:38:54.519 --> 00:38:57.320 Did they not know, did they not observe that he 566 00:38:57.440 --> 00:39:00.559 was old, that he was not entitled to wear their bright, 567 00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:04.079 foppish clothing, that he was not entitled to play it 568 00:39:04.119 --> 00:39:08.960 being one of them? Unquestioningly and as quite the usual thing, 569 00:39:09.119 --> 00:39:12.920 it seemed they allowed him among them, treating him as 570 00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:16.360 one of their own kind, and returning his jovial nudges 571 00:39:16.360 --> 00:39:21.400 in the ribs without repugnance. How could that be? Haschenbach 572 00:39:21.480 --> 00:39:24.559 laid his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes. 573 00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:27.800 They were hot since he had had too little sleep. 574 00:39:28.559 --> 00:39:30.880 He felt as though everything were not quite the same 575 00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:36.239 as usual, as though some dreamlike estrangement, some peculiar distortion 576 00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:39.480 of the world were beginning to take possession of him, 577 00:39:40.039 --> 00:39:42.840 and perhaps this could be stopped if he hid his 578 00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:45.920 face for a time and then looked around him again. 579 00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:49.760 Yet at this moment he felt as though he were swimming, 580 00:39:50.199 --> 00:39:53.760 and looking up with an unreasoned fear, he discovered that 581 00:39:53.840 --> 00:39:57.679 the heavy, lugubrious body of the ship was separating slowly 582 00:39:57.719 --> 00:40:01.519 from the walled bank. Inch by with the driving and 583 00:40:01.639 --> 00:40:05.119 reversing of the engine, the strip of dirty, glistening water 584 00:40:05.320 --> 00:40:07.960 widened between the dock and the side of the ship, 585 00:40:08.559 --> 00:40:12.639 and after cumbersome maneuvering, the steamer finally turned its nose 586 00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:17.679 towards the open sea. Aschenbach crossed to the starboard side, 587 00:40:18.079 --> 00:40:20.519 where the hunchback had set up a deck chair for 588 00:40:20.719 --> 00:40:24.159 him and a steward and a spotted dress coat, asked 589 00:40:24.199 --> 00:40:28.760 after his wants. The sky was gray, the wind damp, 590 00:40:29.239 --> 00:40:32.880 harbor and islands had been left behind, and soon all 591 00:40:32.960 --> 00:40:36.599 land was lost in the haze. Flakes of coal dust 592 00:40:36.840 --> 00:40:40.760 bloated with moisture, fell over the washed deck, which would 593 00:40:40.760 --> 00:40:45.000 not dry. After the first hour. An awning was spread 594 00:40:45.039 --> 00:40:48.280 since it had begun to rain. Bundled up in his 595 00:40:48.400 --> 00:40:52.079 coat a book in his lap, the traveler rested and 596 00:40:52.199 --> 00:40:56.920 the hours passed unnoticed. It stopped raining, the canvas awning 597 00:40:57.039 --> 00:41:01.960 was removed, The horizon was unbroken, the sea empty, like 598 00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:05.519 an enormous disk lay stretched under the curve of the sky, 599 00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:10.440 but in empty inarticulate space. Our senses lose also the 600 00:41:10.480 --> 00:41:15.440 dimensions of time, and we slip into the incommensurate as 601 00:41:15.480 --> 00:41:20.519 he rested, Strange shadowy figures, the old dandy, the goateee 602 00:41:20.519 --> 00:41:25.039 from the inside cabin passed through his mind with vague gestures, 603 00:41:25.440 --> 00:41:30.760 muddled dream words, and he was asleep. About noon he 604 00:41:30.880 --> 00:41:33.280 was called to a meal down in the corridor like 605 00:41:33.400 --> 00:41:37.519 dining hall into which the doors opened from the sleeping cabins. 606 00:41:38.199 --> 00:41:41.039 He ate near the head of a long table at 607 00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:44.480 the other end of which the clerks, including the old man, 608 00:41:44.920 --> 00:41:48.360 had been drinking with the boisterous captain since ten o'clock. 609 00:41:48.920 --> 00:41:52.760 The food was poor, and he finished rapidly. He felt 610 00:41:52.840 --> 00:41:56.039 driven outside to look at the sky to see if 611 00:41:56.039 --> 00:42:00.079 it showed signs of being brighter above Venice. He he 612 00:42:00.159 --> 00:42:03.480 kept thinking that this had to occur, since the city 613 00:42:03.519 --> 00:42:07.440 had always received him in full blaze. But sky and 614 00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:11.920 sea remained dreary and leaden. At times, a misty rain fell, 615 00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:15.880 and here he was reaching by water, a different Venice 616 00:42:16.159 --> 00:42:19.440 than he had ever found when approaching on land. He 617 00:42:19.519 --> 00:42:23.199 stood by the force days, looking in the distance, waiting 618 00:42:23.239 --> 00:42:27.360 for land. He thought of the heavy hearted, enthusiastic poet, 619 00:42:27.679 --> 00:42:30.800 for whom the domes and bell towers of his dreams 620 00:42:31.039 --> 00:42:35.280 had once risen out of these waters he relived in silence, 621 00:42:35.559 --> 00:42:39.360 some of that reverence, happiness, and sorrow, which had been 622 00:42:39.400 --> 00:42:44.400 turned then into cautious song, and easily susceptible to sensations 623 00:42:44.519 --> 00:42:49.360 already molded. He asked himself, wearily and earnestly, whether some 624 00:42:49.599 --> 00:42:54.239 new enchantment and distraction, some belated adventure of the emotions, 625 00:42:54.400 --> 00:42:57.519 might still be held in store for this idle traveler. 626 00:42:58.639 --> 00:43:01.880 Then the flat coast merged on the right. The sea 627 00:43:02.039 --> 00:43:06.400 was alive with fishing smacks. The bather's island appeared. It 628 00:43:06.519 --> 00:43:09.960 dropped behind. To the left, the steamer slowly entered the 629 00:43:10.039 --> 00:43:13.639 narrow port, which is named after it, and on the lagoon, 630 00:43:13.960 --> 00:43:18.800 facing gay ramshackled houses, it stopped completely, since it had 631 00:43:18.840 --> 00:43:22.440 to wait for the bark of the health department. An 632 00:43:22.519 --> 00:43:26.639 hour passed before it appeared he had arrived, and yet 633 00:43:26.679 --> 00:43:29.760 he had not. No one was in any hurry, no 634 00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:33.519 one was driven by impatience. The young men from Pola, 635 00:43:34.039 --> 00:43:38.400 patriotically attracted by the military bugle calls which rang over 636 00:43:38.480 --> 00:43:41.679 the water from the vicinity of the public gardens, had 637 00:43:41.719 --> 00:43:46.039 come on deck, and warmed by their asti they burst 638 00:43:46.119 --> 00:43:50.199 out with cheers for the drilling Burslieri. But it was 639 00:43:50.320 --> 00:43:53.400 repulsive to see what a state the primped up old 640 00:43:53.480 --> 00:43:56.760 man had been brought to by his comradeship with youth. 641 00:43:57.280 --> 00:44:00.280 His old head was not able to resist its wine. 642 00:44:00.519 --> 00:44:04.280 Like the young and robust. He was painfully drunk, with 643 00:44:04.400 --> 00:44:09.000 glazed eyes, a cigarette between his trembling fingers. He stood 644 00:44:09.039 --> 00:44:13.639 in one place, swaying backwards and forwards from giddiness and 645 00:44:13.800 --> 00:44:17.960 balancing himself laboriously, since he would have fallen at the 646 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:21.400 first step. He did not trust himself from the spot, 647 00:44:21.840 --> 00:44:25.800 yet he showed a deplorable insolence, buttonholed. Everyone who came 648 00:44:25.880 --> 00:44:31.239 near him, stammered, winked, and tittered, lifted his wrinkled, ornamented 649 00:44:31.280 --> 00:44:35.360 index finger in a stupid attempt at bantering, while he 650 00:44:35.400 --> 00:44:38.280 licked the corners of his mouth with his tongue in 651 00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:44.079 the most abominably suggestive manner. Aschenbach observed him darkly, and 652 00:44:44.199 --> 00:44:47.639 a feeling of numbness came over him again, as though 653 00:44:47.639 --> 00:44:51.719 the world were displaying a faint but irresistible tendency to 654 00:44:51.840 --> 00:44:56.239 distort itself into the peculiar and the grotesque, a feeling 655 00:44:56.519 --> 00:45:01.400 which circumstances prevented him from surrendering himself to completely, for 656 00:45:01.639 --> 00:45:05.440 just then the pounding activity of the engines commenced again, 657 00:45:05.920 --> 00:45:09.280 and the ship, resuming a voyage which had been interrupted 658 00:45:09.320 --> 00:45:13.119 so near its completion, passed through the San Marco Canal. 659 00:45:14.280 --> 00:45:18.400 So he saw it again the most remarkable of landing places, 660 00:45:18.800 --> 00:45:23.679 that blinding composition of fantastic buildings which the Republic lays 661 00:45:23.679 --> 00:45:28.320 out before the eyes of approaching seafarers. The soft splendor 662 00:45:28.400 --> 00:45:31.639 of the palace, the bridge of size on the bank 663 00:45:31.679 --> 00:45:35.679 of the columns with Lyon and Saint, the advancing, showy 664 00:45:35.719 --> 00:45:39.679 flank of the enchanted temple, the glimpse through to the archway, 665 00:45:40.159 --> 00:45:43.639 and the huge giant clock. And as he looked on, 666 00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:46.679 he thought that to reach Venice by land on the 667 00:45:46.760 --> 00:45:50.159 railroad was like entering a palace from the rear, and 668 00:45:50.559 --> 00:45:53.880 that the most unreal of cities should not be approached, 669 00:45:54.159 --> 00:45:57.480 except as he was now doing by ship over the 670 00:45:57.599 --> 00:46:03.760 high seas. Engines stopped, gondolas pressed in the gangway was 671 00:46:03.880 --> 00:46:08.679 let down. Customs officials climbed on board and discharged their 672 00:46:08.760 --> 00:46:15.079 duties perfunctorily. The disembarking could begin. Aschenbach made it understood 673 00:46:15.400 --> 00:46:18.039 that he wanted a gondola to take him and his 674 00:46:18.159 --> 00:46:21.599 luggage to the dock of those little steamers which ply 675 00:46:21.760 --> 00:46:24.840 between the city and the lido. Since he intended to 676 00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:28.679 locate near the sea, his plans were complied with. His 677 00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:32.119 wants were shouted down to the water, where the gondoliers 678 00:46:32.199 --> 00:46:35.440 were wrangling with one another in dialect. He was still 679 00:46:35.519 --> 00:46:39.519 hindered from descending. He was hindered by his trunk, which 680 00:46:39.599 --> 00:46:42.880 was being pulled and dragged with difficulty down the ladder 681 00:46:43.039 --> 00:46:46.199 like steps, so that for some minutes he was not 682 00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:49.880 able to avoid the importunities of the atrocious old man, 683 00:46:50.079 --> 00:46:53.639 whose drunkenness gave him a sinister desire to do the 684 00:46:53.760 --> 00:46:58.239 foreigner parting honors. We wish you a very agreeable visit, 685 00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:02.159 he bleeded, as he made an awkward bow. We leave 686 00:47:02.280 --> 00:47:08.360 with pleasant recollections, a revois excuse, and bonjour, your excellency. 687 00:47:09.559 --> 00:47:13.360 His mouth watered, he pressed his eyes shut, He licked 688 00:47:13.360 --> 00:47:17.400 the corners of his mouth, and the dyed imperial turned 689 00:47:17.480 --> 00:47:22.639 up about his senile lips. Our compliments, he mumbled, with 690 00:47:22.760 --> 00:47:27.239 two finger tips on his mouth, Our compliments to our sweetheart, 691 00:47:27.599 --> 00:47:32.920 the dearest, prettiest sweetheart, And suddenly his false upper teeth 692 00:47:33.159 --> 00:47:36.840 fell down on his lower lip. Haschenbach was able to 693 00:47:37.039 --> 00:47:43.119 escape to our sweetheart, Our handsome sweetheart. He heard the cooing, hollow, 694 00:47:43.400 --> 00:47:48.119 stuttering voice behind him. While supporting himself against the handrail, 695 00:47:48.599 --> 00:47:52.440 he went down the gangway. Who would not have to 696 00:47:52.519 --> 00:47:57.239 suppress a fleeting shudder, a vague timidity and uneasiness if 697 00:47:57.239 --> 00:48:00.119 it were a matter of boarding of Venetian gondola for 698 00:48:00.199 --> 00:48:04.480 the first time or after several years. The strange craft 699 00:48:04.760 --> 00:48:09.280 an entirely unaltered survival from the times of Baladry. With 700 00:48:09.400 --> 00:48:13.440 that peculiar blackness which is found elsewhere only in coffins. 701 00:48:14.039 --> 00:48:18.559 It suggests silent criminal adventures in the rippling night. It 702 00:48:18.639 --> 00:48:22.760 suggests even more strongly death itself, the bier and the 703 00:48:22.800 --> 00:48:27.280 mournful funeral and the last silent journey. And has it 704 00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:30.519 been observed that the seat of such a bark, this 705 00:48:30.760 --> 00:48:35.239 armchair of coffin black veneer and dull black upholstery, is 706 00:48:35.280 --> 00:48:39.480 the softest, most luxuriant, most lulling seat in the world. 707 00:48:40.280 --> 00:48:43.480 Oschenbach noted this when he had relaxed at the feet 708 00:48:43.519 --> 00:48:47.639 of the gondolier opposite his luggage, which lay neatly assembled 709 00:48:47.679 --> 00:48:53.199 on the prow. The rowers were still wrangling, harshly, incomprehensibly, 710 00:48:53.639 --> 00:48:57.679 with threatening gestures, but the strange silence of this canal 711 00:48:57.760 --> 00:49:02.440 city seemed to soften their voice, to disembody them and 712 00:49:02.679 --> 00:49:06.159 dissipate them. Over the water, it was warm here in 713 00:49:06.199 --> 00:49:09.679 the harbor, touched faintly by the warm breeze of the 714 00:49:09.719 --> 00:49:14.159 si racco. Leaning back against the limber portions of the cushions, 715 00:49:14.599 --> 00:49:17.360 the traveler closed his eyes in the enjoyment of a 716 00:49:17.440 --> 00:49:21.639 lassitude which was as unusual with him as it was sweet. 717 00:49:22.360 --> 00:49:25.400 The trip would be short, he thought, if only it 718 00:49:25.480 --> 00:49:29.519 went on forever. He felt himself glide with a gentle motion, 719 00:49:30.079 --> 00:49:34.480 away from the crowd and the confusion of voices. It 720 00:49:34.559 --> 00:49:38.400 became quieter and quieter around him. There was nothing to 721 00:49:38.440 --> 00:49:41.440 be heard but the splashing of the oar, the hollow 722 00:49:41.519 --> 00:49:44.480 slapping of the waves against the prow of the boat 723 00:49:44.840 --> 00:49:47.719 as it stood above the water, black and bold and 724 00:49:47.840 --> 00:49:51.360 armed with its halberd like tip. And a third sound 725 00:49:51.719 --> 00:49:56.159 of speaking, of whispering, the whispering of the gondolier, who 726 00:49:56.239 --> 00:50:00.760 was talking to himself between his teeth, fitfully in words 727 00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:03.519 that were pressed out by the exertion of his arms. 728 00:50:04.480 --> 00:50:08.639 Hachenbach looked up and was slightly astonished to discover that 729 00:50:08.719 --> 00:50:11.679 the lagoon was widening and he was headed for the 730 00:50:11.719 --> 00:50:15.480 open sea. This seemed to indicate that he ought not 731 00:50:15.559 --> 00:50:18.360 to rest too much, but should see to it that 732 00:50:18.440 --> 00:50:23.239 his wishes were carried out to the steamer dock. He repeated, 733 00:50:23.559 --> 00:50:27.519 turning around completely and looking into the face of the gondolier, 734 00:50:27.840 --> 00:50:31.719 who stood behind on a raised platform and towered up 735 00:50:31.760 --> 00:50:35.519 between him and the dun colored sky. He was a 736 00:50:35.519 --> 00:50:40.239 man of unpleasant, even brutal appearance, dressed in sailor blue 737 00:50:40.440 --> 00:50:44.519 with a yellow sash. A formless straw hat, its weave 738 00:50:44.719 --> 00:50:49.199 partially unraveled, was tilted insolently on his head. The set 739 00:50:49.239 --> 00:50:53.079 of his face, the blonde, curly mustache beneath a curtly 740 00:50:53.199 --> 00:50:57.159 turned up nose undoubtedly meant that he was not Italian, 741 00:50:57.679 --> 00:51:00.840 although of somewhat frail build so that one would not 742 00:51:00.920 --> 00:51:04.320 have thought him especially well suited to his trade. He 743 00:51:04.440 --> 00:51:08.119 handled the oar with great energy, throwing his entire body 744 00:51:08.159 --> 00:51:12.360 into each stroke. Occasionally he drew back his lips from 745 00:51:12.400 --> 00:51:17.880 the exertion and disclosed his white teeth, Wrinkling his reddish brows. 746 00:51:18.320 --> 00:51:22.239 He gazed on past his passenger, as he answered deliberately, 747 00:51:22.519 --> 00:51:27.719 almost gruffly, You are going to the Lido, Haschenbach replied, 748 00:51:28.360 --> 00:51:31.360 of course, but I have just taken the gondola to 749 00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:34.599 get me across to San Marco. I want to use 750 00:51:34.639 --> 00:51:40.239 the vaporeto. You cannot use the vaparareto, sir? And why not? 751 00:51:41.159 --> 00:51:45.400 Because the vaporetto will not aul luggage. That was so, 752 00:51:45.960 --> 00:51:51.480 Haschenbach remembered. He was silent put the fellow's harsh, presumptuous manner, 753 00:51:52.000 --> 00:51:56.960 so unusual towards a foreigner here, seemed unbearable. He said, 754 00:51:57.440 --> 00:51:59.880 that is my affair. Perhaps I want to put my 755 00:52:00.119 --> 00:52:04.320 things in storage. You will turn back. There was silence. 756 00:52:04.639 --> 00:52:08.360 The oar splashed, the water thudded against the bow, and 757 00:52:08.559 --> 00:52:12.559 the talking and whispering began again. The gondolier was talking 758 00:52:12.599 --> 00:52:16.840 to himself between his teeth. What was to be done? 759 00:52:16.920 --> 00:52:21.280 This man was strangely insolent and had an uncanny decisiveness. 760 00:52:21.880 --> 00:52:25.119 The traveler, alone with him on the water, saw no 761 00:52:25.199 --> 00:52:29.199 way of getting what he wanted. And besides, how softly 762 00:52:29.239 --> 00:52:32.360 he could rest if only he did not become excited. 763 00:52:33.079 --> 00:52:35.840 Hadn't he wanted the trip to go on? And on forever. 764 00:52:36.599 --> 00:52:39.840 It was wisest to let things take their course, and 765 00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:43.639 the main thing was that he was comfortable. The poison 766 00:52:43.639 --> 00:52:47.000 of inertia seemed to be issuing from the seat from 767 00:52:47.039 --> 00:52:51.639 this low, black upholstered armchair, so gently cradled by the 768 00:52:51.679 --> 00:52:56.039 oar strokes of this imperious gondolier behind him. The notion 769 00:52:56.199 --> 00:52:58.360 that he had fallen into the hands of a criminal 770 00:52:58.800 --> 00:53:03.880 passed dreamily across Oschenbach's mind, without the ability to summon 771 00:53:03.920 --> 00:53:07.960 his thoughts to an active defense. The possibility that it 772 00:53:08.079 --> 00:53:12.079 was all simply a plan for cheating him seemed more abhorrent. 773 00:53:12.800 --> 00:53:16.159 A feeling of duty or pride, a kind of recollection 774 00:53:16.599 --> 00:53:20.000 that one should prevent such things, gave him the strength 775 00:53:20.159 --> 00:53:24.079 to arouse himself once more. He asked, what are you 776 00:53:24.119 --> 00:53:28.840 asking for the trip? Looking down upon him, the gondolier answered, 777 00:53:29.639 --> 00:53:33.920 you will pay. It was plain how this should be answered. 778 00:53:34.320 --> 00:53:39.960 Haschenbach said, mechanically, I shall pay nothing, absolutely nothing, if 779 00:53:39.960 --> 00:53:42.880 you don't take me where I want to go. You 780 00:53:42.960 --> 00:53:45.760 want to go to the Lido, but not with you. 781 00:53:46.800 --> 00:53:50.639 I am rowing you well. That is so, he thought, 782 00:53:50.880 --> 00:53:54.480 and relaxed, That is so. You are rowing me well. 783 00:53:54.880 --> 00:53:57.800 Even if you do have designs on my cash and 784 00:53:57.960 --> 00:54:00.360 send me down to Pluto with a blow of your 785 00:54:00.360 --> 00:54:04.679 oar from behind, you have rowed me well. But nothing 786 00:54:04.840 --> 00:54:08.400 like that happened. They were even joined by others, a 787 00:54:08.440 --> 00:54:12.559 boatload of musical brigands, men and women who sang to 788 00:54:12.679 --> 00:54:17.119 guitar and mandolin, riding persistently side by side with the 789 00:54:17.159 --> 00:54:20.800 gondola and filling the silence over the water with their 790 00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:25.800 covetous foreign poetry. A hat was held out and Ashenbach 791 00:54:25.880 --> 00:54:29.679 threw in money. Then they stopped singing and rode away. 792 00:54:30.320 --> 00:54:33.199 And again the muttering of the gondolier could be heard 793 00:54:33.239 --> 00:54:37.400 as he talked fitfully and jerkily to himself. So they 794 00:54:37.559 --> 00:54:41.079 arrived tossed in the wake of a steamer plying towards 795 00:54:41.079 --> 00:54:45.679 the city. Two municipal officers, their hands behind their backs, 796 00:54:46.039 --> 00:54:49.000 their faces turned in the direction of the lagoon, were 797 00:54:49.039 --> 00:54:53.119 walking back and forth on the bank. Aschenbach left the 798 00:54:53.159 --> 00:54:57.000 gondola at the dock, supported by that old man who 799 00:54:57.039 --> 00:54:59.599 was stationed with his grappling hook at each one of 800 00:54:59.679 --> 00:55:03.760 venice landing places. And since he had no small money, 801 00:55:04.199 --> 00:55:07.119 he crossed over to the hotel by the steamer wharf 802 00:55:07.440 --> 00:55:10.599 to get change and pay the rower what was due him. 803 00:55:11.159 --> 00:55:13.920 He got what he wanted in the lobby. He returned 804 00:55:14.239 --> 00:55:17.119 and found his traveling bags in a cart on the dock, 805 00:55:17.559 --> 00:55:22.360 and gondola and gondolier had vanished. He got out in 806 00:55:22.440 --> 00:55:25.280 a hurry, said the old man with a grappling hook. 807 00:55:25.880 --> 00:55:29.360 A bad man, a man without a license. Sir, he 808 00:55:29.480 --> 00:55:32.639 is the only gondolier who doesn't have a license. The 809 00:55:32.679 --> 00:55:39.119 others telephoned here. Haschenbach shrugged his shoulders. The gentleman rode 810 00:55:39.159 --> 00:55:43.119 for nothing, the old man said, and held out his hat. 811 00:55:43.719 --> 00:55:47.960 Aschenbach tossed in a coin. He gave instructions to have 812 00:55:48.039 --> 00:55:51.480 his luggage taken to the Beach Hotel, and followed the 813 00:55:51.559 --> 00:55:55.760 cart through the avenue, the white blossomed avenue, which lined 814 00:55:55.840 --> 00:56:00.000 on both sides with taverns, shops and boarding houses. Rode 815 00:56:00.039 --> 00:56:05.159 runs across the island to the shore. End of chapter three, 816 00:56:05.599 --> 00:56:11.559 Part one. Chapter three, part two. He entered the spacious 817 00:56:11.599 --> 00:56:15.480 hotel from the rear by the terraced garden and passed 818 00:56:15.480 --> 00:56:19.400 through the vestibule and the lobby until he reached the desk. 819 00:56:19.960 --> 00:56:24.000 Since he had been announced, he was received with obliging promptness. 820 00:56:24.519 --> 00:56:28.960 A manager, a small, frail, flatteringly polite man with a 821 00:56:28.960 --> 00:56:33.440 black mustache and a French style frock coat, accompanied him 822 00:56:33.440 --> 00:56:36.039 to the third floor in the lift and showed him 823 00:56:36.079 --> 00:56:40.760 his room. An agreeable place, furnished in cherrywood, it was 824 00:56:40.840 --> 00:56:45.480 decorated with strong smelling flowers, and its high windows afforded 825 00:56:45.519 --> 00:56:48.840 a view out across the open sea. He stepped up 826 00:56:48.880 --> 00:56:51.880 to one of them after the employee had left, and 827 00:56:52.000 --> 00:56:55.000 while his luggage was being brought up and placed in 828 00:56:55.039 --> 00:56:57.880 the room behind him. He looked down on the beach, 829 00:56:58.239 --> 00:57:01.639 it was comparatively deserted in the afternoon, and on the 830 00:57:01.679 --> 00:57:05.599 sunless ocean, which was at flood tide and was sending long, 831 00:57:05.719 --> 00:57:09.599 low waves against the bank in a calm, regular rhythm. 832 00:57:10.199 --> 00:57:13.159 The experiences of a man who lives alone and in 833 00:57:13.239 --> 00:57:17.639 silence are both vaguer and more penetrating than those of 834 00:57:17.760 --> 00:57:22.480 people in society. His thoughts are heavier, more odd, and 835 00:57:22.679 --> 00:57:28.519 touched always with melancholy images and observations, which could easily 836 00:57:28.559 --> 00:57:32.360 be disposed of by a glance. A smile and exchange 837 00:57:32.360 --> 00:57:37.519 of opinion will occupy him unbearably, sink deep into the silence, 838 00:57:37.840 --> 00:57:43.960 become full of meaning become life adventure emotion. Loneliness ripens 839 00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:49.400 the eccentric, the daring, and estrangingly beautiful, the poetic. But 840 00:57:49.480 --> 00:57:54.679 loneliness also ripens the perverse, the disproportionate, the absurd, and 841 00:57:54.880 --> 00:57:58.280 the illicit. So the things he had met with on 842 00:57:58.320 --> 00:58:02.519 the trip, the ugly old f with his twaddle about sweethearts, 843 00:58:02.960 --> 00:58:06.320 the law breaking gondolier who was cheated of his pay, 844 00:58:07.039 --> 00:58:11.760 still left the traveler uneasy, without really providing any resistance 845 00:58:11.800 --> 00:58:15.320 to the mind, without offering any solid stuff to think over. 846 00:58:15.960 --> 00:58:19.880 They were nevertheless profoundly strange, as it seemed to him, 847 00:58:20.400 --> 00:58:25.840 and disturbing, precisely because of this contradiction. In the meanwhile, 848 00:58:26.119 --> 00:58:29.199 he greeted the sea with his eyes and felt pleasure 849 00:58:29.280 --> 00:58:33.480 at the knowledge that Venice was so conveniently near. Finally, 850 00:58:33.599 --> 00:58:37.119 he turned away, bathed his face, left orders to the 851 00:58:37.199 --> 00:58:40.480 chambermaid for a few things he still needed done to 852 00:58:40.559 --> 00:58:44.039 make his comfort complete, and let himself be taken to 853 00:58:44.079 --> 00:58:48.039 the ground floor by the green uniformed Swiss who operated 854 00:58:48.079 --> 00:58:51.599 the lift. He took his tea on the terrace facing 855 00:58:51.679 --> 00:58:56.000 the ocean, then descended and followed the boardwalk for quite 856 00:58:56.000 --> 00:58:59.280 a way. In the direction of the hotel Exalsior. When 857 00:58:59.320 --> 00:59:02.880 he returned, it seemed time to dress for dinner. He 858 00:59:02.920 --> 00:59:06.519 did this with his usual care and slowness, since he 859 00:59:06.599 --> 00:59:10.719 was accustomed to working over his toilette. And yet he 860 00:59:10.800 --> 00:59:13.440 came down a little early to the lobby, where he 861 00:59:13.440 --> 00:59:17.119 found a great many of the hotel guests assembled, mixing 862 00:59:17.239 --> 00:59:20.599 distantly and with a show of mutual indifference to one another, 863 00:59:21.039 --> 00:59:24.280 but all waiting for meal time. He took a paper 864 00:59:24.320 --> 00:59:27.920 from the table, dropped into a leather chair, and observed 865 00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:31.599 the company. They differed agreeably from the guests where he 866 00:59:31.639 --> 00:59:36.719 had first stopped. A wide and tolerantly inclusive horizon was 867 00:59:36.760 --> 00:59:40.719 spread out before him. Sounds of all the principal languages 868 00:59:40.960 --> 00:59:45.679 formed a subdued murmur. The accepted evening dress, the uniform 869 00:59:45.719 --> 00:59:49.880 of good manners brought all human varieties into a fitting unity. 870 00:59:50.559 --> 00:59:55.440 There were Americans with their long, wry features, large Russian families, 871 00:59:55.800 --> 01:00:00.800 English ladies, German children with French nurses. The lavic element 872 01:00:00.920 --> 01:00:05.920 seemed to predominate. Polish was being spoken nearby. It was 873 01:00:05.960 --> 01:00:09.039 a group of children gathered around a little wicker table 874 01:00:09.440 --> 01:00:13.119 under the protection of a teacher or governess. Three young 875 01:00:13.280 --> 01:00:17.880 girls apparently fifteen to seventeen, and a long haired boy 876 01:00:18.119 --> 01:00:23.199 about fourteen years old. With astonishment, Aschenbach noted that the 877 01:00:23.239 --> 01:00:29.039 boy was absolutely beautiful, his face pale and reserved, framed 878 01:00:29.079 --> 01:00:33.559 with honey colored hair, the straight sloping nose, the lovely mouth, 879 01:00:33.920 --> 01:00:38.599 the expression of sweet and godlike seriousness recalled Greek sculpture 880 01:00:38.639 --> 01:00:42.039 of the noblest period, and the complete purity of the 881 01:00:42.119 --> 01:00:45.800 forms was accompanied by such a rare personal charm that 882 01:00:46.239 --> 01:00:48.880 as he watched, he felt that he had never met 883 01:00:48.920 --> 01:00:53.039 with anything equally felicitous in nature or the plastic arts. 884 01:00:53.880 --> 01:00:57.719 He was further struck by the obviously intentional contrast with 885 01:00:57.840 --> 01:01:01.639 the principles of upbringing which showed in the sister's attire 886 01:01:01.679 --> 01:01:05.480 and bearing. The three girls, the eldest of whom could 887 01:01:05.519 --> 01:01:08.719 be considered grown up, were dressed with a chasteness and 888 01:01:08.800 --> 01:01:14.800 severity boring on disfigurement. Uniformly cloister like costumes of medium 889 01:01:14.880 --> 01:01:20.719 length slate, colored sober and deliberately unbecoming, and cut with white, 890 01:01:20.760 --> 01:01:25.159 turned down collars as the only relief, suppressed every possible 891 01:01:25.199 --> 01:01:29.760 appeal of shapeliness. Their hair, brushed down flat and tied 892 01:01:29.800 --> 01:01:33.760 against the head, gave their faces, a nunlike emptiness and 893 01:01:33.920 --> 01:01:38.079 lack of character. Surely this was a mother's influence, and 894 01:01:38.239 --> 01:01:40.880 it had not even occurred to her to apply the 895 01:01:40.920 --> 01:01:44.800 pedagogical strictness to the boy which she seemed to find 896 01:01:44.960 --> 01:01:48.480 necessary for her girls. It was clear that in his 897 01:01:48.639 --> 01:01:53.840 existence the first factors were gentleness and tenderness. The shears 898 01:01:53.880 --> 01:01:57.440 had been resolutely kept from his beautiful hair, like a 899 01:01:57.480 --> 01:02:01.599 prince charming's. It fell in curls over his forehead, his ears, 900 01:02:02.039 --> 01:02:06.320 and still deeper across his neck. The English sailor suit, 901 01:02:06.719 --> 01:02:11.639 with its braids, stitchings and embroideries, its puffy sleeves, narrowing 902 01:02:11.679 --> 01:02:15.079 at the ends and fitting snugly about the fine wrists 903 01:02:15.119 --> 01:02:19.000 of his still childish but slender hands, gave the delicate 904 01:02:19.039 --> 01:02:24.039 figure something rich and luxurious. He was sitting half profiled 905 01:02:24.039 --> 01:02:27.280 to the observer, one foot in its black patent leather 906 01:02:27.360 --> 01:02:31.079 shoe placed before the other, an elbow resting on the 907 01:02:31.159 --> 01:02:34.760 arm of his wicker chair, a cheek pressed against his fist, 908 01:02:35.239 --> 01:02:39.320 in a position of negligent good manners, entirely free of 909 01:02:39.360 --> 01:02:43.960 the almost subservient stiffness to which his sisters seemed accustomed. 910 01:02:44.639 --> 01:02:47.800 Did he have some illness, for his skin stood out 911 01:02:47.840 --> 01:02:51.440 as white as ivory against the golden darkness of the 912 01:02:51.440 --> 01:02:55.480 surrounding curls. Or was he simply a pampered favorite child 913 01:02:55.920 --> 01:02:59.719 made this way by a doting and moody love. Ushan 914 01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:03.920 sach inclined to believe the latter. Almost every artist is 915 01:03:03.960 --> 01:03:08.440 born with a rich and treacherous tendency to recognize injustices 916 01:03:08.760 --> 01:03:13.199 which have created beauty, and to meet aristocratic distinction with 917 01:03:13.360 --> 01:03:18.079 sympathy and reverence. A waiter passed through and announced in 918 01:03:18.119 --> 01:03:22.519 English that the meal was ready. Gradually the guests disappeared 919 01:03:22.519 --> 01:03:26.960 through the glass door into the dining hall. Stragglers crossed, 920 01:03:27.199 --> 01:03:31.039 coming from the entrance or the lifts inside. They had 921 01:03:31.079 --> 01:03:34.639 already begun serving, But the young poles were still waiting 922 01:03:34.679 --> 01:03:39.159 around the little wicker table, and Aschenbach, comfortably propped in 923 01:03:39.199 --> 01:03:42.599 his deep chair, and with this beauty before his eyes, 924 01:03:43.039 --> 01:03:47.840 stayed with them. The governess, a small, corpulent middle class 925 01:03:47.880 --> 01:03:51.599 woman with a red face, finally gave the sign to rise. 926 01:03:52.119 --> 01:03:55.599 With lifted brows. She pushed back her chair and bowed 927 01:03:56.039 --> 01:03:59.599 as a large woman dressed in gray and richly jeweled 928 01:03:59.639 --> 01:04:03.159 with perl girls entered the lobby this woman was advancing 929 01:04:03.199 --> 01:04:07.880 with coolness and precision. Her lightly powdered hair and the 930 01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:11.519 lines of her dress were arranged with the simplicity which 931 01:04:11.559 --> 01:04:16.199 always signifies taste in those quarters where devoutness is taken 932 01:04:16.599 --> 01:04:19.920 as one element of dignity. She might have been the 933 01:04:19.960 --> 01:04:23.920 wife of some high German official, except that her jewelry 934 01:04:24.119 --> 01:04:29.039 added something fantastically lavish to her appearance. Indeed, it was 935 01:04:29.119 --> 01:04:33.199 almost priceless, and consisted of ear pendance and a very 936 01:04:33.239 --> 01:04:38.400 long triple chain of softly glowing pearls as large as cherries. 937 01:04:39.440 --> 01:04:42.760 The children had risen promptly. They bent over to kiss 938 01:04:42.760 --> 01:04:45.760 the hand of their mother, who, with a distant smile 939 01:04:45.840 --> 01:04:49.679 on her well preserved, though somewhat tired and peaked features, 940 01:04:50.280 --> 01:04:53.320 looked over their heads and directed a few words to 941 01:04:53.400 --> 01:04:57.159 the Governess in French. Then she walked to the glass door. 942 01:04:57.679 --> 01:05:01.360 The children followed her, the girl's the order of their age, 943 01:05:01.599 --> 01:05:05.599 after them, the Governess. The boy last. For some reason 944 01:05:05.719 --> 01:05:09.320 or other, he turned round before crossing the sill, and, 945 01:05:09.480 --> 01:05:12.320 since no one else was in the lobby, his strange, 946 01:05:12.400 --> 01:05:16.519 dusky eyes met those of Ashenbach, who his newspaper on 947 01:05:16.599 --> 01:05:20.199 his knees. Lost in thought, was gazing after the group. 948 01:05:21.079 --> 01:05:24.519 What he saw had not been unusual in the slightest detail. 949 01:05:25.199 --> 01:05:27.920 They had not preceded the mother to the table. They 950 01:05:28.000 --> 01:05:32.119 had waited, greeted her with respect, and observed the customary 951 01:05:32.199 --> 01:05:35.840 forms on entering the room. But it had taken place 952 01:05:35.920 --> 01:05:40.000 so pointedly, with such an accent of training, duty and 953 01:05:40.119 --> 01:05:44.400 self respect that Aschenbach felt peculiarly touched by it all. 954 01:05:45.119 --> 01:05:48.159 He delayed for a few moments. Then he too, crossed 955 01:05:48.199 --> 01:05:52.159 into the dining room and was assigned to his table, which, 956 01:05:52.400 --> 01:05:55.320 as he noted with a brief touch of regret, was 957 01:05:55.480 --> 01:05:59.760 very far removed from that of the Polish family. Weary 958 01:06:00.159 --> 01:06:04.440 and yet intellectually active, he entertained himself during the lengthy 959 01:06:04.480 --> 01:06:09.400 meal with abstract or even transcendental things. He thought over 960 01:06:09.440 --> 01:06:12.840 the secret union which the lawful must enter upon with 961 01:06:12.920 --> 01:06:16.599 the individual for human beauty to result. From this, he 962 01:06:16.679 --> 01:06:20.320 passed into general problems of form and art, and at 963 01:06:20.360 --> 01:06:24.000 the end he found that his thoughts and discoveries were 964 01:06:24.079 --> 01:06:27.760 like the seemingly felicitous promptings of a dream, which, when 965 01:06:27.760 --> 01:06:31.199 the mind is sobered, are seen to be completely empty 966 01:06:31.199 --> 01:06:36.599 and unfit. After the meal, smoking, sitting taking an occasional 967 01:06:36.639 --> 01:06:39.519 turn in the park with its smell of nightfall. He 968 01:06:39.599 --> 01:06:42.199 went to bed early and spent the night in a 969 01:06:42.280 --> 01:06:46.960 sleep deep and unbroken, but often enlivened with the apparitions 970 01:06:47.000 --> 01:06:51.920 of dreams. The weather did not improve any The following day, 971 01:06:52.480 --> 01:06:56.119 a land breeze was blowing under a cloudy ashen sky. 972 01:06:56.639 --> 01:07:00.400 The sea lay in dull peacefulness. It seemed shriveled up 973 01:07:00.760 --> 01:07:04.239 with a close, dreary horizon, and it had retreated from 974 01:07:04.239 --> 01:07:07.760 the beach, bearing the long ribs of several sand banks. 975 01:07:08.559 --> 01:07:12.079 As Aschenbach opened his window, he thought that he could 976 01:07:12.159 --> 01:07:16.280 detect the foul smell of the lagoon. He felt depressed. 977 01:07:16.760 --> 01:07:21.199 He thought already of leaving once years ago, after several 978 01:07:21.239 --> 01:07:24.880 weeks of spring here. This same weather had afflicted him 979 01:07:25.239 --> 01:07:28.440 and impaired his health so seriously that he had to 980 01:07:28.480 --> 01:07:32.800 abandon Venice like a fugitive. Was not this old feverish 981 01:07:32.880 --> 01:07:36.679 unrest again, setting in the pressure in the temples, the 982 01:07:36.719 --> 01:07:40.039 heaviness of the eyelids. It would be annoying to change 983 01:07:40.079 --> 01:07:43.840 his residence still another time, But if the wind did 984 01:07:43.840 --> 01:07:47.440 not turn, he could not stay here. To be safe, 985 01:07:47.679 --> 01:07:51.320 he did not unpack completely. He breakfasted at nine in 986 01:07:51.360 --> 01:07:55.000 the buffet room provided for this purpose. Between the lobby 987 01:07:55.039 --> 01:07:59.400 and the dining room. That formal silence reigned here, which 988 01:07:59.440 --> 01:08:02.800 is the ambition of large hotels. The waiters who were 989 01:08:02.840 --> 01:08:07.239 serving walked about on soft souls. Nothing was audible but 990 01:08:07.320 --> 01:08:10.639 the tinkling of the tea things, a word half whispered 991 01:08:11.360 --> 01:08:14.840 in one corner obliquely across from the door, and two 992 01:08:14.880 --> 01:08:19.479 tables removed from his own. Oschenbach observed the Polish girls 993 01:08:19.640 --> 01:08:23.239 with their governess. He wrecked and red eyed their ash 994 01:08:23.319 --> 01:08:28.000 blonde hair, freshly smoothed down, dressed in stiff blue linen, 995 01:08:28.399 --> 01:08:32.239 with little white cuffs and turned down collars. They were 996 01:08:32.279 --> 01:08:36.279 sitting there, handing around a glass of marmalade. They had 997 01:08:36.279 --> 01:08:43.359 almost finished their breakfast. The boy was missing. Oschenbach smiled, well, 998 01:08:43.680 --> 01:08:48.159 little Fayoshian, he thought, you seem to be enjoying the 999 01:08:48.199 --> 01:08:52.720 pleasant privilege of having your sleep out, And suddenly exhilarated, 1000 01:08:53.039 --> 01:08:56.960 he recited to himself the line a frequent change of dress, 1001 01:08:57.399 --> 01:09:02.600 warm baths, and rest. Breakfasted without haste from the porter, 1002 01:09:02.960 --> 01:09:06.039 who entered the hall holding his braided cap in his hand, 1003 01:09:06.600 --> 01:09:10.640 he received some forwarded mail, and while he smoked a cigarette, 1004 01:09:10.720 --> 01:09:14.239 he opened a few letters. In this way, it happened 1005 01:09:14.439 --> 01:09:17.039 that he was present at the entrance of the late sleeper, 1006 01:09:17.359 --> 01:09:21.039 who was being waited for over yonder, he came through 1007 01:09:21.039 --> 01:09:24.359 the glass door and crossed the room in silence to 1008 01:09:24.439 --> 01:09:28.199 his sister's table. His approach, the way he held the 1009 01:09:28.279 --> 01:09:31.439 upper part of his body and bent his knees. The 1010 01:09:31.479 --> 01:09:35.520 movement of his white shod feet had an extraordinary charm. 1011 01:09:36.079 --> 01:09:40.119 He walked very lightly, at once timid and proud, and 1012 01:09:40.279 --> 01:09:44.079 this became still more lovely through the childish embarrassment with 1013 01:09:44.159 --> 01:09:47.920 which twice as he proceeded he turned his face toward 1014 01:09:48.000 --> 01:09:51.239 the center of the room, raising and lowering his eyes, 1015 01:09:51.960 --> 01:09:56.279 smiling with something half muttered in his soft, vague tongue. 1016 01:09:56.600 --> 01:09:59.720 He took his place, and now as he turned his 1017 01:09:59.760 --> 01:10:05.159 foll profile to the observer, Aschenbach was again astonished, terrified 1018 01:10:05.239 --> 01:10:09.279 even by the really godlike beauty of this human child. 1019 01:10:09.920 --> 01:10:12.800 To day, the boy was wearing a light blouse of 1020 01:10:12.920 --> 01:10:16.359 blue and white striped cotton goods, with a red silk 1021 01:10:16.439 --> 01:10:19.439 tie in front and closed at the neck by a 1022 01:10:19.439 --> 01:10:23.640 plain white eye collar. This collar lacked the distinctiveness of 1023 01:10:23.720 --> 01:10:27.479 the blouse, but above it the flowering head was poised 1024 01:10:27.520 --> 01:10:31.760 with an incomparable seductiveness, the head of an eras in 1025 01:10:31.880 --> 01:10:37.079 blended yellows of Parian marble, with fine, serious brows, the 1026 01:10:37.119 --> 01:10:41.279 temples and ears covered softly by the abrupt encroachment of 1027 01:10:41.319 --> 01:10:47.600 his curls. Good God, Aschenbach thought, with that deliberate expert 1028 01:10:47.640 --> 01:10:52.359 appraisal which artists sometimes employ as a subterfuge when they 1029 01:10:52.399 --> 01:10:55.800 have been carried away with delight before a master work. 1030 01:10:56.359 --> 01:11:00.079 And he thought further, really, if the sea and the 1031 01:11:00.079 --> 01:11:03.119 beach weren't waiting for me, I should stay here as 1032 01:11:03.199 --> 01:11:07.079 long as you staid. But he went then passed through 1033 01:11:07.119 --> 01:11:10.239 the lobby, under the inspection of the servants, down the 1034 01:11:10.279 --> 01:11:14.199 wide terrace, and straight across the boardwalk to the section 1035 01:11:14.319 --> 01:11:17.920 of the beach reserved for the hotel guests. The barefoot 1036 01:11:17.920 --> 01:11:21.520 old man in dungarees and straw hat, who was functioning 1037 01:11:21.560 --> 01:11:25.039 here as bathing master, assigned him to the bathhouse he 1038 01:11:25.079 --> 01:11:28.199 had rented. A table and a seat were placed on 1039 01:11:28.239 --> 01:11:32.079 the sandy board platform, and he made himself comfortable in 1040 01:11:32.119 --> 01:11:35.439 the lounge chair, which he had drawn closer to the sea, 1041 01:11:35.680 --> 01:11:40.159 out into the waxen yellow sand more than ever before. 1042 01:11:40.479 --> 01:11:43.800 He was entertained and amused by the sights on the beach, 1043 01:11:44.279 --> 01:11:49.600 this spectacle of carefree, civilized people getting sensuous enjoyment at 1044 01:11:49.640 --> 01:11:52.920 the very edge of the elements. The gray flat sea 1045 01:11:53.319 --> 01:11:57.439 was already alive with waiting children, swimmers, a motley of 1046 01:11:57.479 --> 01:12:01.000 figures lying on the sand banks with arms bent behind 1047 01:12:01.079 --> 01:12:04.399 their heads. Others were rowing about in little red and 1048 01:12:04.479 --> 01:12:09.520 blue striped boats without keels. They were continually upsetting amid laughter. 1049 01:12:10.439 --> 01:12:13.920 Before the long stretches of bathing houses, where people were 1050 01:12:13.960 --> 01:12:18.000 sitting on the platforms as though on small verandas there 1051 01:12:18.079 --> 01:12:20.560 was a play of movement against the line of rest 1052 01:12:20.600 --> 01:12:26.760 and inertness behind visits and chatter, fastidious morning elegance alongside 1053 01:12:26.800 --> 01:12:30.880 the nakedness which boldly at ease, was enjoying the freedom 1054 01:12:30.960 --> 01:12:34.640 which the place afforded. Further in front, on the damp, 1055 01:12:34.760 --> 01:12:38.920 firm sand, people were parading about in white bathing cloaks 1056 01:12:39.199 --> 01:12:43.880 in ample, brilliantly colored wrappers. An elaborate sand pile to 1057 01:12:43.920 --> 01:12:47.720 the right, erected by children, had flags in the colors 1058 01:12:47.720 --> 01:12:52.000 of all nations planted around it. Vendors of shells, cakes 1059 01:12:52.039 --> 01:12:56.279 and fruit spread out their wares. Kneeling to the left, 1060 01:12:56.520 --> 01:12:59.000 before one of the bathing houses, which stood at right 1061 01:12:59.039 --> 01:13:02.600 angles to the other and to the sea. A Russian 1062 01:13:02.640 --> 01:13:07.439 family was encamped, men with beards and large teeth, slow 1063 01:13:07.600 --> 01:13:11.760 delicate women, a Baltic girl sitting by an easel and 1064 01:13:11.920 --> 01:13:16.680 painting the sea amidst exclamations of despair. Two ugly, good 1065 01:13:16.760 --> 01:13:20.840 natured children, an old maidservant who wore a kerchief on 1066 01:13:20.920 --> 01:13:24.359 her head and had the alert, scraping manners of a slave. 1067 01:13:25.159 --> 01:13:29.439 Delighted and appreciative, they were living there, patiently calling the 1068 01:13:29.520 --> 01:13:33.640 names of the two rowdy, disobedient children, using their scanty 1069 01:13:33.680 --> 01:13:37.319 Italian to joke with the humorous old man from whom 1070 01:13:37.359 --> 01:13:40.640 they were buying candy, kissing one another on the cheek, 1071 01:13:41.079 --> 01:13:44.039 and not in the least concerned with any one who 1072 01:13:44.159 --> 01:13:49.600 might be observing their community. Yes, I shall stay. Aschenbach 1073 01:13:49.680 --> 01:13:53.960 thought where would things be better? And his hands folded 1074 01:13:53.960 --> 01:13:56.880 in his lap, he let his eyes lose themselves in 1075 01:13:56.960 --> 01:14:01.319 the expanses of the sea, his gaze gliding, swimming, and 1076 01:14:01.439 --> 01:14:04.720 failing in the monotone mist of the wilderness of space. 1077 01:14:05.399 --> 01:14:09.319 He loved the ocean for deep seated reasons, because of 1078 01:14:09.359 --> 01:14:12.760 that yearning for rest, when the hard pressed artist hungers 1079 01:14:13.000 --> 01:14:17.039 to shut out the exacting multiplicities of experience and hide 1080 01:14:17.119 --> 01:14:20.560 himself on the breast of the simple, the vast, and 1081 01:14:20.760 --> 01:14:25.039 because of a forbidding hankering seductive by virtue of its 1082 01:14:25.039 --> 01:14:31.000 being directly opposed to his obligations. After the incommunicable, the incommensurate, 1083 01:14:31.279 --> 01:14:35.000 the eternal, the non existent, to be at rest in 1084 01:14:35.039 --> 01:14:38.439 the face of perfection is the hunger of everyone who 1085 01:14:38.479 --> 01:14:41.800 is aiming at excellence. And what is the non existent 1086 01:14:42.119 --> 01:14:45.840 but a form of perfection. But now, just as his 1087 01:14:45.920 --> 01:14:50.159 dreams were so far out in vacancy, suddenly the horizontal 1088 01:14:50.199 --> 01:14:53.039 fringe of the sea was broken by a human figure. 1089 01:14:53.600 --> 01:14:56.399 And as he brought his eyes back from the unbounded 1090 01:14:56.840 --> 01:15:00.520 and focused them, it was the lovely boy who there, 1091 01:15:00.960 --> 01:15:04.000 coming from the left, and passing him on the sand. 1092 01:15:04.640 --> 01:15:09.119 He was barefooted, ready for waiting, his slender legs exposed 1093 01:15:09.159 --> 01:15:13.600 above the knees. He walked slowly, but as lightly and proudly, 1094 01:15:13.920 --> 01:15:16.520 as though it were the customary thing for him to 1095 01:15:16.640 --> 01:15:20.359 move about without shoes. And he was looking around him 1096 01:15:20.680 --> 01:15:24.079 towards the line of bathing houses opposite. But as soon 1097 01:15:24.119 --> 01:15:27.359 as he had noticed the Russian family occupied with their 1098 01:15:27.399 --> 01:15:31.880 own harmony and contentment. A cloud of scorn and detestation 1099 01:15:32.199 --> 01:15:37.079 passed over his face. His brow darkened, his mouth was compressed. 1100 01:15:37.560 --> 01:15:40.800 He gave his lips an embittered twist to one side, 1101 01:15:41.039 --> 01:15:44.520 so that the cheek was distorted, and the forehead became 1102 01:15:44.600 --> 01:15:48.880 so heavily furrowed that the eyes seemed sunken beneath its pressure. 1103 01:15:49.760 --> 01:15:53.960 Malicious and glowering, they spoke the language of hate. He 1104 01:15:54.000 --> 01:15:58.880 looked down, looked back once more threateningly, then with his shoulder, 1105 01:15:59.239 --> 01:16:03.239 made an abrupt gesture of disdain and dismissal, and left 1106 01:16:03.239 --> 01:16:08.079 the enemy behind him. A kind of prudency or confusion, 1107 01:16:08.560 --> 01:16:12.760 something like respect and shyness, caused Oschenbach to turn away, 1108 01:16:13.119 --> 01:16:16.560 as though he had seen nothing. For the earnest minded, 1109 01:16:16.800 --> 01:16:20.760 who have been casual observers of some passion, struggle against 1110 01:16:20.760 --> 01:16:24.199 making use even to themselves of what they have seen. 1111 01:16:25.119 --> 01:16:28.279 But he was both cheered and unstrung, which is to 1112 01:16:28.319 --> 01:16:33.800 say he was happy. This childish fanaticism directed against the 1113 01:16:33.840 --> 01:16:37.439 most good natured possible aspect of life. It brought the 1114 01:16:37.520 --> 01:16:43.039 divinely arbitrary into human relationships. It made a delightful natural 1115 01:16:43.119 --> 01:16:46.680 picture which had appealed only to the eye now seemed 1116 01:16:46.720 --> 01:16:50.079 worthy of a deeper sympathy, and it gave the figure 1117 01:16:50.119 --> 01:16:53.319 of this half grown boy, who had already been important 1118 01:16:53.439 --> 01:16:57.520 enough by his sheer beauty, something to offset him still further, 1119 01:16:58.119 --> 01:17:00.760 and to make one take him more so seriously than 1120 01:17:00.840 --> 01:17:05.880 his years justified. Still looking away, Oschenbach could hear the 1121 01:17:05.880 --> 01:17:10.319 boy's voice, the shrill, somewhat weak voice with which, in 1122 01:17:10.359 --> 01:17:13.640 the distance now he was trying to call hello to 1123 01:17:13.760 --> 01:17:18.199 his playfellows busied around the sand pile. They answered him, 1124 01:17:18.520 --> 01:17:23.000 shouting back his name or some affectionate nickname, and Oschenbach 1125 01:17:23.279 --> 01:17:27.000 listened with a certain curiosity, without being able to catch 1126 01:17:27.000 --> 01:17:31.640 anything more definite than the two melodic syllables like ajio 1127 01:17:32.399 --> 01:17:36.800 or still more frequently adieu, with a ringing you sound 1128 01:17:37.159 --> 01:17:40.640 prolonged at the end. He was pleased with the resonance 1129 01:17:40.680 --> 01:17:44.119 of this. He found it adequate to the subject. He 1130 01:17:44.159 --> 01:17:49.680 repeated it silently, and satisfied, turned to his letters and manuscripts, 1131 01:17:50.840 --> 01:17:54.159 his small portable writing desk on his knees. He began 1132 01:17:54.239 --> 01:17:57.359 writing with his fountain pen and answer to this or 1133 01:17:57.359 --> 01:18:01.319 that bit of correspondence. But after the first fifteen minutes 1134 01:18:01.720 --> 01:18:04.720 he found it a pity to abandon the situation the 1135 01:18:04.800 --> 01:18:07.920 most enjoyable he could think of in this manner, and 1136 01:18:08.039 --> 01:18:12.199 wasted in activities which did not interest him. He tossed 1137 01:18:12.239 --> 01:18:15.439 the writing materials to one side and he faced the 1138 01:18:15.439 --> 01:18:20.279 ocean again. Soon afterwards, diverted by the childish voices around 1139 01:18:20.319 --> 01:18:24.000 the sand heap, he revolved his head comfortably along the 1140 01:18:24.039 --> 01:18:27.439 back of the chair towards the right to discover where 1141 01:18:27.479 --> 01:18:31.279 that excellent little aggio might be and what he was doing. 1142 01:18:32.159 --> 01:18:34.760 He was found at a glance. The red tie on 1143 01:18:34.840 --> 01:18:38.039 his breast was not to be overlooked. Busied with the 1144 01:18:38.079 --> 01:18:41.039 others in laying an old plank across the damp moat 1145 01:18:41.319 --> 01:18:45.720 of the sand castle, he was nodding and shouting instructions 1146 01:18:45.760 --> 01:18:49.359 for this work. There were about ten companions with him, 1147 01:18:49.720 --> 01:18:52.960 boys and girls of his age, and a few younger ones, 1148 01:18:53.159 --> 01:18:56.520 who were chattering with one another in Polish, French and 1149 01:18:56.640 --> 01:19:00.640 in several Balkan tongues. But it was his name which 1150 01:19:00.720 --> 01:19:05.920 rang out most often. He was openly in demand, sought after, admired. 1151 01:19:06.479 --> 01:19:10.640 One boy especially like him, a pole, a stocky fellow 1152 01:19:10.880 --> 01:19:14.960 who was called something like Joshu, with sleek black hair 1153 01:19:15.319 --> 01:19:18.680 and a belted linen coat, seemed to be his closest 1154 01:19:18.760 --> 01:19:27.640 vassal and friend. End of Chapter three, Part two. Chapter three, 1155 01:19:27.920 --> 01:19:31.439 Part three, When the work on the sands structure was 1156 01:19:31.520 --> 01:19:34.760 finished for the time being, they walked arm in arm 1157 01:19:34.800 --> 01:19:38.319 along the beach, and the boy, who was called Joshu, 1158 01:19:38.920 --> 01:19:43.199 kissed the beauty. Aschenbach was half minded to raise a 1159 01:19:43.279 --> 01:19:49.079 warning finger. I advise you, Christobulus, he thought, smiling to 1160 01:19:49.199 --> 01:19:52.279 travel for a year, for you need that much time 1161 01:19:52.359 --> 01:19:56.239 at least to get over it. And then he breakfasted 1162 01:19:56.399 --> 01:19:59.640 on large ripe strawberries, which he got from a peddler. 1163 01:20:00.439 --> 01:20:03.359 It had become very warm, although the sun could no 1164 01:20:03.439 --> 01:20:07.960 longer penetrate the blanket of mist in the sky. Laziness 1165 01:20:07.960 --> 01:20:12.279 clogged his brain, even while his senses delighted in the numbing, 1166 01:20:12.439 --> 01:20:17.319 drugging distractions of the ocean's stillness. To guess, to puzzle 1167 01:20:17.359 --> 01:20:20.680 out just what name it was that sounded something like 1168 01:20:20.960 --> 01:20:25.720 Ajio seemed to the sober man an appropriate ambition, a 1169 01:20:25.840 --> 01:20:29.760 thoroughly comprehensive pursuit, and with the aid of a few 1170 01:20:29.800 --> 01:20:34.880 scrappy recollections of Polish, he decided that they must mean Tasio, 1171 01:20:35.439 --> 01:20:40.079 the shortened form of Tadeus, and sounded like Tasiu, when 1172 01:20:40.119 --> 01:20:45.199 it is called Tasio was bathing. Aschenbach, who had lost 1173 01:20:45.279 --> 01:20:48.520 sight of him, spied his head and the arm with 1174 01:20:48.640 --> 01:20:52.000 which he was propelling himself far out in the water, 1175 01:20:52.600 --> 01:20:55.000 for the sea must have been smooth for a long 1176 01:20:55.159 --> 01:20:59.640 distance out. But already people seemed worried about him. Women's 1177 01:20:59.680 --> 01:21:03.479 voice were calling after him from the bathing houses, uttering 1178 01:21:03.520 --> 01:21:07.479 his name again and again. It almost dominated the beach 1179 01:21:07.640 --> 01:21:11.319 like a battle cry, and with its soft consonants, its 1180 01:21:11.359 --> 01:21:14.920 long drawn you note at the end it had something 1181 01:21:14.960 --> 01:21:20.800 at once sweet and wild about it. Toadsio tadzio. He 1182 01:21:20.840 --> 01:21:24.199 turned back, beating the resistant water into a foam with 1183 01:21:24.319 --> 01:21:28.079 his legs. He hurried his head bent down over the waves. 1184 01:21:28.600 --> 01:21:32.239 And to see how this living figure, graceful and clean 1185 01:21:32.319 --> 01:21:36.000 cut in its advance, with dripping curls and lovely as 1186 01:21:36.039 --> 01:21:38.840 some frail god, came up out of the depths of 1187 01:21:38.920 --> 01:21:43.039 sky and sea, rose and separated from the elements. This 1188 01:21:43.119 --> 01:21:46.520 spectacle aroused a sense of myth. It was like some 1189 01:21:46.560 --> 01:21:50.199 poet's recovery of time at its beginning, of the origins 1190 01:21:50.239 --> 01:21:54.119 of forms and the birth of gods. Aschenbach listened with 1191 01:21:54.199 --> 01:21:57.880 closed eyes to the song ringing within him, and he 1192 01:21:57.960 --> 01:22:00.960 thought again that it was pleasant he and that he 1193 01:22:01.000 --> 01:22:05.640 would like to remain. Later, Tazio was resting from his bath. 1194 01:22:06.119 --> 01:22:08.840 He lay in the sand, wrapped in his white robe, 1195 01:22:09.159 --> 01:22:12.479 which was drawn under the right shoulder, his head supported 1196 01:22:12.520 --> 01:22:15.920 on his bare arm, And even when Aschenbach was not 1197 01:22:15.960 --> 01:22:19.239 observing him, but was reading a few pages in his book, 1198 01:22:19.800 --> 01:22:22.960 he hardly ever forgot that this boy was lying there, 1199 01:22:23.399 --> 01:22:25.800 and that it would cost him only a slight turn 1200 01:22:25.840 --> 01:22:28.640 of his head to the right to behold the mystery. 1201 01:22:29.279 --> 01:22:32.079 It seemed that he was sitting here just to keep 1202 01:22:32.159 --> 01:22:36.239 watch over his repose, busied with his own concerns, and 1203 01:22:36.359 --> 01:22:39.319 yet constantly aware of this noble picture at his right, 1204 01:22:39.800 --> 01:22:42.920 not far in the distance, and he was stirred by 1205 01:22:42.920 --> 01:22:46.920 a paternal affection, the profound leaning which those who have 1206 01:22:47.039 --> 01:22:50.600 devoted their thoughts to the creation of beauty feel towards 1207 01:22:50.680 --> 01:22:55.239 those who possess beauty itself. A little past noon, he 1208 01:22:55.319 --> 01:22:58.760 left the beach, returned to the hotel, and was taken 1209 01:22:58.840 --> 01:23:01.680 up to his room. He stayed there for some time 1210 01:23:01.760 --> 01:23:04.239 in front of the mirror, looking at his gray hair, 1211 01:23:04.680 --> 01:23:08.439 his tired, sharp features. At this moment he thought of 1212 01:23:08.479 --> 01:23:11.439 his reputation and of the fact that he was often 1213 01:23:11.520 --> 01:23:15.840 recognized on the streets and observed with respect. Thanks to 1214 01:23:15.880 --> 01:23:18.760 the sure aim and the appealing finish of his words. 1215 01:23:19.319 --> 01:23:22.359 He called up all the exterior successes of his talent 1216 01:23:22.479 --> 01:23:26.359 which he could think of, remembering also his elevation to 1217 01:23:26.399 --> 01:23:29.560 the knighthood. Then he went down to the dining hall 1218 01:23:29.600 --> 01:23:32.960 for lunch and ate at his little table. As he 1219 01:23:33.079 --> 01:23:35.600 was riding up in the lift after the meal was ended, 1220 01:23:35.920 --> 01:23:39.399 a group of young people just coming from breakfast pressed 1221 01:23:39.439 --> 01:23:43.560 into the swaying cage after him, and Tazio entered too. 1222 01:23:44.399 --> 01:23:47.720 He stood quite near to Oschenbach for the first time, 1223 01:23:47.880 --> 01:23:51.359 so near that Rauschenbach could see him not with the 1224 01:23:51.399 --> 01:23:55.000 a loftness of a picture, but in minute detail, in 1225 01:23:55.079 --> 01:23:59.119 all his human particularities. The boy was addressed by some 1226 01:23:59.159 --> 01:24:01.920 one or other, and as he was answering with an 1227 01:24:01.920 --> 01:24:06.680 indescribably agreeable smile, he stepped out again on the second floor, 1228 01:24:07.119 --> 01:24:12.239 walking backwards and with his eyes lowered. Beauty makes modest, 1229 01:24:12.239 --> 01:24:16.319 Aschenbach thought, and he tried insistently to explain why this 1230 01:24:16.600 --> 01:24:20.479 was so. But he had noticed that Tasio's teeth were 1231 01:24:20.520 --> 01:24:24.159 not all they should be. They were somewhat jagged and pale. 1232 01:24:24.800 --> 01:24:27.920 The enamel did not look healthy. It had a peculiar 1233 01:24:27.920 --> 01:24:32.199 brittleness and transparency, as is often the case with anemex. 1234 01:24:32.760 --> 01:24:37.439 He is very frail, he is sickly. Aschenbach thought, in 1235 01:24:37.520 --> 01:24:41.960 all probability he will not grow old, and he refused 1236 01:24:42.039 --> 01:24:46.000 to reckon with the feeling of gratification or reassurance which 1237 01:24:46.000 --> 01:24:50.079 accompanied this notion. He spent two hours in his room, 1238 01:24:50.479 --> 01:24:54.159 and in the afternoon he rode in the vaporetto across 1239 01:24:54.199 --> 01:24:57.600 the foul smelling lagoon to Venice. He got off at 1240 01:24:57.640 --> 01:25:01.479 San Marco, took tea on the piazza, and then, in 1241 01:25:01.520 --> 01:25:04.159 accord with his schedule for the day, he went for 1242 01:25:04.239 --> 01:25:07.199 a walk through the streets. Yet it was this walk 1243 01:25:07.439 --> 01:25:11.640 which produced a complete reversal in his attitudes and his plans. 1244 01:25:12.520 --> 01:25:16.159 An offensive sultriness lay over the streets. The air was 1245 01:25:16.199 --> 01:25:19.720 so heavy that the smells pouring out of homes, stores 1246 01:25:19.920 --> 01:25:24.800 and eating houses became mixed with oil vapors, clouds of perfume, 1247 01:25:25.279 --> 01:25:28.640 and still other odors, and these would not blow away, 1248 01:25:28.960 --> 01:25:35.000 but hung in layers. Cigarette smoke remained suspended, disappearing very slowly. 1249 01:25:35.720 --> 01:25:39.399 The crush of people along the narrow streets irritated rather 1250 01:25:39.479 --> 01:25:43.239 than entertained the walker. The farther he went, the more 1251 01:25:43.279 --> 01:25:47.079 he was depressed by the repulsive condition resulting from the 1252 01:25:47.119 --> 01:25:51.119 combination of sea air and sea racco which was at 1253 01:25:51.159 --> 01:25:55.520 the same time both stimulating and enervating. He broke into 1254 01:25:55.520 --> 01:26:00.399 an uncomfortable sweat. His eyes failed him, his chest became tight. 1255 01:26:00.800 --> 01:26:03.960 He had a fever. The blood was pounding in his head. 1256 01:26:04.640 --> 01:26:07.920 He fled from the crowded business streets across a bridge 1257 01:26:08.239 --> 01:26:11.520 into the walks of the poor. On a quiet square, 1258 01:26:11.720 --> 01:26:15.479 one of those forgotten and enchanted places which lie in 1259 01:26:15.520 --> 01:26:18.359 the interior of Venice, he rested at the brink of 1260 01:26:18.399 --> 01:26:22.039 a well, dried his forehead, and realized that he would 1261 01:26:22.079 --> 01:26:25.680 have to leave here for the second and last time. 1262 01:26:26.119 --> 01:26:29.520 It had been demonstrated that this city, in this kind 1263 01:26:29.560 --> 01:26:34.039 of weather, was decidedly unhealthy for him. It seemed foolish 1264 01:26:34.119 --> 01:26:37.439 to attempt a stubborn resistance. While the prospects for a 1265 01:26:37.520 --> 01:26:42.119 change of wind were completely uncertain, a certain decision was 1266 01:26:42.159 --> 01:26:45.960 called for. It was not possible to go home this soon. 1267 01:26:46.600 --> 01:26:50.560 Neither summer nor winter quarters were prepared to receive him. 1268 01:26:51.119 --> 01:26:53.399 But this was not the only place where there were 1269 01:26:53.439 --> 01:26:57.239 sea and beach and elsewhere these could be found without 1270 01:26:57.279 --> 01:27:01.319 the lagoon and its malarial mists. He remembered a little 1271 01:27:01.359 --> 01:27:05.199 watering place not far from Trieste, which had been praised 1272 01:27:05.319 --> 01:27:09.439 to him. Why not there, and without delay, so that 1273 01:27:09.479 --> 01:27:12.479 this new change of location would still have time to 1274 01:27:12.520 --> 01:27:16.439 do him some good. He pronounced this as good as settled, 1275 01:27:16.760 --> 01:27:20.760 and stood up. At the next gondola station, he took 1276 01:27:20.800 --> 01:27:23.760 a boat back to San Marco and was led through 1277 01:27:23.800 --> 01:27:28.479 the dreary labyrinth of canals under fancy marble balconies planked 1278 01:27:28.479 --> 01:27:33.039 with lions around the corners of smooth walls, past the 1279 01:27:33.119 --> 01:27:38.199 sorrowing facades of palaces which mirrored large, dilapidated business signs 1280 01:27:38.239 --> 01:27:42.000 in the pulsing water. He had trouble arriving there, for 1281 01:27:42.119 --> 01:27:44.960 the gondolier, who was in league with lace makers and 1282 01:27:45.039 --> 01:27:49.319 glass blowers, was always trying to land him for inspections 1283 01:27:49.359 --> 01:27:53.079 and purchases. And just as the bizarre trip through Venice 1284 01:27:53.319 --> 01:27:56.720 would begin to cast its spell, the greedy business sense 1285 01:27:56.760 --> 01:27:59.680 of the sunken queen did all it could to destroy 1286 01:27:59.760 --> 01:28:04.039 the illusion. When he had returned to the hotel, he 1287 01:28:04.079 --> 01:28:09.119 announced at the office before dinner the unforeseen developments necessitated 1288 01:28:09.119 --> 01:28:13.319 his departure. The following morning. He was assured of their regrets, 1289 01:28:13.800 --> 01:28:17.439 He settled his accounts, He dined, and spent the warm 1290 01:28:17.479 --> 01:28:20.800 evening reading the newspapers in a rocking chair on the 1291 01:28:20.840 --> 01:28:24.680 rear terrace. Before going to bed, he got his luggage 1292 01:28:24.720 --> 01:28:28.560 all ready for departure. He did not sleep so well 1293 01:28:28.600 --> 01:28:32.239 as he might, since the impending break up made him restless. 1294 01:28:33.000 --> 01:28:35.760 When he opened the window in the morning, the sky 1295 01:28:36.079 --> 01:28:39.640 was as overcast as ever, but the air seemed fresher, 1296 01:28:39.960 --> 01:28:43.800 and he was already beginning to repent. Hadn't his decision 1297 01:28:43.880 --> 01:28:47.359 been somewhat hasty and uncalled for, the result of a 1298 01:28:47.439 --> 01:28:52.239 passing diffidence and indisposition. If he had delayed a little, 1299 01:28:52.640 --> 01:28:56.119 If instead of surrendering so easily, he had made some 1300 01:28:56.239 --> 01:28:59.640 attempt to adjust himself to the air of venice, or 1301 01:28:59.680 --> 01:29:02.359 to wait for an improvement in the weather, he would 1302 01:29:02.399 --> 01:29:06.319 not be so rushed and inconvenienced, but could anticipate another 1303 01:29:06.399 --> 01:29:10.880 forenoon on the beach like yesterday's. Too late. Now he 1304 01:29:10.880 --> 01:29:13.720 would have to go on wanting what he had wanted yesterday. 1305 01:29:14.319 --> 01:29:17.479 He dressed, and about eight o'clock rode down to the 1306 01:29:17.479 --> 01:29:21.920 ground floor for breakfast. As he entered, the buffet room 1307 01:29:22.039 --> 01:29:25.000 was still empty of guests. A few came in while 1308 01:29:25.000 --> 01:29:27.960 he waited for his order. With his tea cup to 1309 01:29:28.039 --> 01:29:31.399 his lips, he saw the Polish girls and the governess 1310 01:29:31.399 --> 01:29:36.399 appear rigid with morning freshness, their eyes still red, they 1311 01:29:36.439 --> 01:29:39.319 walked across to their table in the corner by the window. 1312 01:29:40.039 --> 01:29:44.479 Immediately afterwards, the porter approached him, cap in hand and 1313 01:29:44.600 --> 01:29:47.840 warned him that it was time to go. The automobile 1314 01:29:47.920 --> 01:29:50.479 is ready to take him and the other passengers to 1315 01:29:50.560 --> 01:29:54.439 the Hotel Excelsior, and from here the motor boat will 1316 01:29:54.439 --> 01:29:57.680 bring the ladies and gentlemen to the station through the 1317 01:29:57.720 --> 01:30:03.359 company's private canal. Time is pressing. Haschenbach found that he 1318 01:30:03.520 --> 01:30:06.680 was doing nothing of the sort. It was still over 1319 01:30:06.720 --> 01:30:10.000 an hour before his train left. He was irritated by 1320 01:30:10.039 --> 01:30:14.039 this hotel custom of hustling departing guests out of the house, 1321 01:30:14.479 --> 01:30:17.399 and indicated to the porter that he wished to finish 1322 01:30:17.479 --> 01:30:22.399 his breakfast in peace. The man retired hesitatingly, to appear 1323 01:30:22.439 --> 01:30:26.119 again five minutes later. It is impossible for the car 1324 01:30:26.199 --> 01:30:29.079 to wait any longer. Then he would take a cab 1325 01:30:29.399 --> 01:30:33.359 and carry his trunk with him. Haschenbach replied in anger, 1326 01:30:33.960 --> 01:30:36.680 he would use the public steamboat at the proper time, 1327 01:30:37.159 --> 01:30:39.840 and he requested that it be left to him personally 1328 01:30:40.199 --> 01:30:44.720 to worry about his departure. The employee bowed himself away, 1329 01:30:45.319 --> 01:30:48.880 pleased with the way he had warded off these importunate warnings. 1330 01:30:49.279 --> 01:30:53.239 Oschenbach finished his meal at leisure. In fact, he even 1331 01:30:53.319 --> 01:30:56.399 let the waiter bring him a newspaper. The time had 1332 01:30:56.439 --> 01:31:00.119 become quite short when he finally arose. It was fitting 1333 01:31:00.159 --> 01:31:03.079 that at the same moment Tasio should come through the 1334 01:31:03.119 --> 01:31:06.960 glass door. On the way to his table. He walked 1335 01:31:06.960 --> 01:31:11.479 in the opposite direction to Oschenbach, lowering his eyes modestly 1336 01:31:11.840 --> 01:31:14.680 before the man with the gray hair and high forehead, 1337 01:31:15.119 --> 01:31:18.800 only to raise them again in his delicious manner, soft 1338 01:31:18.840 --> 01:31:23.760 and full upon him. And he had passed good bye, Tasio. 1339 01:31:24.359 --> 01:31:28.479 Aschenbach thought, I did not see much of you. He 1340 01:31:28.560 --> 01:31:32.079 did what was unusual with him, really formed the words 1341 01:31:32.119 --> 01:31:35.520 on his lips and spoke them to himself. Then he 1342 01:31:35.600 --> 01:31:41.359 added God bless you. After this he left, distributed tips, 1343 01:31:41.760 --> 01:31:44.319 was ushered out by the small gentle manager in the 1344 01:31:44.319 --> 01:31:47.479 French frock coat, and made off from the hotel on 1345 01:31:47.600 --> 01:31:51.199 foot as he had come, going along the white blossoming 1346 01:31:51.239 --> 01:31:55.520 avenue which crossed the island to the steamer bridge. Accompanied 1347 01:31:55.520 --> 01:31:59.760 by the house servant carrying his hand luggage, he arrived, 1348 01:32:00.039 --> 01:32:03.560 took his place, and then followed a painful journey through 1349 01:32:03.600 --> 01:32:07.479 all the depths of regret. It was the familiar trip 1350 01:32:07.520 --> 01:32:11.960 across the lagoon, past San Marco, up the Grand Canal. 1351 01:32:12.640 --> 01:32:15.840 Haschenbach sat on the circular bench at the bow, his 1352 01:32:16.039 --> 01:32:20.159 arms supported against the railing, shading his eyes with his hand. 1353 01:32:20.760 --> 01:32:24.960 The public gardens were left behind. The piazzetta opened up 1354 01:32:25.000 --> 01:32:29.319 once more in princely splendor and was gone. Then came 1355 01:32:29.359 --> 01:32:32.520 the great flock of palaces, and as the channel made 1356 01:32:32.520 --> 01:32:36.159 a turn, the magnificently slung marble arch of the Rialto 1357 01:32:36.600 --> 01:32:41.079 came into view. The traveler was watching. His emotions were 1358 01:32:41.079 --> 01:32:45.279 in conflict. The atmosphere of the city, the slightly foul 1359 01:32:45.399 --> 01:32:48.119 smell of sea and swamp, which he had been so 1360 01:32:48.239 --> 01:32:52.520 anxious to avoid. He breathed it now in deep, exquisitely 1361 01:32:52.600 --> 01:32:56.800 painful drafts. Was it possible that he had not known, 1362 01:32:57.239 --> 01:33:00.439 had not considered, just how much he was at attached 1363 01:33:00.479 --> 01:33:04.039 to all this? What had been a partial misgiving this morning, 1364 01:33:04.319 --> 01:33:07.279 A faint doubt as to the advisability of his move 1365 01:33:07.880 --> 01:33:12.760 now became a distress, a positive misery, a spiritual hunger, 1366 01:33:13.399 --> 01:33:16.840 and so bitter that it frequently brought tears to his eyes, 1367 01:33:17.199 --> 01:33:19.920 while he told himself that he could not possibly have 1368 01:33:20.000 --> 01:33:24.239 foreseen it. Hardest of all to bear at times completely 1369 01:33:24.279 --> 01:33:28.000 insufferable was the thought that he would never see Venice again, 1370 01:33:28.520 --> 01:33:32.199 That this was a leave taking forever, since he had 1371 01:33:32.239 --> 01:33:35.600 been shown for the second time that the city affected 1372 01:33:35.600 --> 01:33:38.800 his health, since he was compelled for the second time 1373 01:33:39.239 --> 01:33:42.039 to get away in all haste. From now on he 1374 01:33:42.079 --> 01:33:45.680 would have to consider it a place impossible and forbidden 1375 01:33:45.760 --> 01:33:48.520 to him, the place which he was not equal to, 1376 01:33:49.039 --> 01:33:52.680 and which it would be foolish for him to visit again. Yes, 1377 01:33:53.119 --> 01:33:55.600 he felt that if he left now he would be 1378 01:33:55.640 --> 01:34:00.079 shamefaced and defiant enough never to see again the beloved, 1379 01:34:00.439 --> 01:34:04.239 which had twice caused him a physical breakdown and of 1380 01:34:04.319 --> 01:34:08.720 a sudden This struggle between his desires and his physical 1381 01:34:08.760 --> 01:34:13.159 strength seemed to the aging man so grave and important. 1382 01:34:13.680 --> 01:34:17.920 His physical defeat seemed so dishonorable, so much a challenge 1383 01:34:17.960 --> 01:34:20.560 to hold out at any cost, that he could not 1384 01:34:20.720 --> 01:34:24.520 understand the ready submissiveness of the day before, when he 1385 01:34:24.560 --> 01:34:30.119 had decided to give in without attempting any serious resistance. Meanwhile, 1386 01:34:30.159 --> 01:34:34.479 the steamboat was nearing the station. Pain and perplexity increased. 1387 01:34:34.880 --> 01:34:38.840 He became distracted in his affliction. He felt that it 1388 01:34:38.920 --> 01:34:43.119 was impossible to leave and just as impossible to turn back. 1389 01:34:43.760 --> 01:34:47.520 The conflict was intense. As he entered the station. It 1390 01:34:47.600 --> 01:34:50.239 was very late. There was not a moment to lose 1391 01:34:50.279 --> 01:34:52.960 if he was to catch the train. He wanted to, 1392 01:34:53.279 --> 01:34:56.399 and he did not want to, but time was pressing. 1393 01:34:56.800 --> 01:35:00.199 It drove him on. He hurried to get his ticket 1394 01:35:00.439 --> 01:35:02.800 and looked about in the tumult of the hall for 1395 01:35:02.920 --> 01:35:06.279 the officer on duty here from the hotel. The man 1396 01:35:06.319 --> 01:35:09.720 appeared and announced that the large trunk had been transferred, 1397 01:35:10.520 --> 01:35:16.800 transferred already, yes, thank you to como to como. And 1398 01:35:16.880 --> 01:35:20.119 in the midst of hasty running back and forth, angry 1399 01:35:20.239 --> 01:35:24.399 questions and confused answers, it came to light that the 1400 01:35:24.399 --> 01:35:28.000 trunk had already been sent with other foreign baggage from 1401 01:35:28.079 --> 01:35:32.159 the express office of the Hotel Excelsior, in a completely 1402 01:35:32.279 --> 01:35:38.079 wrong direction. Aschenbach had difficulty in preserving the expression which 1403 01:35:38.199 --> 01:35:42.399 was required under these circumstances. He was almost convulsed with 1404 01:35:42.479 --> 01:35:47.720 an adventurous delight an unbelievable hilarity, the employee rushed off 1405 01:35:47.880 --> 01:35:51.199 to see if it were still possible to stop the trunk, and, 1406 01:35:51.319 --> 01:35:54.920 as was to be expected, he returned with nothing accomplished. 1407 01:35:55.600 --> 01:35:58.760 Aschenbach declared that he did not want to travel without 1408 01:35:58.760 --> 01:36:01.960 his trunk, had decided to go back and wait at 1409 01:36:02.000 --> 01:36:05.920 the beach hotel for its return. Was the company's motor 1410 01:36:05.960 --> 01:36:09.239 boat still at the station. The man assured him that 1411 01:36:09.319 --> 01:36:13.439 it was lying at the door. With Italian volubility, he 1412 01:36:13.520 --> 01:36:16.439 persuaded the clerk at the ticket window to redeem the 1413 01:36:16.520 --> 01:36:19.920 canceled ticket. He swore that they would act speedily, that 1414 01:36:20.039 --> 01:36:22.840 no time or money would be spared in recovering the 1415 01:36:22.880 --> 01:36:27.680 trunk promptly, And so the strange thing happened that twenty 1416 01:36:27.720 --> 01:36:31.159 minutes after his arrival at the station, the traveler found 1417 01:36:31.239 --> 01:36:34.880 himself again on the Grand Canal, returning to the lido. 1418 01:36:35.840 --> 01:36:40.640 Here was an adventure wonderful, a bashing and comically dreamlike, 1419 01:36:40.840 --> 01:36:44.560 beyond belief, places which he had just bid farewell to 1420 01:36:44.760 --> 01:36:48.279 forever in the most abject misery. Yet he had been 1421 01:36:48.319 --> 01:36:51.680 turned and driven back by fate, and was seeing them 1422 01:36:51.720 --> 01:36:55.239 again in the same hour, the spray from the bow, 1423 01:36:55.760 --> 01:36:59.960 washing between gondolas and steamers with an absurd agility, show 1424 01:37:00.239 --> 01:37:03.359 the speedy little craft ahead to its goal, while the 1425 01:37:03.399 --> 01:37:06.920 one passenger was hiding the nervousness in a buliance of 1426 01:37:06.960 --> 01:37:11.119 a truant boy under the mask of resigned anger. From 1427 01:37:11.159 --> 01:37:14.680 time to time he shook with laughter at this mishap, which, 1428 01:37:15.079 --> 01:37:18.079 as he told himself, could not have turned out better 1429 01:37:18.319 --> 01:37:22.359 for a child of destiny. There were explanations to be given, 1430 01:37:22.680 --> 01:37:26.760 expressions of astonishment to be faced. And then he told 1431 01:37:26.840 --> 01:37:30.720 himself everything would be all right. Then a misfortune would 1432 01:37:30.760 --> 01:37:34.359 be avoided, a grave error rectified, and all that he 1433 01:37:34.399 --> 01:37:37.119 had thought he was leaving behind him would be open 1434 01:37:37.199 --> 01:37:41.479 to him again there at his disposal. And to cap 1435 01:37:41.520 --> 01:37:45.000 it all, was the rapidity of the ride deceiving him? 1436 01:37:45.560 --> 01:37:48.640 Or was the wind really coming from the sea. The 1437 01:37:48.680 --> 01:37:51.800 waves beat against the walls of the narrow canal which 1438 01:37:51.880 --> 01:37:56.119 runs through the island to the Hotel Excelsior. An automobile 1439 01:37:56.119 --> 01:37:59.680 omnibus was awaiting his return there and took him above 1440 01:37:59.680 --> 01:38:03.600 the rippling sea straight to the beach hotel. The little 1441 01:38:03.600 --> 01:38:07.319 manager with a mustache and long tailed frock coat came 1442 01:38:07.399 --> 01:38:12.000 down the stairs to meet him. He ingratiatingly regretted the episode, 1443 01:38:12.319 --> 01:38:16.079 spoke of it as highly painful to him and the establishment, 1444 01:38:16.600 --> 01:38:20.600 but firmly approved of Aschenbach's decision to wait here for 1445 01:38:20.680 --> 01:38:23.800 the baggage. Of course, his room had been given up, 1446 01:38:24.039 --> 01:38:26.760 but there was another one just as good, which he 1447 01:38:26.800 --> 01:38:32.359 could occupy immediately. Passee de chance monsieur, the Swiss elevator 1448 01:38:32.399 --> 01:38:36.359 boy smiled as they were ascending, and so the Fugitive 1449 01:38:36.479 --> 01:38:40.079 was established again in a room almost identical to the 1450 01:38:40.119 --> 01:38:44.079 other in its location and furnishings. Tired out by the 1451 01:38:44.119 --> 01:38:47.920 confusion of this strange forenoon, he distributed the contents of 1452 01:38:48.000 --> 01:38:51.600 his handbag about the room and dropped into an armchair 1453 01:38:51.680 --> 01:38:55.159 by the open window. The sea had become a pale green, 1454 01:38:55.640 --> 01:38:59.399 The air seemed thinner and purer. The beach, with its 1455 01:38:59.439 --> 01:39:03.319 cabins en bas, seemed to have color, although the sky 1456 01:39:03.520 --> 01:39:07.880 was still gray. Aschenbach looked out, his hands folded in 1457 01:39:07.960 --> 01:39:11.520 his lap. He was content to be back, but shook 1458 01:39:11.560 --> 01:39:15.800 his head disapprovingly at his irresolution, his failure to know 1459 01:39:15.880 --> 01:39:18.880 his own mind. He sat here for the better part 1460 01:39:18.920 --> 01:39:23.319 of an hour, resting and dreaming vaguely about noon, he 1461 01:39:23.359 --> 01:39:26.680 saw Tasio in a striped linen suit with a red tie, 1462 01:39:26.960 --> 01:39:30.199 coming back from the sea across the private beach along 1463 01:39:30.279 --> 01:39:34.439 the boardwalk to the hotel. Aschenbach recognized him from this 1464 01:39:34.560 --> 01:39:38.560 altitude before he had actually set eyes on him. He 1465 01:39:38.640 --> 01:39:42.479 was about to think such words as well, Tasio, there 1466 01:39:42.520 --> 01:39:45.920 you are again. But at the same moment he felt 1467 01:39:46.000 --> 01:39:49.640 this careless greeting go dumb before the truth. In his heart, 1468 01:39:50.239 --> 01:39:53.720 he felt the exhilaration of his blood, a conflict of 1469 01:39:53.840 --> 01:39:57.439 pain and pleasure, and he realized that it was Tasio 1470 01:39:57.720 --> 01:40:01.279 who made it so difficult for him to leave. He 1471 01:40:01.359 --> 01:40:06.039 sat very still, entirely unobserved from this height, and looked 1472 01:40:06.079 --> 01:40:11.000 within himself. His features were alert, his eyebrows raised, and 1473 01:40:11.199 --> 01:40:16.079 an attentive, keenly inquisitive smile distended his mouth. Then he 1474 01:40:16.199 --> 01:40:20.199 raised his head, lifted both hands, which had hung relaxed 1475 01:40:20.239 --> 01:40:22.880 over the arms of the chair, and in a slow 1476 01:40:22.920 --> 01:40:27.479 twisting movement, turned the palms downward, as though to suggest 1477 01:40:27.520 --> 01:40:31.159 an opening and spreading outward of his arms. It was 1478 01:40:31.199 --> 01:40:37.359 a spontaneous act of welcome, of calm, acceptance. End of 1479 01:40:37.520 --> 01:40:44.159 Chapter three, Chapter four, Part one Day after day Now 1480 01:40:44.479 --> 01:40:47.880 the Naked God with the hot cheeks, drove his fire 1481 01:40:47.960 --> 01:40:52.279 breathing quadriga across the expanses of the sky, and his 1482 01:40:52.399 --> 01:40:55.399 yellow locks fluttered in the assault of the east wind. 1483 01:40:56.119 --> 01:40:59.960 A white silk sheen stretched over the slowly simmering punch. 1484 01:41:00.920 --> 01:41:04.960 The sand glowed beneath the quaking silver blue of the ether. 1485 01:41:05.600 --> 01:41:08.800 Rust colored canvasses were spread in front of the beach 1486 01:41:08.880 --> 01:41:12.960 bathing houses, and the afternoons were spent in the sharply 1487 01:41:13.039 --> 01:41:16.920 demarcated spots of shade which they cast. But it was 1488 01:41:17.000 --> 01:41:20.439 also delightful in the evening, when the vegetation in the 1489 01:41:20.479 --> 01:41:24.239 park had the smell of balsam, and the stars were 1490 01:41:24.279 --> 01:41:28.560 working through their courses above, and the soft, persistent murmur 1491 01:41:28.600 --> 01:41:32.680 of the sea came up enchantingly through the night. Such 1492 01:41:32.720 --> 01:41:37.039 evenings contained the cheering promise that more sunny days of 1493 01:41:37.159 --> 01:41:43.000 casual idleness would follow, dotted with countless closely interspersed possibilities 1494 01:41:43.279 --> 01:41:47.600 of well timed accidents. The guest, who was detained here 1495 01:41:47.680 --> 01:41:51.520 by such an accommodating mishap, did not consider the return 1496 01:41:51.600 --> 01:41:56.159 of his property as sufficient grounds for another departure. He 1497 01:41:56.199 --> 01:42:00.520 suffered some inconvenience for two days and had to appears 1498 01:42:00.640 --> 01:42:04.239 in the large dining room in his traveling clothes. When 1499 01:42:04.279 --> 01:42:07.720 the strayed luggage was finally deposited in his room again, 1500 01:42:08.319 --> 01:42:12.640 he unpacked completely and filled the closet and drawers with 1501 01:42:12.720 --> 01:42:17.680 his belongings. He had decided to remain here indefinitely, content 1502 01:42:17.840 --> 01:42:20.439 now that he could pass the hours on the beach 1503 01:42:20.680 --> 01:42:23.560 in a silk suit and appear for dinner at his 1504 01:42:23.680 --> 01:42:28.680 little table again in appropriate evening dress. The comfortable rhythm 1505 01:42:28.680 --> 01:42:31.720 of his life had already cast its spell over him. 1506 01:42:32.319 --> 01:42:35.840 He was soon enticed by the ease the mild splendor 1507 01:42:36.000 --> 01:42:39.960 of his program. Indeed, what a place to be in 1508 01:42:40.359 --> 01:42:43.520 when the usual allurement of living and watering places on 1509 01:42:43.720 --> 01:42:47.600 southern shores was coupled with the immediate nearness of the 1510 01:42:47.640 --> 01:42:51.880 most wonderful of all cities. Aschenbach was not a lover 1511 01:42:52.000 --> 01:42:55.000 of pleasure. Whenever there was some call for him to 1512 01:42:55.039 --> 01:42:59.039 take a holiday, to indulge himself to have a good time, 1513 01:42:59.520 --> 01:43:02.600 and this it was especially true at an earlier age. 1514 01:43:03.039 --> 01:43:07.640 Restlessness and repugnance soon drove him back to his rigorous toil, 1515 01:43:08.199 --> 01:43:12.319 the faithful, sober efforts of his daily routine, except that 1516 01:43:12.399 --> 01:43:16.840 this place was bewitching him. Relaxing his will, making him 1517 01:43:16.920 --> 01:43:20.920 happy in the mornings under the shelter of his bathing house, 1518 01:43:21.399 --> 01:43:24.319 letting his eyes roam dreamily in the blue of the 1519 01:43:24.359 --> 01:43:28.000 Southern Sea war on a warm night, as he leaned 1520 01:43:28.039 --> 01:43:31.319 back against the cushions of the gondola, carrying him under 1521 01:43:31.359 --> 01:43:34.560 the broad, starry sky home to the Lido from the 1522 01:43:34.600 --> 01:43:39.000 Piazza di San Marco, after long hours of idleness, and 1523 01:43:39.079 --> 01:43:42.880 the brilliant lights the melting notes of the serenade were 1524 01:43:42.920 --> 01:43:47.359 being left behind. He often recalled his place in the mountains, 1525 01:43:47.399 --> 01:43:50.119 the scene of his battles in the summer, where the 1526 01:43:50.119 --> 01:43:55.000 clouds blew low across his garden, and terrifying storms put 1527 01:43:55.039 --> 01:43:58.000 out the lamps at night, and the crows which he 1528 01:43:58.079 --> 01:44:01.079 fed were swinging in the tops of the pine trees. 1529 01:44:01.960 --> 01:44:05.199 Then everything seemed just right to him, as though he 1530 01:44:05.239 --> 01:44:08.560 were lifted into the Elysian fields on the borders of 1531 01:44:08.600 --> 01:44:12.560 the earth, where man enjoys the easiest life, where there 1532 01:44:12.640 --> 01:44:16.439 is no snow or winter, no storms and pouring rains, 1533 01:44:16.840 --> 01:44:22.199 but where Oceanus continually sends forth gentle, cooling breezes, and 1534 01:44:22.359 --> 01:44:26.640 the days pass in a blessed inactivity, without work, devoted 1535 01:44:26.680 --> 01:44:29.840 wholly to the sun and to the feast days of 1536 01:44:29.920 --> 01:44:35.920 the sun. Aschenbach saw the boy Tadzio frequently, almost constantly, 1537 01:44:36.640 --> 01:44:40.520 owing to the limited range of territory and the regularity 1538 01:44:40.560 --> 01:44:43.720 of their lives. The beauty was near him at short 1539 01:44:43.760 --> 01:44:48.600 intervals throughout the day. He saw him, met him everywhere 1540 01:44:49.159 --> 01:44:51.960 in the lower rooms of the hotel, on the cooling 1541 01:44:52.039 --> 01:44:55.560 water trips to the city and back, in the arcades 1542 01:44:55.560 --> 01:44:59.399 of the square, and at times when he was especially lucky, 1543 01:45:00.039 --> 01:45:03.960 ran across him on the streets. But principally and with 1544 01:45:04.039 --> 01:45:08.239 the most gratifying regularity, the forenoon on the beach allowed 1545 01:45:08.279 --> 01:45:13.039 him to admire and study this rare spectacle at his leisure. Yes, 1546 01:45:13.439 --> 01:45:17.000 it was this guarantee of happiness, this daily recurrence of 1547 01:45:17.079 --> 01:45:21.119 good fortune, which made his stay here so precious and 1548 01:45:21.279 --> 01:45:24.960 gave him such pleasure. In the constant procession of sunny days, 1549 01:45:26.000 --> 01:45:28.000 he was up as early as he used to be 1550 01:45:28.560 --> 01:45:31.600 when under the driving pressure of work, and was on 1551 01:45:31.640 --> 01:45:34.920 the beach before most people, when the sun was still 1552 01:45:34.960 --> 01:45:38.560 mild and the sea lay blinding white in the dreaminess 1553 01:45:38.560 --> 01:45:41.840 of mourning. He spoke amiably to the guard of the 1554 01:45:41.880 --> 01:45:46.520 private beach, and also spoke familiarly to the barefoot, white 1555 01:45:46.520 --> 01:45:49.840 bearded old man who had prepared his place for him, 1556 01:45:50.359 --> 01:45:53.439 stretching the brown canopy and bringing the furniture of the 1557 01:45:53.479 --> 01:45:57.159 cabin out on the platform. Then he took his seat. 1558 01:45:57.600 --> 01:45:59.680 There would now be three or four hours in which 1559 01:45:59.680 --> 01:46:03.840 the sun mounted and gained terrific strength, the sea a 1560 01:46:03.920 --> 01:46:07.600 deeper and deeper blue, and he might look at Todsio. 1561 01:46:08.720 --> 01:46:11.720 He saw him approaching from the left along the edge 1562 01:46:11.720 --> 01:46:14.600 of the sea, he saw him as he stepped out 1563 01:46:14.640 --> 01:46:18.640 backwards from among the cabins, or he would suddenly find 1564 01:46:19.000 --> 01:46:22.159 with a shock of pleasure that he had missed his coming, 1565 01:46:22.640 --> 01:46:24.960 that he was already here in the blue and white 1566 01:46:25.000 --> 01:46:28.560 bathing suit which was his only garment now while on 1567 01:46:28.600 --> 01:46:32.359 the beach, that he had already commenced his usual activities 1568 01:46:32.560 --> 01:46:36.840 in the sun and the sand. A pleasantly trifling, idle 1569 01:46:37.079 --> 01:46:41.119 and unstable manner of living, a mixture of rest and play. 1570 01:46:41.760 --> 01:46:46.520 Todsio would saunter about, weighed, dig catch things, lie down, 1571 01:46:46.960 --> 01:46:50.239 go for a swim, all the while being kept under 1572 01:46:50.239 --> 01:46:53.479 surveillance by the women on the platform, who made his 1573 01:46:53.640 --> 01:46:58.319 name ring out in their falsetto voices. TODs you, TODs you, 1574 01:46:59.560 --> 01:47:01.720 then he would come running to them with a look 1575 01:47:01.760 --> 01:47:04.720 of eagerness, to tell them what he had seen, what 1576 01:47:04.840 --> 01:47:07.720 he had experienced, or to show them what he had 1577 01:47:07.720 --> 01:47:12.800 found or caught, muscles, sea horses, jellyfish, and crabs that 1578 01:47:12.920 --> 01:47:17.600 ran sideways. Aschenbach did not understand a word he said, 1579 01:47:18.119 --> 01:47:20.439 and though it might have been the most ordinary thing 1580 01:47:20.479 --> 01:47:23.600 in the world, it was a vague harmony in his ear. 1581 01:47:24.239 --> 01:47:28.039 So the forimness of the boy's speech turned it into music. 1582 01:47:28.560 --> 01:47:32.439 A wanton son poured its prodigal splendor down over him, 1583 01:47:32.880 --> 01:47:36.520 and his figure was always set off against the background 1584 01:47:36.800 --> 01:47:40.960 of an intense blue. This piquant body was so freely 1585 01:47:41.000 --> 01:47:44.960 exhibited that his eyes soon knew every line and posture. 1586 01:47:45.600 --> 01:47:50.680 He was continually rediscovering with new pleasure all this familiar beauty, 1587 01:47:51.199 --> 01:47:54.840 and his astonishment at its delicate appeal to his senses 1588 01:47:55.239 --> 01:47:58.760 was unending. The boy was called to greet a guest 1589 01:47:59.119 --> 01:48:01.560 who was paying his respects to the ladies at the 1590 01:48:01.600 --> 01:48:05.760 bathing house. He came running, running wet, perhaps out of 1591 01:48:05.760 --> 01:48:09.319 the water, tossed back his curls, and as he held 1592 01:48:09.359 --> 01:48:12.800 out his hand, resting on one leg and raising his 1593 01:48:12.880 --> 01:48:15.760 other foot on the toes, the set of his body 1594 01:48:15.880 --> 01:48:19.880 was delightful. It had a charming expectancy about it, a 1595 01:48:19.880 --> 01:48:24.560 well meaning shyness, a winsomeness which showed his aristocratic training. 1596 01:48:25.359 --> 01:48:29.279 He lay stretched full length, his bath towel slung across 1597 01:48:29.279 --> 01:48:33.600 his shoulders, his delicately chiseled arm supported in the sand, 1598 01:48:34.159 --> 01:48:38.439 his chin in his palm. The boy called Joshu was 1599 01:48:38.479 --> 01:48:42.319 squatting near him and making up to him, and nothing 1600 01:48:42.359 --> 01:48:45.119 could be more enchanting than the smile of his eyes 1601 01:48:45.159 --> 01:48:48.319 and lips when the leader glanced up at his inferior, 1602 01:48:48.920 --> 01:48:52.199 his servant. He stood on the edge of the sea, 1603 01:48:52.600 --> 01:48:57.840 alone apart from his people, quite near to Ochenbach. Erecked, 1604 01:48:58.079 --> 01:49:01.199 his hands locked across the back of his neck. He 1605 01:49:01.279 --> 01:49:05.000 swayed slowly on the balls of his feet, looked dreamily 1606 01:49:05.079 --> 01:49:08.960 into the blueness of sea and sky, while tiny waves 1607 01:49:09.079 --> 01:49:13.359 rolled up and bathed his feet. His honey colored hair 1608 01:49:13.840 --> 01:49:17.479 clung in rings about his neck and temples. The sun 1609 01:49:17.560 --> 01:49:21.159 made the down on his back glitter. The fine etching 1610 01:49:21.199 --> 01:49:25.039 of the ribs the symmetry of the chest were emphasized 1611 01:49:25.199 --> 01:49:28.640 by the tightness of the suit across the buttocks. His 1612 01:49:28.800 --> 01:49:31.720 armpits were still as smooth as those of a statue. 1613 01:49:32.239 --> 01:49:36.239 The hollows of his knees glistened, and their bluish veins 1614 01:49:36.279 --> 01:49:40.159 made his body seem built of some clearer stuff. What 1615 01:49:40.359 --> 01:49:44.399 rigor what precision of thought were expressed in this erect, 1616 01:49:44.680 --> 01:49:49.359 youthfully perfect body. Yet the pure and strenuous will which 1617 01:49:49.720 --> 01:49:53.479 darkly at work could bring such godlike sculpture to the light, 1618 01:49:54.159 --> 01:49:58.000 was not he the artist familiar with this? Did it 1619 01:49:58.039 --> 01:50:01.560 not operate in him? Too? And he, under the press 1620 01:50:01.600 --> 01:50:05.159 of frugal passions, would free from the marble mass of 1621 01:50:05.199 --> 01:50:09.119 speech some slender form which he had seen in the mind, 1622 01:50:09.520 --> 01:50:12.439 and which he put before his fellows as a statue 1623 01:50:12.760 --> 01:50:18.079 and a mirror of intellectual beauty. Statue and mirror. His 1624 01:50:18.239 --> 01:50:22.239 eyes took in the noble form there bordered with blue, 1625 01:50:22.319 --> 01:50:25.159 and with a rush of enthusiasm, he felt that in 1626 01:50:25.199 --> 01:50:29.479 this spectacle he was catching the beautiful itself, form as 1627 01:50:29.520 --> 01:50:33.479 the thought of God, the one pure perfection which lives 1628 01:50:33.520 --> 01:50:37.000 in the mind, and which, in this symbol and likeness, 1629 01:50:37.399 --> 01:50:41.119 had been placed here quietly and simply as an object 1630 01:50:41.159 --> 01:50:46.880 of devotion. That was drunkenness, and eagerly, without thinking, the 1631 01:50:46.920 --> 01:50:51.199 aging artist welcomed it. His mind was in travail. All 1632 01:50:51.279 --> 01:50:55.359 that he had learned dropped back into flux. His understanding 1633 01:50:55.520 --> 01:50:59.000 threw up age old thoughts which he had inherited with youth, 1634 01:50:59.319 --> 01:51:02.319 though they had never ever before lived with their own fire. 1635 01:51:03.359 --> 01:51:06.479 Is it not written that the sun diverts our attention 1636 01:51:06.800 --> 01:51:11.800 from intellectual to sensual things. Reason and understanding, it is said, 1637 01:51:12.359 --> 01:51:16.520 becomes so numbed and enchanted that the soul forgets everything 1638 01:51:16.600 --> 01:51:21.159 out of delight with its immediate circumstances, and in astonishment, 1639 01:51:21.520 --> 01:51:25.159 becomes attached to the most beautiful objects shined on by 1640 01:51:25.239 --> 01:51:28.920 the sun. Indeed, only with the aid of a body 1641 01:51:29.319 --> 01:51:33.359 is it capable, then, of raising itself to higher considerations. 1642 01:51:34.279 --> 01:51:38.680 To be sure, Ahmor did as the instructors of mathematics 1643 01:51:38.920 --> 01:51:44.640 who show backward children tangible representations of the pure forms. Similarly, 1644 01:51:44.760 --> 01:51:48.079 the God, in order to make the spiritual visible for us, 1645 01:51:48.600 --> 01:51:52.479 readily utilized the form and color of man's youth, And 1646 01:51:52.560 --> 01:51:56.399 as a reminder, he adorned these with the reflected splendor 1647 01:51:56.439 --> 01:52:00.359 of beauty, which, when we behold it makes us flare 1648 01:52:00.439 --> 01:52:05.199 up in pain and hope. His enthusiasm suggested these things 1649 01:52:05.520 --> 01:52:08.159 put him in the mood for them, and from the 1650 01:52:08.199 --> 01:52:11.079 noise of the sea and the luster of the sun. 1651 01:52:11.600 --> 01:52:15.319 He wove himself a charming picture. Here was the old 1652 01:52:15.439 --> 01:52:19.520 plane Tree, not far from the walls of Athens, a holy, 1653 01:52:19.760 --> 01:52:24.119 shadowy place, filled with the smell of Agnus costUS blossoms, 1654 01:52:24.640 --> 01:52:29.279 and decorated with ornaments and images sacred to Achelus and 1655 01:52:29.439 --> 01:52:33.159 the nymphs. Clear and pure. The brook at the foot 1656 01:52:33.199 --> 01:52:37.079 of the spreading tree fell across the smooth pebbles. The 1657 01:52:37.159 --> 01:52:40.840 cicadas were fiddling, but on the grass, which was like 1658 01:52:40.880 --> 01:52:44.319 a pillow, gently sloping to the head, two people were 1659 01:52:44.359 --> 01:52:47.199 stretched out in hiding from the heat of the day, 1660 01:52:47.720 --> 01:52:51.560 an older man and a youth, one ugly and one beautiful. 1661 01:52:52.079 --> 01:52:57.840 Wisdom next to loveliness and amid gallantries and skillfully engaging banter, 1662 01:52:58.560 --> 01:53:03.600 Socrates was instruck by Adrus in matters of desire and virtue. 1663 01:53:04.199 --> 01:53:07.000 He spoke to him of the hot terror which the 1664 01:53:07.039 --> 01:53:10.199 initiates suffer when their eyes light on an image of 1665 01:53:10.199 --> 01:53:14.000 the eternal beauty. Spoke of the greed of the impious 1666 01:53:14.039 --> 01:53:17.319 and the wicked, who cannot think beauty when they see 1667 01:53:17.359 --> 01:53:21.439 its likeness, and who are incapable of reverence. Spoke of 1668 01:53:21.439 --> 01:53:25.279 the holy distress which befalls the noble minded. When a 1669 01:53:25.319 --> 01:53:30.720 godlike countenance, a perfect body appears before them, they tremble 1670 01:53:30.760 --> 01:53:34.279 and grow distracted, and hardly dare to raise their eyes. 1671 01:53:34.840 --> 01:53:38.319 And they honor the man who possesses this beauty. Yes, 1672 01:53:38.800 --> 01:53:41.760 if they were not afraid of being thought downright madmen, 1673 01:53:42.319 --> 01:53:45.600 they would sacrifice to the beloved as to the image 1674 01:53:45.600 --> 01:53:50.039 of a god. For beauty ma faye Drus. Beauty alone 1675 01:53:50.319 --> 01:53:54.600 is both lovely and visible at once. It is, mark me, 1676 01:53:55.079 --> 01:53:58.199 the only form of the spiritual which we can receive 1677 01:53:58.319 --> 01:54:02.319 through the senses. Else, what would become of us if 1678 01:54:02.319 --> 01:54:06.279 the divine, if reason and virtue and truth should appear 1679 01:54:06.319 --> 01:54:09.720 to us through the senses, should we not perish and 1680 01:54:09.880 --> 01:54:13.680 be consumed with love as Samily once was with Zeus. 1681 01:54:14.479 --> 01:54:18.119 Thus beauty is the sensitive man's access to the spirit, 1682 01:54:18.680 --> 01:54:23.760 but only a road a means simply little Phaedrus. And 1683 01:54:23.920 --> 01:54:27.319 then this crafty suitor made the neatest remark of all. 1684 01:54:27.880 --> 01:54:30.960 It was this that the lover is more divine than 1685 01:54:31.000 --> 01:54:34.119 the beloved, since the God is in the one but 1686 01:54:34.279 --> 01:54:38.000 not in the other. Perhaps the most delicate, the most 1687 01:54:38.119 --> 01:54:41.720 derisive thought which has ever been framed, and the one 1688 01:54:41.760 --> 01:54:45.560 from which spring all the cunning and the profoundest pleasures 1689 01:54:45.600 --> 01:54:49.840 of desire. Writers are happiest with an idea which can 1690 01:54:49.880 --> 01:54:54.960 become all emotion, and an emotion all idea. Just such 1691 01:54:55.000 --> 01:54:59.479 a pulsating idea, such a precise emotion, belonged to the 1692 01:54:59.520 --> 01:55:03.760 lonely man at this moment was at his call nature. 1693 01:55:03.920 --> 01:55:07.840 It ran shivers with ecstasy when the spirit bows an 1694 01:55:07.840 --> 01:55:13.960 homage before beauty. Suddenly he wanted to write Eros loves idleness, 1695 01:55:14.199 --> 01:55:18.159 they say, and he is suited only to idleness. But 1696 01:55:18.279 --> 01:55:21.199 at this point in the crisis, the affliction became a 1697 01:55:21.279 --> 01:55:27.199 stimulus towards productivity. The incentive hardly mattered the request. An 1698 01:55:27.239 --> 01:55:31.000 agitation for an open statement on a certain large burning 1699 01:55:31.039 --> 01:55:35.199 issue of culture and taste was going about the intellectual 1700 01:55:35.239 --> 01:55:38.720 world and had finally caught up with the traveler. Here 1701 01:55:39.560 --> 01:55:42.560 he was familiar with the subject. It had touched his 1702 01:55:42.640 --> 01:55:47.159 own experience, and suddenly he felt an irresistible desire to 1703 01:55:47.239 --> 01:55:50.359 display it in the light of his own version. And 1704 01:55:50.479 --> 01:55:53.279 he even went so far as to prefer working in 1705 01:55:53.399 --> 01:55:57.319 Tazzio's presence, taking the scope of the boy as a 1706 01:55:57.399 --> 01:56:01.560 standard for his writing, making his stony follow the lines 1707 01:56:01.600 --> 01:56:05.520 of this body, which seemed godlike to him and carrying 1708 01:56:05.560 --> 01:56:09.319 his beauty over into the spiritual, just as the eagle 1709 01:56:09.520 --> 01:56:14.039 once carried the Trojan stag up into the ether. Never 1710 01:56:14.079 --> 01:56:17.159 had his joy in words been more sweet. He had 1711 01:56:17.199 --> 01:56:20.199 never been so aware that eros is in the word 1712 01:56:20.680 --> 01:56:25.079 as during those perilous, precious hours, when at his crude 1713 01:56:25.159 --> 01:56:29.279 table under the canopy, facing the idol and listening to 1714 01:56:29.319 --> 01:56:33.399 the music of his voice. He followed Tadzio's beauty in 1715 01:56:33.479 --> 01:56:36.239 the forming of his little tract a page and a 1716 01:56:36.279 --> 01:56:39.600 half of choice prose, which was soon to excite the 1717 01:56:39.640 --> 01:56:44.079 admiration of many through its clarity, its poise, and the 1718 01:56:44.199 --> 01:56:48.039 vigorous curve of its emotion. Certainly, it is better for 1719 01:56:48.079 --> 01:56:52.079 people to know only the beautiful product has finished, and 1720 01:56:52.279 --> 01:56:56.880 not in its conception its conditions of origin. For knowledge 1721 01:56:56.880 --> 01:56:59.920 of the sources from which the artist derives, as in Spira, 1722 01:57:00.800 --> 01:57:04.920 would often confuse and alienate, and in this way detract 1723 01:57:04.960 --> 01:57:11.000 from the effects of his mastery. Strange hours, strangely enervating efforts, 1724 01:57:11.640 --> 01:57:16.399 rare creative intercourse between the spirit and a body. When 1725 01:57:16.399 --> 01:57:20.079 Aschenbach put away his work and started back from the beach, 1726 01:57:20.560 --> 01:57:24.600 he felt exhausted or in dispersion even and it was 1727 01:57:24.640 --> 01:57:30.680 as though his conscience were complaining after some transgression end 1728 01:57:30.720 --> 01:57:36.439 of Chapter four, Part one, Chapter four, Part two. The 1729 01:57:36.520 --> 01:57:39.800 following morning, as he was about to leave the hotel, 1730 01:57:40.279 --> 01:57:43.720 he looked off from the steps and noticed that Tazio, 1731 01:57:44.119 --> 01:57:46.720 who was alone and was already on his way towards 1732 01:57:46.800 --> 01:57:50.600 the sea, was just approaching the private beach. He was 1733 01:57:50.640 --> 01:57:54.039 half tempted by the simple notion of seizing this opportunity 1734 01:57:54.439 --> 01:57:57.760 to strike up a casual, friendly acquaintanceship with the boy 1735 01:57:58.199 --> 01:58:01.479 who had been the unconscious source of so much agitation 1736 01:58:01.640 --> 01:58:05.439 and upheaval. He wanted to address him and enjoy the 1737 01:58:05.520 --> 01:58:09.159 answering look in his eyes. The boy was sauntering along 1738 01:58:09.560 --> 01:58:14.000 he could be overtaken, and Aschenbach quickened his pace. He 1739 01:58:14.119 --> 01:58:17.319 reached him on the board walk behind the bathing houses, 1740 01:58:17.840 --> 01:58:19.920 was about to lay a hand on his head and 1741 01:58:20.000 --> 01:58:23.840 shoulders in some word or other, an amiable phrase in 1742 01:58:23.920 --> 01:58:26.920 French was on the tip of his tongue. But he 1743 01:58:26.960 --> 01:58:31.119 felt that his heart, due also perhaps to his rapid stride, 1744 01:58:31.520 --> 01:58:34.479 was beating like a hammer, and he was so short 1745 01:58:34.479 --> 01:58:38.039 of breath that his voice would have been tight and trembling. 1746 01:58:38.640 --> 01:58:43.359 He hesitated. He tried to get himself under control. Suddenly 1747 01:58:43.439 --> 01:58:46.159 he became afraid that he had been walking too long, 1748 01:58:46.600 --> 01:58:50.159 so close behind the boy. He was afraid of arousing 1749 01:58:50.319 --> 01:58:54.760 curiosity and causing him to look back questioningly. He made 1750 01:58:54.800 --> 01:58:59.560 one more spurt, failed, surrendered, and passed with bowed head. 1751 01:59:00.720 --> 01:59:04.920 Too late, he thought, immediately, too late? Yet was it 1752 01:59:04.960 --> 01:59:08.119 too late? This step, which he had just been on 1753 01:59:08.159 --> 01:59:11.880 the verge of taking, would very possibly have put things 1754 01:59:11.920 --> 01:59:15.319 on a sound, free and easy basis, and would have 1755 01:59:15.399 --> 01:59:19.640 restored him to wholesome soberness. But the fact was that 1756 01:59:19.680 --> 01:59:24.880 Aschenbach did not want soberness. His intoxication was too precious. 1757 01:59:25.479 --> 01:59:28.840 Who can explain the stamp and the nature of the artist. 1758 01:59:29.359 --> 01:59:33.880 Who can understand this deep instinctive welding of discipline and 1759 01:59:34.000 --> 01:59:39.119 license for to be unable to want wholesome soberness his license? 1760 01:59:39.680 --> 01:59:44.439 Aschenbach was no longer given to self criticism, his tastes, 1761 01:59:44.720 --> 01:59:49.039 the mental caliber of his years, his self respect, ripeness, 1762 01:59:49.279 --> 01:59:53.680 and belated simplicity made him unwilling to dismember his motives 1763 01:59:54.039 --> 01:59:57.399 and to debate whether his impulses were the result of 1764 01:59:57.439 --> 02:00:03.359 conscientiousness nor of dissolution and weakness. He was embarrassed as 1765 02:00:03.359 --> 02:00:06.039 he feared that some one or other, if only the 1766 02:00:06.079 --> 02:00:10.399 guard on the beach must have observed his pursuit and defeat. 1767 02:00:11.079 --> 02:00:14.680 He was very much afraid of the ridiculous. Further, he 1768 02:00:14.760 --> 02:00:20.319 joked with himself about his comically pious distress. Downed, he thought, 1769 02:00:20.840 --> 02:00:24.359 downed like a rooster with his wings hanging miserably in 1770 02:00:24.399 --> 02:00:28.000 the battle. It really is a god who can, at 1771 02:00:28.039 --> 02:00:31.439 one side of his loveliness, break our courage this way 1772 02:00:31.840 --> 02:00:35.920 and force down our pride. So thoroughly he toyed and 1773 02:00:36.000 --> 02:00:39.640 skirmished with his emotions, and was far too haughty to 1774 02:00:39.680 --> 02:00:43.439 be afraid of them. He had already ceased thinking about 1775 02:00:43.479 --> 02:00:46.920 the time when the vacation period which he had fixed 1776 02:00:46.920 --> 02:00:50.600 for himself would expire. The thought of going home never 1777 02:00:50.680 --> 02:00:54.359 even suggested itself. He had sent for an ample supply 1778 02:00:54.439 --> 02:00:58.760 of money. His only concern was with the possible departure 1779 02:00:58.880 --> 02:01:02.399 of the Polish family. By a casual questioning of the 1780 02:01:02.399 --> 02:01:06.319 hotel barber, he had contrived to learn that these people 1781 02:01:06.399 --> 02:01:09.760 had come here only a short time before his own arrival. 1782 02:01:10.399 --> 02:01:14.199 The sun browned his face and hands. The invigorating salt 1783 02:01:14.279 --> 02:01:17.880 breezes made him feel fresher. Once he had been in 1784 02:01:17.920 --> 02:01:20.880 the habit of expending on his work every bit of 1785 02:01:21.000 --> 02:01:26.439 nourishment which food, sleep, or nature could provide him. And similarly, 1786 02:01:26.800 --> 02:01:31.000 now he was generous and uneconomical, letting pass off as 1787 02:01:31.000 --> 02:01:35.680 elation and emotion. All the daily strengthening derived from sun, 1788 02:01:36.039 --> 02:01:41.199 idleness and sea air. His sleep was fitful. The preciously 1789 02:01:41.359 --> 02:01:45.680 uniform days were separated by short nights of happy unrest. 1790 02:01:46.279 --> 02:01:50.039 He did retire early, for at nine o'clock, when Tazio 1791 02:01:50.199 --> 02:01:54.119 had disappeared from the scene, the day seemed over. But 1792 02:01:54.239 --> 02:01:57.039 at the first gray of dawn he was awakened by 1793 02:01:57.079 --> 02:02:01.760 a gently insistent shock. He suddenly remembered his adventure. He 1794 02:02:01.800 --> 02:02:05.560 could no longer remain in bed. He arose and clad 1795 02:02:05.680 --> 02:02:09.039 lightly against the chill of morning. He sat down by 1796 02:02:09.079 --> 02:02:11.880 the open window to await the rising of the sun. 1797 02:02:12.640 --> 02:02:18.960 Revived by his sleep, he watched this miraculous event with reverence. Sky, earth, 1798 02:02:19.000 --> 02:02:23.560 and sea still lay in glassy, ghost like twilight. A 1799 02:02:23.640 --> 02:02:27.640 dying star still floated in the emptiness of space, but 1800 02:02:27.720 --> 02:02:32.319 a breeze started up, a winged message from habitations beyond reach, 1801 02:02:32.800 --> 02:02:36.880 telling that Eros was rising beside her husband, and that 1802 02:02:36.960 --> 02:02:40.159 first sweet reddening in the farthest stretches of sky and 1803 02:02:40.279 --> 02:02:44.680 sea took place by which the sentiency of creation is announced. 1804 02:02:45.359 --> 02:02:49.039 The goddess was approaching the seductress of youth, who stole 1805 02:02:49.119 --> 02:02:53.880 Cleatus and Cephalus, and, despite the envy of all the Olympians, 1806 02:02:54.479 --> 02:02:58.920 enjoyed the love of handsome Orion. A strewing of roses 1807 02:02:59.000 --> 02:03:02.960 began there on the edge of the world, and unutterably pure, 1808 02:03:03.159 --> 02:03:08.560 glowing and blooming, childish clouds lighted and shined through floated 1809 02:03:08.640 --> 02:03:13.000 like busy little cupids in the rosy bluish mist. Purple 1810 02:03:13.119 --> 02:03:16.600 fell upon the sea, which seemed to be simmering and 1811 02:03:16.840 --> 02:03:21.119 washing the color towards him. Golden spears shot up into 1812 02:03:21.159 --> 02:03:26.479 the sky from behind the splendor, caught fire silently and 1813 02:03:26.600 --> 02:03:30.840 with godlike power. An intense flame of licking tongues broke out, 1814 02:03:31.359 --> 02:03:36.039 and with rattling hoofs, the brother's sacred chargers mounted the horizon. 1815 02:03:36.680 --> 02:03:40.840 Lighted by the God's brilliance, he sat there, keeping watch alone. 1816 02:03:41.399 --> 02:03:45.359 He closed his eyes, letting this glory play against the lids. 1817 02:03:46.079 --> 02:03:50.520 Past emotions, precious, early afflictions and yearnings, which had been 1818 02:03:50.560 --> 02:03:54.840 stifled by his rigorous program of living, were now returning 1819 02:03:55.000 --> 02:03:59.600 in such strange new forms, with an embarrassed, astonished smile, 1820 02:03:59.800 --> 02:04:05.319 he recognized them. He was thinking, dreaming slowly, his lips 1821 02:04:05.399 --> 02:04:09.880 formed a name, and, still smiling, with his face turned upwards, 1822 02:04:10.239 --> 02:04:13.640 hands folded in his lap, he fell asleep again in 1823 02:04:13.720 --> 02:04:18.520 his chair. But the day which began with such fiery solemnity, 1824 02:04:19.039 --> 02:04:23.760 underwent a strange mythical transformation. Where did the breeze originate? 1825 02:04:24.000 --> 02:04:28.640 Which suddenly began playing so gently and insinuatingly, like some 1826 02:04:28.680 --> 02:04:33.880 whispered suggestion about his ears and temples? Little white, choppy 1827 02:04:33.920 --> 02:04:37.880 clouds stood in the sky in scattered clumps, like the 1828 02:04:37.920 --> 02:04:42.359 pasturing herds of the gods. A stronger wind arose, and 1829 02:04:42.560 --> 02:04:46.119 the steeds of Poseidon came prancing up, and along with 1830 02:04:46.199 --> 02:04:49.840 them the steers which belonged to the blue locked God, 1831 02:04:50.319 --> 02:04:54.279 bellowing and lowering their horns as they ran. Yet among 1832 02:04:54.319 --> 02:04:57.960 the detritus of the more distant beech waves were hopping 1833 02:04:58.000 --> 02:05:02.119 forward like agile goats. He was caught in the enchantment 1834 02:05:02.319 --> 02:05:06.359 of a sacredly distorted world full of panic life, and 1835 02:05:06.439 --> 02:05:10.920 he dreamed delicate legends. Often, when the sun was sinking 1836 02:05:11.000 --> 02:05:14.159 behind Venice, he would sit on a bench in the park, 1837 02:05:14.479 --> 02:05:18.079 observing Tazio, who was dressed in a white suit with 1838 02:05:18.159 --> 02:05:21.800 a colored sash, and was playing ball on the smooth gravel. 1839 02:05:22.439 --> 02:05:26.880 And it was Hyacinth that he seemed to be watching, Hyacinth, 1840 02:05:27.159 --> 02:05:30.720 who was to die because two gods loved him. Yes, 1841 02:05:31.119 --> 02:05:35.199 he felt Zephyr's aching jealousy of the rival, who forgot 1842 02:05:35.199 --> 02:05:38.760 the oracle, the beau, and the lyre in order to 1843 02:05:38.800 --> 02:05:43.279 play forever with this beauty. He saw the discus, guided 1844 02:05:43.319 --> 02:05:46.880 by a pitiless envy, strike the lovely head. He too, 1845 02:05:47.119 --> 02:05:51.720 growing pale, caught the drooping body, and the flower sprung 1846 02:05:51.800 --> 02:05:56.119 from this sweet blood bore the inscription of his unending grief. 1847 02:05:57.239 --> 02:06:01.319 Nothing is more unusual and strained than the relationship between 1848 02:06:01.399 --> 02:06:04.880 people who know each other only with their eyes, who 1849 02:06:04.920 --> 02:06:09.439 meet daily, even hourly, and yet are compelled by force 1850 02:06:09.479 --> 02:06:13.279 of custom or their own caprices to say no word 1851 02:06:13.760 --> 02:06:16.920 or make no move of acknowledgment, but to maintain the 1852 02:06:16.960 --> 02:06:21.399 appearance of an aloof unconcern. There is a restlessness and 1853 02:06:21.479 --> 02:06:28.000 a surcharged curiosity existing between them, the hysteria of an unsatisfied, 1854 02:06:28.520 --> 02:06:34.800 unnaturally repressed desire for acquaintanceship and intercourse. And especially there's 1855 02:06:34.880 --> 02:06:38.560 a kind of tense respect for one person loves and 1856 02:06:38.640 --> 02:06:42.399 honors another so long as he cannot judge him, and 1857 02:06:42.640 --> 02:06:47.319 desire is an evidence of incomplete knowledge. Some kind of 1858 02:06:47.319 --> 02:06:52.720 familiarity had necessarily to form itself between Oschenbach and Jong Tazio, 1859 02:06:53.479 --> 02:06:56.760 and it gave the elderly man keen pleasure to see 1860 02:06:56.800 --> 02:07:01.000 that his sympathies and interests were not left completely unanswered. 1861 02:07:01.600 --> 02:07:04.359 For example, when the boy appeared on the beach in 1862 02:07:04.399 --> 02:07:07.960 the morning and was going towards his family's bathing house, 1863 02:07:08.479 --> 02:07:11.359 what had induced him never to use the board walk 1864 02:07:11.479 --> 02:07:13.920 on the far side of it any more, but to 1865 02:07:14.000 --> 02:07:18.479 stroll along the front path through the sand, past Oschenbach's 1866 02:07:18.479 --> 02:07:24.079 habitual place, and often unnecessarily close to him, almost touching 1867 02:07:24.119 --> 02:07:28.399 his table or his chair. Even did the attraction, the 1868 02:07:28.439 --> 02:07:32.760 fascination of an overpowering emotion have such an effect upon 1869 02:07:32.800 --> 02:07:37.359 the frail, unthinking object of it. Aschenbach watched daily for 1870 02:07:37.479 --> 02:07:41.560 Tasio to approach, and sometimes he acted as though he 1871 02:07:41.600 --> 02:07:45.399 were occupied when this event was taking place, and he 1872 02:07:45.479 --> 02:07:49.239 let the boy pass unobserved. But at other times he 1873 02:07:49.279 --> 02:07:52.880 would look up and their glances met. They were both 1874 02:07:52.920 --> 02:07:56.359 in deep earnest when this occurred. Nothing in the elderly 1875 02:07:56.399 --> 02:08:02.079 man's cultivated and dignified expression betrayed any inner movement, but 1876 02:08:02.199 --> 02:08:06.279 there was a searching look in Totsio's eyes, a thoughtful questioning. 1877 02:08:06.760 --> 02:08:11.119 He began to falter, looked down, then looked up again charmingly, 1878 02:08:11.520 --> 02:08:14.920 and when he had passed something in his bearing seemed 1879 02:08:14.960 --> 02:08:17.960 to indicate that it was only his breeding which kept 1880 02:08:18.000 --> 02:08:23.199 him from turning around once. However, one evening things turned 1881 02:08:23.199 --> 02:08:27.039 out differently. The Polish children and their governess had been 1882 02:08:27.039 --> 02:08:30.600 missing at dinner in the large hall. Oschenbach had noted 1883 02:08:30.640 --> 02:08:35.720 this uneasily. After the meal. Disturbed by their absence, Oschenbach 1884 02:08:35.880 --> 02:08:39.119 was walking an evening dress and straw hat in front 1885 02:08:39.119 --> 02:08:41.880 of the hotel at the foot of the terrace when 1886 02:08:41.960 --> 02:08:45.119 suddenly he saw the nun like sisters appear in the 1887 02:08:45.199 --> 02:08:48.359 light of the arc lamp, accompanied by their governess, with 1888 02:08:48.520 --> 02:08:52.640 Totzio a few steps behind. Evidently they were coming from 1889 02:08:52.720 --> 02:08:56.279 the steamer pier after having dined for some reason in 1890 02:08:56.319 --> 02:08:59.159 the city. It must have been cool on the water. 1891 02:08:59.720 --> 02:09:04.039 Tazze was wearing a dark blue sailor overcoat with gold buttons, 1892 02:09:04.439 --> 02:09:06.880 and on his head he had a cap to match. 1893 02:09:07.439 --> 02:09:10.600 The sun and sea air had not browned him his 1894 02:09:10.680 --> 02:09:14.359 skin still had the same yellow marble color as at first. 1895 02:09:14.960 --> 02:09:18.520 It even seemed paler today than usual, whether from the 1896 02:09:18.560 --> 02:09:22.439 coolness or from the blanching moonlight of the lamps. His 1897 02:09:22.600 --> 02:09:26.279 regular eyebrows showed up more sharply, the darkness of his 1898 02:09:26.399 --> 02:09:29.399 eyes were deeper. It is hard to say how beautiful 1899 02:09:29.439 --> 02:09:33.399 he was, and Aschenbach was distressed, as he had often 1900 02:09:33.479 --> 02:09:37.359 been before, by the thought that words can only evaluate 1901 02:09:37.560 --> 02:09:41.760 sensuous beauty, but not regive it. He had not been 1902 02:09:41.800 --> 02:09:46.359 prepared for this rich spectacle. It came unhoped for. He 1903 02:09:46.399 --> 02:09:49.880 had no time to intrench himself behind an expression of 1904 02:09:49.920 --> 02:09:56.119 repose and dignity. Pleasure, surprise, admiration must have shone on 1905 02:09:56.199 --> 02:09:58.880 his face as his eyes met those of the boy. 1906 02:09:59.520 --> 02:10:02.800 And at this time, this moment, it happened that Tasio smiled, 1907 02:10:03.159 --> 02:10:09.720 smiled to him eloquently, familiarly, charmingly, without concealment, and during 1908 02:10:09.760 --> 02:10:13.760 the smile his lips slowly opened. It was the smile 1909 02:10:13.800 --> 02:10:18.560 of Narcissus bent over the reflecting water, that deep, fascinated, 1910 02:10:18.840 --> 02:10:22.479 magnetic smile with which he stretches out his arms to 1911 02:10:22.560 --> 02:10:26.199 the image of his own beauty, a smile distorted ever 1912 02:10:26.279 --> 02:10:30.119 so little distorted at the hopelessness of his efforts to 1913 02:10:30.239 --> 02:10:34.880 kiss the pure lips of the shadow. It was coquettish, inquisitive, 1914 02:10:35.319 --> 02:10:41.479 and slightly tortured. It was infatuated and infatuating. He had 1915 02:10:41.520 --> 02:10:44.760 received this smile, and he hurried away, as though he 1916 02:10:44.840 --> 02:10:48.239 carried a fatal gift. He was so broken up that 1917 02:10:48.319 --> 02:10:50.840 he was compelled to escape the light of the terrace 1918 02:10:50.960 --> 02:10:54.600 and the front garden. He hastily hunted out the darkness 1919 02:10:54.600 --> 02:10:58.439 of the park. In the rear, strangely indignant and tender 1920 02:10:58.479 --> 02:11:03.199 admonitions wrung them out of him. You dare not smile 1921 02:11:03.359 --> 02:11:07.159 like that. Listen. No one dares smile like that to another. 1922 02:11:08.239 --> 02:11:11.359 He threw himself down on a bench in a frenzy. 1923 02:11:11.720 --> 02:11:15.520 He breathed the night smell of the vegetation, and, leaning 1924 02:11:15.560 --> 02:11:20.680 back his arms loose. Overwhelmed with frequent chills running through him, 1925 02:11:21.159 --> 02:11:28.439 he whispered, the fixed formula of desire impossible in this case, absurd, abject, ridiculous, 1926 02:11:28.760 --> 02:11:34.199 and yet holly even in this case venerable. I love you. 1927 02:11:36.520 --> 02:11:42.319 End of chapter four, Chapter five, Part one. During his 1928 02:11:42.479 --> 02:11:47.479 fourth week at the Lido, Gustav Fawaschenbach made several sinister 1929 02:11:47.600 --> 02:11:51.840 observations touching on the world about him. First, it seemed 1930 02:11:51.920 --> 02:11:55.079 to him that as the season progressed, the number of 1931 02:11:55.159 --> 02:12:00.239 guests at the hotel was diminishing rather than increasing. German 1932 02:12:00.439 --> 02:12:04.359 especially seemed to be dropping away, so that finally he 1933 02:12:04.359 --> 02:12:07.840 heard nothing but foreign sounds at table and on the beach. 1934 02:12:08.479 --> 02:12:11.720 Then one day, in conversation with the barber, whom he 1935 02:12:11.840 --> 02:12:15.760 visited often, he caught a word which startled him. The 1936 02:12:15.840 --> 02:12:18.960 man had mentioned a German family had left soon after 1937 02:12:19.000 --> 02:12:24.279 their arrival. He added, glibly and flatteringly, but you are staying, sir, 1938 02:12:24.760 --> 02:12:28.960 you have no fear of the plague. Oschenbach looked at him, 1939 02:12:29.520 --> 02:12:34.439 the plague, he repeated. The gossiper was silent, made out 1940 02:12:34.439 --> 02:12:38.800 as though busy with other things, ignored the question. When 1941 02:12:38.800 --> 02:12:42.479 it was put more insistently, he declared that he knew nothing, 1942 02:12:42.880 --> 02:12:47.079 and with embarrassing volubility, he tried to change the subject. 1943 02:12:48.079 --> 02:12:51.680 That was about noon. In the afternoon there was a calm, 1944 02:12:51.960 --> 02:12:55.960 and Aschenbach rode to Venice under an intense sun, for 1945 02:12:56.039 --> 02:12:59.359 he was driven by a mania to follow the Polish children, 1946 02:12:59.640 --> 02:13:02.279 whom he had seen with their governess taking the road 1947 02:13:02.399 --> 02:13:05.760 to the steamer pier. He did not find the idol 1948 02:13:05.880 --> 02:13:09.560 at San Marco. But while sitting over his tea at 1949 02:13:09.560 --> 02:13:12.319 his little round iron table on the shady side of 1950 02:13:12.319 --> 02:13:17.079 the square, he suddenly detected a peculiar odour in the air, which, 1951 02:13:17.359 --> 02:13:20.399 it seemed to him now he had noticed for days 1952 02:13:20.680 --> 02:13:24.640 without being consciously aware of it. The smell was sweetish 1953 02:13:24.880 --> 02:13:30.960 and drug like, suggesting sickness and wounds, and a suspicious cleanliness. 1954 02:13:31.039 --> 02:13:35.119 He tested and examined it thoughtfully, finished his luncheon, and 1955 02:13:35.279 --> 02:13:38.560 left the square. On the side opposite the church, the 1956 02:13:38.600 --> 02:13:42.199 smell was stronger where the street narrowed. On the corners, 1957 02:13:42.479 --> 02:13:47.159 printed posters were hung, giving municipal warnings against certain diseases 1958 02:13:47.199 --> 02:13:50.600 of the gastric system liable to occur at this season, 1959 02:13:51.119 --> 02:13:54.880 against the eating of oysters and clams, and also against 1960 02:13:54.920 --> 02:13:58.279 the water of the canals. The euphemistic nature of the 1961 02:13:58.319 --> 02:14:02.840 announcement was palpable. Groups of people had collected in silence 1962 02:14:02.880 --> 02:14:06.760 on the bridges and squares, and the foreigners stood among them, 1963 02:14:07.159 --> 02:14:12.079 scenting and investigating. At a little shop, he inquired about 1964 02:14:12.119 --> 02:14:15.920 the fatal smell, asking the proprietor, who was leaning against 1965 02:14:15.920 --> 02:14:20.640 his door, surrounded by coral chains and imitation amethyst jewelry. 1966 02:14:21.239 --> 02:14:24.880 The man measured him with heavy eyes and brightened up hastily. 1967 02:14:25.800 --> 02:14:29.359 A matter of precaution, sir, he answered, with a gesture, 1968 02:14:29.760 --> 02:14:32.640 a regulation of the police, which must be taken for 1969 02:14:32.720 --> 02:14:36.520 what it is worth. This weather is oppressive, the siaco 1970 02:14:36.640 --> 02:14:40.199 is not good for the health. In short, you understand 1971 02:14:40.479 --> 02:14:45.359 an exaggerated prudence. Perhaps Ashenbah thanked him and went on 1972 02:14:46.079 --> 02:14:49.039 also on the steamer back to the Liedo, he caught 1973 02:14:49.079 --> 02:14:53.640 the smell of the disinfectant. Returning to the hotel, he 1974 02:14:53.720 --> 02:14:56.960 went immediately to the periodical stand in the lobby and 1975 02:14:57.159 --> 02:15:00.399 ran through the papers. He found nothing in the foreign 1976 02:15:00.439 --> 02:15:06.119 language press. The domestic press spoke of rumors, produced hazy statistics, 1977 02:15:06.479 --> 02:15:11.920 repeated official denials, and questioned their truthfulness. This explained the 1978 02:15:11.960 --> 02:15:16.640 departure of the German and Austrian guests. Obviously, the subjects 1979 02:15:16.680 --> 02:15:20.640 of the other nations knew nothing, suspected nothing, were not 1980 02:15:20.720 --> 02:15:26.000 yet uneasy to keep it quiet. Aschenbach thought angrily as 1981 02:15:26.000 --> 02:15:29.119 he threw the papers back on the table, to keep 1982 02:15:29.159 --> 02:15:32.920 that quiet. But at the same moment he was filled 1983 02:15:32.920 --> 02:15:36.359 with satisfaction over the adventure that was to befall the 1984 02:15:36.359 --> 02:15:40.880 world about him. For passion like crime is not suited 1985 02:15:40.880 --> 02:15:43.720 to the secure daily rounds of order and well being, 1986 02:15:44.159 --> 02:15:48.159 and every slackening in the bourgeois structure, every disorder and 1987 02:15:48.199 --> 02:15:51.760 affliction of the world must be held welcome, since they 1988 02:15:51.800 --> 02:15:56.239 bring with them a vague promise of advantage. So Waschenbach 1989 02:15:56.279 --> 02:16:00.359 felt a dark contentment with what was taking place cover 1990 02:16:00.479 --> 02:16:04.479 of the authorities in the dirty alleys of Venice. This 1991 02:16:04.520 --> 02:16:08.119 wicked secret of the city was welded with his own secret, 1992 02:16:08.520 --> 02:16:12.000 and he too was involved in keeping it hidden. For 1993 02:16:12.119 --> 02:16:16.199 in his infatuation he cared about nothing but the possibility 1994 02:16:16.199 --> 02:16:20.239 of Tadzio's leaving, and he realized with something like terror, 1995 02:16:20.600 --> 02:16:22.640 that he would not know how to go on living 1996 02:16:22.760 --> 02:16:27.079 if this occurred. Lately, he had not been relying simply 1997 02:16:27.119 --> 02:16:30.399 on good luck and the daily routine. For his chances 1998 02:16:30.439 --> 02:16:32.799 to be near the boy and look at him. He 1999 02:16:32.920 --> 02:16:37.719 pursued him, stalked him. On Sundays, for instance, the poles 2000 02:16:37.799 --> 02:16:40.559 never appeared on the beach. He guessed that they must 2001 02:16:40.559 --> 02:16:44.440 be attending Mass at San Marco. He hurried there, and, 2002 02:16:44.559 --> 02:16:47.440 stepping from the heat of the square into the golden 2003 02:16:47.479 --> 02:16:50.719 twilight of the church, he found the boy. He was hunting, 2004 02:16:51.200 --> 02:16:55.079 bowed over a pre dieu praying. Then he stood in 2005 02:16:55.120 --> 02:16:58.879 the background on the cracked mosaic floor, with people on 2006 02:16:58.959 --> 02:17:03.000 all sides, kneel, murmuring and making the sign of the cross, 2007 02:17:03.719 --> 02:17:07.760 and the compact grandeur of this oriental temple weighed heavily 2008 02:17:07.799 --> 02:17:12.040 on his senses. In front, the richly ornamented priest was 2009 02:17:12.120 --> 02:17:17.239 conducting the office, moving about and singing. Incense pouring forth, 2010 02:17:17.520 --> 02:17:20.319 clouding the weak little flame of the candle on the altar, 2011 02:17:20.879 --> 02:17:25.120 and with the sweet, stuffy sacrificial odor another seemed to 2012 02:17:25.159 --> 02:17:29.760 commingle faintly the smell of the infested city. But through 2013 02:17:29.799 --> 02:17:33.520 the smoke and the sparkle, Aschenbach saw how the boy 2014 02:17:33.600 --> 02:17:36.920 there in front turned his head, hunted him out, and 2015 02:17:37.079 --> 02:17:40.639 looked at him. When the crowd was streaming out through 2016 02:17:40.639 --> 02:17:44.079 the opened portals into the brilliant square with its swarms 2017 02:17:44.120 --> 02:17:48.079 of pigeons, the lover hid in the vestibule. He kept 2018 02:17:48.159 --> 02:17:51.840 trader cover. He lay in wait. He saw the poles 2019 02:17:51.920 --> 02:17:55.639 quit the church, saw how the children took ceremonious leave 2020 02:17:55.719 --> 02:17:58.639 of their mother, and how she turned toward the piazzetta 2021 02:17:58.879 --> 02:18:01.680 on her way home. He made sure that the boy 2022 02:18:02.079 --> 02:18:05.440 the nun like sisters and the governess took the road 2023 02:18:05.559 --> 02:18:07.959 to the right, through the gateway of the dock tower 2024 02:18:08.280 --> 02:18:12.120 and into the Mercharia, and after giving them a slight start, 2025 02:18:12.520 --> 02:18:16.079 he followed followed them furtively on their walk through Venice. 2026 02:18:16.639 --> 02:18:19.360 He had to stand still when they stopped, had to 2027 02:18:19.399 --> 02:18:22.399 take flight in shops and courts to let them pass. 2028 02:18:22.440 --> 02:18:26.440 When they looked back, he lost them. Hot and exhausted, 2029 02:18:26.760 --> 02:18:30.280 he hunted them over bridges and down dirty, blind alleys, 2030 02:18:30.840 --> 02:18:34.360 and he underwent minutes of deadly agony when suddenly he 2031 02:18:34.440 --> 02:18:37.760 saw them coming towards him in a narrow passage where 2032 02:18:37.920 --> 02:18:41.159 escape was impossible. Yet it could not be said that 2033 02:18:41.239 --> 02:18:44.760 he suffered. He was drunk, and his steps followed the 2034 02:18:44.799 --> 02:18:48.360 promptings of the daemon, who delights in treading human reason 2035 02:18:48.440 --> 02:18:52.840 and dignity under foot. In one place, Tasio and his 2036 02:18:52.959 --> 02:18:56.600 companions took a gondola, and shortly after they had pushed 2037 02:18:56.680 --> 02:19:00.000 off from the shore, Aschenbach, who had hidden behind them 2038 02:19:00.120 --> 02:19:03.959 some structure a well while they were climbing in, now 2039 02:19:04.040 --> 02:19:07.559 did the same. He spoke in a hurried undertone as 2040 02:19:07.600 --> 02:19:10.399 he directed the rower with the promise of a generous 2041 02:19:10.440 --> 02:19:14.559 tip to follow unnoticed and at a distance that gondola, 2042 02:19:14.719 --> 02:19:18.200 which was just rounding the corner, And he thrilled when 2043 02:19:18.200 --> 02:19:21.879 the man, with the roguish willingness of an accomplice assured 2044 02:19:21.959 --> 02:19:24.319 him in the same tone, that his wishes would be 2045 02:19:24.360 --> 02:19:29.280 carried out, carried out faithfully. Leaning back against the soft 2046 02:19:29.319 --> 02:19:32.840 black cushions, he rocked and glided toward the other black 2047 02:19:32.879 --> 02:19:37.079 peaked craft, where his passion was drawing him. At times 2048 02:19:37.120 --> 02:19:41.360 it escaped. Then he felt worried and uneasy, but his pilot, 2049 02:19:41.600 --> 02:19:45.159 as though skilled in such commissions, was always able, through 2050 02:19:45.200 --> 02:19:49.360 sly maneuvers, speedy diagonals, and short cuts, to bring the 2051 02:19:49.440 --> 02:19:53.079 quest into view again. The air was quiet and smelly. 2052 02:19:53.559 --> 02:19:56.920 The sun burned down strong through the slate colored mist. 2053 02:19:57.520 --> 02:20:01.040 Water slapped against the wood and stone. The call of 2054 02:20:01.079 --> 02:20:05.280 the gondolier, half warning, half greeting, was answered with a 2055 02:20:05.319 --> 02:20:08.840 strange obedience. Far away in the silence of the labyrinth, 2056 02:20:09.399 --> 02:20:13.000 white and purple umbels with the scent of almonds, hung 2057 02:20:13.120 --> 02:20:18.000 down from little elevated gardens over crumbling walls. Arabian window 2058 02:20:18.079 --> 02:20:21.799 casings were outlined through the murkiness. The marble steps of 2059 02:20:21.799 --> 02:20:25.799 a church descended into the water. A beggar squatted there, 2060 02:20:26.120 --> 02:20:29.959 protesting his misery, holding out his hat and showing the 2061 02:20:30.000 --> 02:20:33.280 whites of his eyes as though he were blind. An 2062 02:20:33.319 --> 02:20:36.520 antiquarian in front of his den fawned on the passer 2063 02:20:36.559 --> 02:20:39.280 by and invited him to stop, in the hopes of 2064 02:20:39.360 --> 02:20:44.799 swindling him. That was Venice, the flatteringly and suspiciously beautiful, 2065 02:20:45.280 --> 02:20:49.319 this city, half legend, half snare for strangers. In his 2066 02:20:49.479 --> 02:20:54.280 foul air art once flourished gluttonously, and had suggested to 2067 02:20:54.319 --> 02:20:59.559 its musicians suggestive notes which cradle and lull. The adventurer 2068 02:20:59.600 --> 02:21:02.079 felt as though his eyes were taking him in this 2069 02:21:02.239 --> 02:21:05.600 same luxury, as though his ears were being won by 2070 02:21:05.799 --> 02:21:10.040 just such melodies. He recalled, too, that the city was 2071 02:21:10.079 --> 02:21:13.879 diseased and was concealing through this greed, and he peered 2072 02:21:13.879 --> 02:21:19.040 more eagerly after the retreating gondola. Thus, in his infatuation, 2073 02:21:19.639 --> 02:21:23.760 he wanted simply to pursue uninterrupted the object that aroused 2074 02:21:23.840 --> 02:21:27.040 him to dream of it when it was not there, and, 2075 02:21:27.440 --> 02:21:30.719 after the fashion of lovers, to speak softly to its 2076 02:21:30.760 --> 02:21:35.440 mere outline. Loneliness, strangeness, and the joy of a deep 2077 02:21:35.479 --> 02:21:40.680 belated intoxication encouraged him and prompted him to accept even 2078 02:21:40.719 --> 02:21:44.760 the remotest things without reserve or shame, with the result 2079 02:21:44.879 --> 02:21:47.559 that as he returned late in the evening from Venice, 2080 02:21:47.920 --> 02:21:50.799 he stopped on the second floor of the hotel before 2081 02:21:50.840 --> 02:21:53.440 the door of the boy's room, laid his head in 2082 02:21:53.600 --> 02:21:57.399 utter drunkenness against the hinge of the door, and for 2083 02:21:57.440 --> 02:22:01.159 a long time could not drag himself away. Despite the 2084 02:22:01.239 --> 02:22:05.040 danger of being caught and embarrassed in such a mad situation, 2085 02:22:06.239 --> 02:22:08.920 yet there were still moments of relief when he came 2086 02:22:09.000 --> 02:22:13.520 partly to his senses, where too he would think alarmed, 2087 02:22:13.840 --> 02:22:18.680 where too, like every man whose natural abilities stimulate an 2088 02:22:18.719 --> 02:22:22.799 aristocratic interest in his ancestry, he was accustomed to think 2089 02:22:22.840 --> 02:22:27.040 of his forebears in connection with the accomplishments and successes 2090 02:22:27.040 --> 02:22:31.520 of his life, to assure himself of their approval, their satisfaction, 2091 02:22:32.000 --> 02:22:36.440 their undeniable respect. He thought of them, now, entangled as 2092 02:22:36.520 --> 02:22:40.159 he was, in such an illicit experience, caught in such 2093 02:22:40.200 --> 02:22:45.079 exotic transgressions. He thought of their characteristic rigidity of principle, 2094 02:22:45.479 --> 02:22:51.319 their scrupulous masculinity, and he smiled dejectedly. What would they say? 2095 02:22:52.079 --> 02:22:55.079 But then, what would they have said to his whole life, 2096 02:22:55.600 --> 02:23:00.520 which was almost degenerate in its departure from theirs under 2097 02:23:00.520 --> 02:23:03.840 the bane of art, a life against which he himself 2098 02:23:03.879 --> 02:23:07.319 had once issued such youthful mockeries out of loyalty to 2099 02:23:07.399 --> 02:23:10.799 his fathers, but which at bottom had been so much 2100 02:23:11.000 --> 02:23:14.600 like theirs he too had served. He too had been 2101 02:23:14.600 --> 02:23:17.639 a soldier and a warrior, like many of them. For 2102 02:23:17.840 --> 02:23:21.440 art was a war, a destructive battle, and one was 2103 02:23:21.479 --> 02:23:24.840 not equal to it for long these days. A life 2104 02:23:24.879 --> 02:23:28.639 of self conquest and of in spite offs, a rigid, 2105 02:23:28.799 --> 02:23:32.239 sober and unyielding life which he had formed into the 2106 02:23:32.280 --> 02:23:36.280 symbol of a delicate and timely heroism. He might well 2107 02:23:36.319 --> 02:23:39.840 call it masculine or brave, And it almost seemed as 2108 02:23:39.879 --> 02:23:44.360 though the eros mastering him were somehow peculiarly adapted and 2109 02:23:44.440 --> 02:23:48.239 inclined to such a life. Had not this eros stood 2110 02:23:48.280 --> 02:23:51.840 in high repute among the bravest of peoples, Was it 2111 02:23:51.920 --> 02:23:55.479 not true that precisely through bravery he had flourished in 2112 02:23:55.520 --> 02:24:00.000 their cities? Numerous war heroes of antiquity had willingly borne 2113 02:24:00.200 --> 02:24:03.639 his yoke, for nothing was deemed a disgrace which the 2114 02:24:03.719 --> 02:24:07.520 God imposed, an act which would have been rebuked as 2115 02:24:07.559 --> 02:24:10.040 the sign of cowardice if they had been done for 2116 02:24:10.120 --> 02:24:16.200 other purposes. Prostrations, oaths, entreaties, abjectness. Such things did not 2117 02:24:16.280 --> 02:24:19.840 bring shame upon the lover, but rather he reaped praise 2118 02:24:19.959 --> 02:24:24.639 for them. In this way, his infatuation determined the course 2119 02:24:24.680 --> 02:24:27.920 of his thoughts. In this way he tried to uphold 2120 02:24:28.000 --> 02:24:31.760 himself to preserve his respect, but at the same time, 2121 02:24:32.280 --> 02:24:36.520 selfish and calculating, he turned his attention to the unclean 2122 02:24:36.600 --> 02:24:40.479 transactions here in Venice, this adventure of the outer world, 2123 02:24:40.719 --> 02:24:44.120 which conspired darkly with his own, and which fed his 2124 02:24:44.280 --> 02:24:49.479 passion with vague, lawless hopes. Bent on getting reliable news 2125 02:24:49.479 --> 02:24:53.479 of the condition and progress of the pestilence, he ransacked 2126 02:24:53.520 --> 02:24:56.639 the local papers in the city cafes, as they had 2127 02:24:56.639 --> 02:24:59.159 been missing from the reading table of the hotel lobby 2128 02:24:59.319 --> 02:25:03.840 for several days. Days Now, statements alternated with disavowals. The 2129 02:25:03.920 --> 02:25:06.799 number of the sick and dead was supposed to reach 2130 02:25:06.879 --> 02:25:11.239 twenty forty or even a hundred and more, and immediately 2131 02:25:11.280 --> 02:25:15.040 afterwards every instance of the plague would be either flatly 2132 02:25:15.079 --> 02:25:19.399 denied or attributed to completely isolated cases which had crept 2133 02:25:19.399 --> 02:25:24.479 in from the outside. There were scattered admonitions, protests against 2134 02:25:24.559 --> 02:25:30.319 the dangerous conduct of foreign authorities, certainty was impossible. Nevertheless, 2135 02:25:30.520 --> 02:25:34.479 the lone man felt especially entitled to participate in the secret, 2136 02:25:34.920 --> 02:25:38.879 and although he was excluded, he derived a grotesque satisfaction 2137 02:25:39.280 --> 02:25:43.239 from putting embarrassing questions to those who did know, and 2138 02:25:43.319 --> 02:25:47.200 as they were pledged to silence, forcing them into deliberate lies. 2139 02:25:47.920 --> 02:25:50.879 One day, at breakfast in the large dining hall, he 2140 02:25:51.000 --> 02:25:54.680 entered into a conversation with the manager, that softly treading 2141 02:25:54.719 --> 02:25:57.879 little man in the French frock coat, who was moving 2142 02:25:57.879 --> 02:26:02.159 amiably and solicitously about among the diners, and had stopped 2143 02:26:02.159 --> 02:26:06.440 at Aschenbach's table for a few passing words. Just why, 2144 02:26:06.719 --> 02:26:11.319 the guest asked, negligently and casually had disinfectants become so 2145 02:26:11.479 --> 02:26:15.840 prevalent in venice recently? It has to do, was the 2146 02:26:15.879 --> 02:26:20.239 evasive answer, with a police regulation, and is intended to 2147 02:26:20.280 --> 02:26:24.879 prevent any inconveniences or disturbances to the public health which 2148 02:26:24.959 --> 02:26:29.239 might result from the exceptionally warm and threatening weather. The 2149 02:26:29.280 --> 02:26:33.879 police are to be congratulated, Aschenbach answered, and after the 2150 02:26:33.920 --> 02:26:37.399 exchange of a few remarks on the weather, the manager left. 2151 02:26:38.600 --> 02:26:42.079 Yet that same day, in the evening, after dinner, it 2152 02:26:42.200 --> 02:26:45.159 happened that a little band of strolling singers from the 2153 02:26:45.200 --> 02:26:48.600 city gave a performance in the front garden of the hotel. 2154 02:26:49.200 --> 02:26:52.159 Two men and two women. They stood by the iron 2155 02:26:52.239 --> 02:26:55.680 post of an arc lamp and turned their whitened faces 2156 02:26:55.799 --> 02:26:58.920 up towards the large terrace, where the guests were enjoying 2157 02:26:58.920 --> 02:27:03.040 this folk recital over their coffee and cooling drinks. The 2158 02:27:03.079 --> 02:27:07.719 hotel personnel, bell boys, waiters and clerks from the office 2159 02:27:08.000 --> 02:27:10.760 could be seen listening by the doors of the vestibule. 2160 02:27:11.399 --> 02:27:15.440 The Russian family, eager and precise in their amusements, had 2161 02:27:15.440 --> 02:27:18.280 had wicker chairs placed in the garden in order to 2162 02:27:18.319 --> 02:27:21.760 be nearer the performers, and they were sitting here in 2163 02:27:21.799 --> 02:27:26.319 an appreciative semicircle. Behind the ladies and gentlemen in her 2164 02:27:26.360 --> 02:27:33.079 turban like kerchief stood the old slave mandolin. Guitar, harmonica 2165 02:27:33.280 --> 02:27:36.399 and a squeaky violin were responding to the touch of 2166 02:27:36.440 --> 02:27:41.959 the virtuoso beggars. Instrumental numbers alternated with songs, as when 2167 02:27:41.959 --> 02:27:44.920 the younger of the women, with a sharp trembling voice, 2168 02:27:45.399 --> 02:27:49.520 joined with the sweetly falsetto tenor in a languishing love duet. 2169 02:27:50.079 --> 02:27:52.639 But the real talent and leader of the group was 2170 02:27:52.719 --> 02:27:55.600 undoubtedly the other of the two men, the one with 2171 02:27:55.680 --> 02:27:59.559 the guitar. He was a kind of buffo baritone with 2172 02:27:59.680 --> 02:28:02.120 not much of a voice, although he did have a 2173 02:28:02.120 --> 02:28:06.680 gift for pantomime and a remarkable comic energy. Often with 2174 02:28:06.799 --> 02:28:09.639 his large instrument under his arm, he would leave the 2175 02:28:09.639 --> 02:28:13.520 rest of the group, and, still acting, would intrude on 2176 02:28:13.559 --> 02:28:17.440 the platform, where his antics were rewarded with encouraging laughter. 2177 02:28:18.360 --> 02:28:21.719 Especially the Russians in their seats down front, seemed to 2178 02:28:21.719 --> 02:28:25.719 be enchanted with so much Southern mobility, and their applause 2179 02:28:25.760 --> 02:28:29.079 incited him to let himself out more and more boldly 2180 02:28:29.319 --> 02:28:34.559 and assertively. Aschenbach set on the balustrade, cooling his lips 2181 02:28:34.600 --> 02:28:38.200 now and then with a mixture of pomegranate juice and soda, 2182 02:28:38.520 --> 02:28:41.600 which glowed ruby red in his glass in front of him. 2183 02:28:41.959 --> 02:28:45.239 His nerves took in the miserable notes, the vulgar crooning 2184 02:28:45.319 --> 02:28:50.479 melodies for passion blames the sense of discrimination and surrenders 2185 02:28:50.520 --> 02:28:54.639 in all seriousness to appeals which, in sober moments are 2186 02:28:54.680 --> 02:28:59.159 either humorously allowed for or rejected with annoyance At the 2187 02:28:59.200 --> 02:29:04.200 clown's antik. His features bad twisted into a set painful smile. 2188 02:29:04.920 --> 02:29:08.840 He sat there relaxed, although inwardly, he was intensely awake. 2189 02:29:09.319 --> 02:29:13.040 For six paces from him, Tazio was leaning against the 2190 02:29:13.120 --> 02:29:16.799 stone hand rail in the white belted coat which he 2191 02:29:16.840 --> 02:29:19.639 often wore at meal times. He was standing in a 2192 02:29:19.680 --> 02:29:24.440 position of spontaneous and inborn gracefulness, his left forearm on 2193 02:29:24.479 --> 02:29:28.399 the railing feet, crossed the right hand on a supporting hip, 2194 02:29:28.879 --> 02:29:31.440 and he looked down at the street singers with an 2195 02:29:31.440 --> 02:29:34.799 expression which was hardly a smile, but only in a 2196 02:29:34.840 --> 02:29:40.280 loof curiosity, a polite amiability. Often he would stand erect, 2197 02:29:40.319 --> 02:29:44.159 and expanding his chest, would draw the white smock down 2198 02:29:44.280 --> 02:29:47.760 under his leather belt with a beautiful gesture. And then 2199 02:29:47.840 --> 02:29:51.479 too the aging man observed with a tumult of fright 2200 02:29:51.520 --> 02:29:54.680 and triumph, how he would often turn his head over 2201 02:29:54.719 --> 02:29:58.639 the left shoulder in the direction of his admirer, carefully 2202 02:29:58.680 --> 02:30:02.879 and hesitatingly, or even with abruptness, as though to attack. 2203 02:30:03.000 --> 02:30:07.159 By surprise, he did not meet Ashenbach's eyes, for a 2204 02:30:07.200 --> 02:30:11.600 mean precaution compelled the transgressor to keep from staring at him. 2205 02:30:12.120 --> 02:30:14.920 In the background of the terrace, the women who guarded 2206 02:30:14.920 --> 02:30:18.479 Tatsio were sitting, and things had reached a point where 2207 02:30:18.520 --> 02:30:20.959 the lover had to fear that he might be noticed 2208 02:30:21.000 --> 02:30:24.760 and suspected. Yes, he had often observed with a kind 2209 02:30:24.760 --> 02:30:28.000 of numbness. Now, when Totsio was near him on the 2210 02:30:28.040 --> 02:30:31.319 beach in the hotel lobby in the Piazza San Marco, 2211 02:30:31.879 --> 02:30:34.440 they called him back. They were set on keeping him 2212 02:30:34.479 --> 02:30:38.440 at a distance, and this wounded him frightfully, causing his 2213 02:30:38.559 --> 02:30:42.440 pride unknown tortures which his conscience would not permit him 2214 02:30:42.479 --> 02:30:46.760 to evade. Meanwhile, the guitar player had begun a solo 2215 02:30:46.840 --> 02:30:50.680 to his own accompaniment, a street ballad popular throughout Italy. 2216 02:30:51.159 --> 02:30:54.799 It had several trophs, and the entire company joined each 2217 02:30:54.840 --> 02:30:58.360 time in the refrain, all singing and playing, while he 2218 02:30:58.440 --> 02:31:01.559 managed to give a plastic and dramatic twist to the 2219 02:31:01.639 --> 02:31:06.639 performance of slight build with thin and impoverished features. He 2220 02:31:06.719 --> 02:31:10.079 stood on the gravel apart from his companions, in an 2221 02:31:10.079 --> 02:31:14.159 attitude of insolent bravado, his shabby felt hat on the 2222 02:31:14.159 --> 02:31:16.440 back of his head, so that a bunch of his 2223 02:31:16.559 --> 02:31:19.879 red hair jutted out from under the brim, and to 2224 02:31:19.959 --> 02:31:23.000 the thrumbing of the strings, he flung his jokes up 2225 02:31:23.000 --> 02:31:27.079 at the terrace in a penetrating recitative, while the veins 2226 02:31:27.079 --> 02:31:30.600 were swelling on his forehead from the exertion of his performance. 2227 02:31:31.120 --> 02:31:34.159 He did not seem a Venetian stock, but rather of 2228 02:31:34.200 --> 02:31:39.559 the race of Neapolitan comedians, half pimp, half entertainer, brutal 2229 02:31:39.600 --> 02:31:44.760 and audacious, dangerous and amusing. His songs were stupid enough 2230 02:31:44.920 --> 02:31:47.600 so far as the words went, but in his mouth, 2231 02:31:47.879 --> 02:31:51.520 by his gestures, the movements of his body, the way 2232 02:31:51.559 --> 02:31:55.600 of blinking significantly and letting the tongue play across his lips, 2233 02:31:56.040 --> 02:32:01.000 it acquired something ambiguous, something vaguely repulsive. In addition to 2234 02:32:01.079 --> 02:32:04.840 the customary civilian dress, he was wearing a sports shirt, 2235 02:32:05.159 --> 02:32:08.840 and his skinny neck protruded above the soft collar, bearing 2236 02:32:08.879 --> 02:32:12.799 a noticeably large and active Adam's apple. He was pale 2237 02:32:12.879 --> 02:32:15.799 and snub nosed. It was hard to fix an age 2238 02:32:15.840 --> 02:32:20.319 to his beardless features, which seemed furrowed with grimaces and depravity, 2239 02:32:20.719 --> 02:32:26.239 and the two wrinkles standing arrogantly, harshly, almost savagely between 2240 02:32:26.239 --> 02:32:29.719 his reddish eyebrows were strangely suited to the smirk on 2241 02:32:29.799 --> 02:32:33.440 his mobile lips. Yet what really prompted the lonely man 2242 02:32:33.520 --> 02:32:37.079 to pay him keen attention was the observation that the 2243 02:32:37.159 --> 02:32:42.040 questionable figure seemed also to provide its own questionable atmosphere, 2244 02:32:42.760 --> 02:32:45.680 for each time they came to the refrain, the singer, 2245 02:32:46.000 --> 02:32:50.799 amid buffoonery and familiar handshakes, began a grotesque circular march, 2246 02:32:51.040 --> 02:32:55.280 which brought him immediately beneath Aschenbach's place, And each time 2247 02:32:55.360 --> 02:32:57.920 this happened, there blew up to the terrace from his 2248 02:32:58.040 --> 02:33:04.120 clothes and body a strong, long carbolic smell. End of 2249 02:33:04.239 --> 02:33:10.840 Chapter five, Part one, Chapter five, Part two. After the 2250 02:33:10.920 --> 02:33:14.840 song was ended, he began collecting money. He started with 2251 02:33:14.879 --> 02:33:18.479 the Russians, who were evidently willing to spend, and then 2252 02:33:18.559 --> 02:33:22.360 came up the stairs. Up here he showed himself just 2253 02:33:22.440 --> 02:33:25.959 as humble as he had been bold during the performance. 2254 02:33:26.479 --> 02:33:30.440 Cringing and bowing, He stole about among the tables, and 2255 02:33:30.520 --> 02:33:35.079 a smile of obsequious cunning exposed his strong teeth, while 2256 02:33:35.120 --> 02:33:39.280 the two wrinkles still stood ominously between his red eyebrows. 2257 02:33:39.879 --> 02:33:43.559 This singular character collecting money to live on. They eyed 2258 02:33:43.639 --> 02:33:47.399 him with a curiosity and a kind of repugnance. They 2259 02:33:47.440 --> 02:33:50.440 tossed coins into his felt hat with the tips of 2260 02:33:50.479 --> 02:33:54.200 their fingers, and were careful not to touch him. The 2261 02:33:54.239 --> 02:33:58.520 elimination of the physical distance between the comedian and the audience, 2262 02:33:58.920 --> 02:34:02.520 no matter how great the enjoyment may have been, always 2263 02:34:02.559 --> 02:34:06.520 causes a certain uneasiness. He felt it and tried to 2264 02:34:06.559 --> 02:34:10.479 excuse it by groveling. He came up to Oshenbach and 2265 02:34:10.600 --> 02:34:13.920 along with him the smell, which no one else seemed 2266 02:34:13.959 --> 02:34:20.680 concerned about. Listen, the reclose said, in an undertone, almost mechanically, 2267 02:34:21.360 --> 02:34:26.959 they are disinfecting Venice. Why, the jester answered, hoarsely, on 2268 02:34:27.040 --> 02:34:30.719 account of the police. That is a precaution, sir, with 2269 02:34:30.879 --> 02:34:35.440 such heat and the sirocco. The sirocco is oppressive. It 2270 02:34:35.520 --> 02:34:38.680 is not good for the health. He spoke, as though 2271 02:34:38.719 --> 02:34:43.280 astonished that anyone could ask such things, and demonstrated with 2272 02:34:43.360 --> 02:34:47.639 his open hand how oppressive the sirocco was. Then there 2273 02:34:47.719 --> 02:34:52.639 is no plague in Venice, Oschenbach asked quietly between his teeth. 2274 02:34:53.239 --> 02:34:57.639 The clown's muscular features fell into a grimace of comical embarrassment. 2275 02:34:58.479 --> 02:35:02.280 A plague, what kind of plague? Perhaps our police are 2276 02:35:02.319 --> 02:35:06.159 a plague, you like to joke, A plague of all things, 2277 02:35:06.719 --> 02:35:11.600 A precautionary measure, you understand, a police regulation against the 2278 02:35:11.639 --> 02:35:17.120 effects of the oppressive weather. He gesticulated very well, Maschenbach 2279 02:35:17.360 --> 02:35:21.600 said several times curtly and quietly, and he quickly dropped 2280 02:35:21.639 --> 02:35:25.159 an unduly large coin into the hat. Then with his 2281 02:35:25.319 --> 02:35:29.879 eyes he signaled the man to leave. He obeyed, smirking 2282 02:35:29.920 --> 02:35:33.479 and bowing. But he had not reached the stairs before 2283 02:35:33.559 --> 02:35:37.520 two hotel employees threw themselves upon him, and, with their 2284 02:35:37.559 --> 02:35:42.280 faces close to his, began a whispered cross examination. He 2285 02:35:42.319 --> 02:35:46.360 shrugged his shoulders, he gave assurances, He swore that he 2286 02:35:46.440 --> 02:35:50.639 had kept quiet. That was evident. He was released, and 2287 02:35:50.719 --> 02:35:54.440 he returned to the garden. Then, after a short conference 2288 02:35:54.520 --> 02:35:57.920 with his companions, he stepped out once more for a 2289 02:35:57.959 --> 02:36:01.639 final song of thanks and leave tom. It was a 2290 02:36:01.760 --> 02:36:06.079 rousing song which the recluse never recalled having heard before, 2291 02:36:06.639 --> 02:36:11.040 a big number, an incomprehensible dialect with a laugh refrain, 2292 02:36:11.239 --> 02:36:13.799 in which the troop joined regularly at the tops of 2293 02:36:13.840 --> 02:36:17.680 their voices. At this point, both the words and the 2294 02:36:17.719 --> 02:36:21.719 accompaniment of the instruments stopped, with nothing left but a laugh, 2295 02:36:22.040 --> 02:36:26.719 which was somehow arranged rhythmically, although very naturally done, and 2296 02:36:26.879 --> 02:36:30.799 the soloist especially showed great talent in giving it a 2297 02:36:30.840 --> 02:36:35.479 most deceptive vitality. At the renewal of his professional distance 2298 02:36:35.520 --> 02:36:39.120 from the audience, he had recovered all his boldness again, 2299 02:36:39.680 --> 02:36:42.639 and the artificial laugh that he directed up towards the 2300 02:36:42.760 --> 02:36:46.920 terrace was derisive. Even before the end of the articulate 2301 02:36:47.000 --> 02:36:50.479 portion of the strophy, he seemed to struggle against an 2302 02:36:50.520 --> 02:36:55.600 irresistible tickling. He gulped, his voice trembled, He pressed his 2303 02:36:55.719 --> 02:36:59.399 hand over his mouth, He contorted his shoulders, and at 2304 02:36:59.440 --> 02:37:02.760 the proper moment the ungovernable laugh broke out of him, 2305 02:37:03.239 --> 02:37:07.120 burst into such real cackles that it was infectious and 2306 02:37:07.239 --> 02:37:10.799 communicated itself to the audience, so that on the terrace 2307 02:37:10.840 --> 02:37:15.840 also an unfounded hilarity, living off itself alone, started up. 2308 02:37:16.399 --> 02:37:20.000 But this seemed to double the singer's exuberance. He bent 2309 02:37:20.079 --> 02:37:24.000 his knees, he slapped his thighs, He nearly split himself. 2310 02:37:24.399 --> 02:37:27.840 He no longer laughed, He shrieked. He pointed up with 2311 02:37:27.920 --> 02:37:30.959 his finger, as though nothing were more comic than the 2312 02:37:31.040 --> 02:37:34.719 laughing guests there. And finally, everyone in the garden and 2313 02:37:34.760 --> 02:37:39.079 on the verandah was laughing, even to the waiters, bellboys, 2314 02:37:39.319 --> 02:37:43.879 and house servants in the doorways. Aschenbach was no longer 2315 02:37:43.920 --> 02:37:48.000 resting in his chair. He sat upright as if attempting 2316 02:37:48.040 --> 02:37:52.319 to defend himself or to escape. But the laughter, the 2317 02:37:52.319 --> 02:37:56.719 whiffs of the hospital smell, and the boy's nearness combined 2318 02:37:56.799 --> 02:37:59.559 to put him into a trance that held his mind 2319 02:37:59.680 --> 02:38:04.639 and his senses hopelessly captive in the general movement and distraction. 2320 02:38:05.319 --> 02:38:08.879 He ventured to glance across at Tasio, and as he 2321 02:38:08.920 --> 02:38:12.399 did so, he dared observe that the boy, in reply 2322 02:38:12.520 --> 02:38:16.239 to his glance, was equally serious. Much as though he 2323 02:38:16.280 --> 02:38:20.239 had muddeled his conduct and expression after those of one man, 2324 02:38:20.680 --> 02:38:24.159 and the prevalent mood had no effect on him, since 2325 02:38:24.239 --> 02:38:28.280 this one man was not part of it. This portentous, 2326 02:38:28.360 --> 02:38:32.840 childish obedience had something so disarming and overpowering about it 2327 02:38:33.200 --> 02:38:36.719 that the gray haired man could hardly restrain himself from 2328 02:38:36.719 --> 02:38:40.319 burying his face in his hands. It had also seemed 2329 02:38:40.360 --> 02:38:45.319 to him that Toadsio's occasional stretching and quick breathing indicated 2330 02:38:45.319 --> 02:38:49.840 a complaint, a congestion of the lungs. He is sickly. 2331 02:38:50.280 --> 02:38:54.120 He will probably not grow old, he thought repeatedly, With 2332 02:38:54.159 --> 02:38:58.559 that positiveness which is often a peculiar relief to desire 2333 02:38:58.639 --> 02:39:02.440 and passion, and along with pure solitude, he had a 2334 02:39:02.440 --> 02:39:07.760 feeling of rakish gratification. Meanwhile, the Venetians had ended and 2335 02:39:07.840 --> 02:39:11.799 were leaving. Applause accompanied them, and their leader did not 2336 02:39:11.920 --> 02:39:15.959 miss the opportunity to cover his retreat with further jests. 2337 02:39:16.440 --> 02:39:20.239 His bows the kisses he blew were laughed at, and 2338 02:39:20.440 --> 02:39:24.360 so he doubled them. When his companions were already gone, 2339 02:39:24.600 --> 02:39:27.360 he acted as though he had hurt himself by backing 2340 02:39:27.399 --> 02:39:30.120 into a lamp post, and he crept through the gate 2341 02:39:30.440 --> 02:39:34.319 seemingly crippled with pain. Then he suddenly threw off the 2342 02:39:34.360 --> 02:39:38.680 mask of comic hard Luck, stood upright, hurried away, jauntily, 2343 02:39:39.079 --> 02:39:42.479 stuck out his tongue insolently at the guests on the terrace, 2344 02:39:43.040 --> 02:39:47.280 and slipped into the darkness. The company was breaking up. 2345 02:39:47.680 --> 02:39:51.040 Tasio had been missing from the balustrade for some time, 2346 02:39:51.520 --> 02:39:54.440 but to the displeasure of the waiters, the lonely man 2347 02:39:54.600 --> 02:39:57.239 sat for a long while over the remains of his 2348 02:39:57.360 --> 02:40:02.479 pomegranate drink. Night advanced time was crumbling in the house 2349 02:40:02.559 --> 02:40:05.639 of his parents many years back, there had been an 2350 02:40:05.639 --> 02:40:08.959 hour glass. Of a sudden, he saw the fragile and 2351 02:40:09.040 --> 02:40:12.600 expressive instrument again, as though it were standing in front 2352 02:40:12.639 --> 02:40:17.000 of him. Fine and noiseless, The rust red sand was 2353 02:40:17.120 --> 02:40:20.200 running through the glass neck, and since it was getting 2354 02:40:20.239 --> 02:40:23.559 low in the upper half, a speedy little vortex had 2355 02:40:23.559 --> 02:40:27.760 been formed there. As early as the following day in 2356 02:40:27.840 --> 02:40:31.479 the afternoon, he had made new progress in his obstinate 2357 02:40:31.520 --> 02:40:34.479 baiting of the people he met, and this time he 2358 02:40:34.520 --> 02:40:38.399 had all possible success. He walked from the piazza of 2359 02:40:38.440 --> 02:40:42.840 Saint Mark's into the English Traveling Bureau located there, and 2360 02:40:42.959 --> 02:40:46.239 after changing some money at the cash desk, he put 2361 02:40:46.280 --> 02:40:49.639 on the expression of a distrustful foreigner and launched his 2362 02:40:49.719 --> 02:40:53.399 fatal question at the attendant clerk. He was a Britisher. 2363 02:40:53.799 --> 02:40:56.760 He wore a woolen suit and was still young, with 2364 02:40:56.879 --> 02:41:01.879 close set eyes, and had that characteristic stolid reliability which 2365 02:41:01.920 --> 02:41:06.159 is so peculiar and strikingly appealing in the tricky, nimble 2366 02:41:06.200 --> 02:41:11.200 witted South. He began no reason for alarm, Sir, a 2367 02:41:11.319 --> 02:41:15.799 regulation without any serious significance. Such measures are often taken 2368 02:41:16.040 --> 02:41:19.639 to anticipate the unhealthy effects of the heat and the sirocco. 2369 02:41:20.559 --> 02:41:23.280 But as he raised his blue eyes, he met the 2370 02:41:23.319 --> 02:41:28.000 stare of the foreigner, attired and somewhat unhappy stare focused 2371 02:41:28.040 --> 02:41:31.440 on his lips with a touch of scorn. Then the 2372 02:41:31.479 --> 02:41:36.639 Englishman blushed at least, he continued in an emotional undertone. 2373 02:41:37.159 --> 02:41:41.200 That is the official explanation which people are content to accept. 2374 02:41:41.719 --> 02:41:45.319 I will admit there is something more behind it. And then, 2375 02:41:45.399 --> 02:41:48.760 in his frank and leisurely manner, he told the truth. 2376 02:41:49.879 --> 02:41:53.879 For several years now, Indian cholera had shown a heightened 2377 02:41:53.920 --> 02:41:58.079 tendency to spread and migrate. Hatched in the warm swamps 2378 02:41:58.079 --> 02:42:01.680 of the Ganges Delta, rising with the noxious breath of 2379 02:42:01.719 --> 02:42:06.520 that luxuriant, unfit primitive world and island wilderness which is 2380 02:42:06.600 --> 02:42:09.799 shunned by humans, and where the tiger crouches in the 2381 02:42:09.840 --> 02:42:14.719 bamboo thickets. The plague had raged continuously and with unusual 2382 02:42:14.840 --> 02:42:19.520 strength in Hindustan, had reached eastwards to China, westwards to 2383 02:42:19.600 --> 02:42:24.360 Afghanistan and Persia, and following the chief caravan roots had 2384 02:42:24.360 --> 02:42:29.159 carried its terrors to Astrachin and even to Moscow. But 2385 02:42:29.319 --> 02:42:33.280 while Europe was trembling, lest the specter continue its advance 2386 02:42:33.360 --> 02:42:37.079 from there across the country, it had been transported over 2387 02:42:37.120 --> 02:42:41.280 the sea by Syrian merchantmen and had turned up almost 2388 02:42:41.319 --> 02:42:45.879 simultaneously in several Mediterranean ports. Had raised its head in 2389 02:42:45.959 --> 02:42:50.079 too long and Malaga had shown its mask several times 2390 02:42:50.079 --> 02:42:55.159 in Palermo and Naples, and seemed permanently entrenched through Calabria 2391 02:42:55.319 --> 02:42:59.559 and Apulia. The north of the peninsula had been spared. 2392 02:43:00.120 --> 02:43:03.040 Yet in the middle of this May, in Venice, the 2393 02:43:03.120 --> 02:43:06.719 frightful vibriuns were found on one and the same day 2394 02:43:07.159 --> 02:43:10.120 in the blackish wasted bodies of a cabin boy and 2395 02:43:10.200 --> 02:43:14.799 a woman who sold green groceries. The cases were kept secret, 2396 02:43:15.159 --> 02:43:18.559 but within a week there were ten twenty thirty more 2397 02:43:19.000 --> 02:43:23.159 and in various sections. The man from the Austrian provinces, 2398 02:43:23.399 --> 02:43:25.520 who had made a pleasure trip to Venice for a 2399 02:43:25.559 --> 02:43:30.760 few days, returned to his hometown and died with unmistakable symptoms, 2400 02:43:31.159 --> 02:43:34.120 and that is how the first reports of the pestilence 2401 02:43:34.159 --> 02:43:38.120 in the Lagoon city got into the German newspapers. The 2402 02:43:38.200 --> 02:43:42.479 Venetian authorities answered that the city's health conditions had never 2403 02:43:42.559 --> 02:43:47.200 been better and took the most necessary preventive measures, But 2404 02:43:47.399 --> 02:43:52.000 probably the food supply had been infected, denied and glossed over. 2405 02:43:52.520 --> 02:43:55.600 Death was eating its way along the narrow streets, and 2406 02:43:55.719 --> 02:44:00.239 its dissemination was especially favored by the premature summer heat, 2407 02:44:00.479 --> 02:44:04.520 which made the water of the Canal's lukewarm. Yes, it 2408 02:44:04.600 --> 02:44:08.000 seemed as though the plague had got renewed strength, as 2409 02:44:08.000 --> 02:44:11.760 though the tenacity and fruitfulness of its stimuli had doubled. 2410 02:44:12.360 --> 02:44:16.079 Cases of recovery were rare. Out of one hundred attacks, 2411 02:44:16.280 --> 02:44:20.200 eighty were fatal and in the most horrible manner. For 2412 02:44:20.319 --> 02:44:23.959 the plague moved with utter savagery and often showed that 2413 02:44:24.120 --> 02:44:28.719 most dangerous form, which is called the drying water from 2414 02:44:28.799 --> 02:44:32.360 the blood vessels collected in pockets, and the blood was 2415 02:44:32.479 --> 02:44:35.600 unable to carry this off. Within a few hours, the 2416 02:44:35.680 --> 02:44:39.159 victim was parched, his blood became as thick as glue, 2417 02:44:39.479 --> 02:44:44.319 and he stifled amid cramps and hoarse groans. Lucky for him, if, 2418 02:44:44.680 --> 02:44:47.920 as sometimes happened, the attack took the form of a 2419 02:44:48.120 --> 02:44:52.000 like discomfiture, followed by a profound coma from which he 2420 02:44:52.120 --> 02:44:56.159 seldom or never awakened. At the beginning of June, the 2421 02:44:56.200 --> 02:45:01.120 pest house of the Ausbudale Chivico had quietly filled. There 2422 02:45:01.200 --> 02:45:04.040 was not much room left in the two orphan asylums, 2423 02:45:04.319 --> 02:45:07.879 and a frightfully active commerce was kept up between the 2424 02:45:07.879 --> 02:45:12.680 wharf of the Fundamenta Nuova and Saint Michel, the burial 2425 02:45:12.719 --> 02:45:15.760 island but there was the fear of a general drop 2426 02:45:15.799 --> 02:45:19.600 in prosperity. The recently opened art exhibit in the public 2427 02:45:19.639 --> 02:45:24.000 gardens was to be considered, along with the heavy losses which, 2428 02:45:24.079 --> 02:45:28.239 in case of panic or unfavorable rumors, would threaten business, 2429 02:45:28.440 --> 02:45:33.399 the hotels, the entire elaborate system for exploiting foreigners. And 2430 02:45:33.520 --> 02:45:37.559 as these considerations evidently carried more weight than love of 2431 02:45:37.639 --> 02:45:42.719 truth or respect for international agreements, the city authorities upheld 2432 02:45:42.719 --> 02:45:47.639 obstinately their policy of silence and denial. The chief health 2433 02:45:47.680 --> 02:45:51.760 officer had resigned from his post and indignation, and been 2434 02:45:51.799 --> 02:45:56.760 promptly replaced by a more tractable personality. The people knew this, 2435 02:45:57.280 --> 02:46:01.760 and the corruption of their superiors, together with the predominating insecurity, 2436 02:46:02.360 --> 02:46:05.840 the exceptional condition into which the prevalence of death had 2437 02:46:05.840 --> 02:46:10.239 plunged the city, induced a certain demoralization of the lower classes, 2438 02:46:10.879 --> 02:46:17.760 encouraging shady and antisocial impulses, which manifested themselves in license profligacy, 2439 02:46:18.120 --> 02:46:22.879 and a rising crime wave. Contrary to custom, many drunkards 2440 02:46:22.920 --> 02:46:25.760 were seen in the evenings. It was said that at night, 2441 02:46:26.239 --> 02:46:30.719 nasty mobs made the streets unsafe. Burglaries and even murders 2442 02:46:30.799 --> 02:46:33.959 became frequent, for it had already been proved on two 2443 02:46:34.040 --> 02:46:38.000 occasions that persons who had presumably fallen victim to the 2444 02:46:38.079 --> 02:46:42.120 plague had in reality been dispatched by poison by their 2445 02:46:42.159 --> 02:46:48.760 own relatives. And professional debauchery assumed abnormal and obtrusive proportions 2446 02:46:48.799 --> 02:46:52.079 such as had never been known here before, and to 2447 02:46:52.120 --> 02:46:55.719 an extent which is usually found only in southern parts 2448 02:46:55.760 --> 02:47:00.479 of the country and in the Orient. The Englishmen announced 2449 02:47:00.520 --> 02:47:03.920 the final verdict on these facts. You would do well, 2450 02:47:04.159 --> 02:47:08.040 he concluded, to leave to day rather than tomorrow. It 2451 02:47:08.079 --> 02:47:10.760 cannot be much more than a couple of days before 2452 02:47:10.760 --> 02:47:16.360 a quarantine zone is declared. Thank you, Aschenbach said, and 2453 02:47:16.520 --> 02:47:22.399 left the office. The square lay sunless and stifling. Unsuspecting 2454 02:47:22.520 --> 02:47:26.159 foreigners sat in front of the cafes, or stood among 2455 02:47:26.200 --> 02:47:28.760 the pigeons in front of the church, and watched the 2456 02:47:28.840 --> 02:47:32.920 swarms of birds flapping their wings, crowding one another, and 2457 02:47:33.120 --> 02:47:36.600 pecking at grains of corn offered them in open palms. 2458 02:47:37.200 --> 02:47:41.600 The recluse was feverishly excited, triumphant in his possession of 2459 02:47:41.639 --> 02:47:44.239 the truth, but it had left him with a bad 2460 02:47:44.280 --> 02:47:47.559 taste in his mouth and a weird horror in his heart. 2461 02:47:48.239 --> 02:47:50.680 As he walked up and down the flagstones of the 2462 02:47:50.680 --> 02:47:54.200 gorgeous court. He was weighing in action which would meet 2463 02:47:54.200 --> 02:47:58.479 the situation and would absolve him. This evening, after dinner, 2464 02:47:58.760 --> 02:48:01.559 he could approach the woman with the pearls and make 2465 02:48:01.639 --> 02:48:04.639 her a speech. He had figured it out word for word. 2466 02:48:05.600 --> 02:48:08.959 Permit a foreigner, madam, to give you some useful advice, 2467 02:48:09.200 --> 02:48:13.000 a warning which is being withheld from you through self interest. 2468 02:48:13.719 --> 02:48:17.680 Leave immediately with Tasio and your daughters. Venice is full 2469 02:48:17.680 --> 02:48:21.120 of the plague. Then he could lay a farewell hand 2470 02:48:21.399 --> 02:48:24.000 on the head of this tool of a mocking divinity, 2471 02:48:24.600 --> 02:48:28.559 turn away and flee this morass. But he felt at 2472 02:48:28.600 --> 02:48:31.799 the same time that he was very far from seriously 2473 02:48:31.959 --> 02:48:36.079 desiring such a move. He would retract it, would disengage 2474 02:48:36.159 --> 02:48:40.200 himself from it. But when we are distracted, we loathe 2475 02:48:40.280 --> 02:48:44.399 most the thought of retracing our steps. He recalled a 2476 02:48:44.399 --> 02:48:48.799 white building ornamented with inscriptions, which glistened in the evening, 2477 02:48:49.200 --> 02:48:53.639 and in whose transparent mysticism his mind's eye had lost itself. 2478 02:48:54.200 --> 02:48:57.719 And then that strange wanderer's form which had awakened in 2479 02:48:57.760 --> 02:49:01.319 the aging man, the roving hanker of youth. After the 2480 02:49:01.440 --> 02:49:05.559 foreign and the remote, and the thought of return, the 2481 02:49:05.600 --> 02:49:10.559 thought of prudence and soberness, effort, mastery, disgusted him to 2482 02:49:10.639 --> 02:49:13.959 such an extent that his face was distorted with an 2483 02:49:14.000 --> 02:49:18.520 expression of physical nausea. It must be kept silent, he 2484 02:49:18.600 --> 02:49:23.399 whispered heavily. I will keep silent. The consciousness of his 2485 02:49:23.520 --> 02:49:27.319 share in the facts and the guilt intoxicated him, much 2486 02:49:27.360 --> 02:49:31.639 as a little wine intoxicates a tired brain. The picture 2487 02:49:31.680 --> 02:49:36.280 of the diseased and neglected city hovering desolately before him 2488 02:49:36.799 --> 02:49:40.520 aroused vague hopes beyond the bounds of reason, but with 2489 02:49:40.600 --> 02:49:44.520 an egregious sweetness. What was the scant happiness he had 2490 02:49:44.600 --> 02:49:49.200 dreamed of a moment ago, compared with these expectations, What 2491 02:49:49.319 --> 02:49:52.639 were art and virtue worth to him? Over against the 2492 02:49:52.680 --> 02:49:58.040 advantages of chaos? He kept silent and remained in venice. 2493 02:49:58.600 --> 02:50:01.879 This same night he had a frightful dream, if one 2494 02:50:01.879 --> 02:50:05.680 can designate as a dream, a bodily and mental experience, 2495 02:50:06.000 --> 02:50:10.079 which occurred to him in the deepest sleep, completely independent 2496 02:50:10.159 --> 02:50:13.559 of him and with a physical realness, although he never 2497 02:50:13.600 --> 02:50:18.000 saw himself present or moving about among the incidents, but 2498 02:50:18.120 --> 02:50:21.719 their stage rather was his soul itself, and they broke 2499 02:50:21.760 --> 02:50:26.120 in from without, trampling down his resistance, a profound and 2500 02:50:26.280 --> 02:50:30.959 spiritual resistance by sheer force. And when they had passed through, 2501 02:50:31.399 --> 02:50:35.360 they left his substance, the culture of his lifetime crushed 2502 02:50:35.399 --> 02:50:40.840 and annihilated behind them. It began with anguish, anguish and desire, 2503 02:50:41.399 --> 02:50:45.440 and a frightened curiosity as to what was coming. It 2504 02:50:45.559 --> 02:50:48.959 was night, and his senses were on the watch. From 2505 02:50:49.040 --> 02:50:52.879 far off, a grumble an uproar was approaching, a jumble 2506 02:50:52.920 --> 02:50:57.959 of noises, clanking, blaring, and dull thunder, with shrill shouts 2507 02:50:58.120 --> 02:51:01.399 than a definite whine in a long out yew sound. 2508 02:51:01.959 --> 02:51:06.879 All this was sweetly, ominously interspersed and dominated by the 2509 02:51:06.879 --> 02:51:11.479 deep cooing of wickedly persistent flutes which charmed the bowels 2510 02:51:11.799 --> 02:51:16.040 in a shamelessly penetrative manner. But he knew one word. 2511 02:51:16.479 --> 02:51:19.559 It was veiled, and yet would name what was approaching, 2512 02:51:20.280 --> 02:51:24.879 the foreign god. Vaporous fire began to glow. Then he 2513 02:51:25.000 --> 02:51:29.200 recognized mountains like those about his summer house, and in 2514 02:51:29.239 --> 02:51:32.479 the scattered light from high up in the woods, among 2515 02:51:32.639 --> 02:51:37.920 tree trunks and crumbling moss grown rocks, people beasts, a throng, 2516 02:51:38.399 --> 02:51:42.879 a raging mob, plunged, twisting and whirling downwards, then made 2517 02:51:42.920 --> 02:51:47.200 the hill swarm with bodies, flames, tumult, and a riotous 2518 02:51:47.319 --> 02:51:52.760 round dance. Women tripped by overlong fur draperies which hung 2519 02:51:52.799 --> 02:51:56.879 from their waists, were holding up tambourines and beating on them. 2520 02:51:57.319 --> 02:52:02.440 Their groaning heads flung back. The others swung sparking firebrands 2521 02:52:02.479 --> 02:52:06.120 and bare daggers, or wore hissing snakes about the middle 2522 02:52:06.159 --> 02:52:09.879 of their bodies, or shrieking held their breasts in their 2523 02:52:09.920 --> 02:52:14.280 two hands. Men with horns on their foreheads, shaggy haired 2524 02:52:14.639 --> 02:52:18.280 girded with hides, bent back their necks and raised their 2525 02:52:18.399 --> 02:52:23.079 arms and thighs, clashed brass cymbals and beat furiously at 2526 02:52:23.159 --> 02:52:28.479 kettle drums, while smooth boys prodded he goats with wreathed sticks, 2527 02:52:28.520 --> 02:52:31.639 climbing on their horns and falling off with shouts when 2528 02:52:31.639 --> 02:52:35.559 they bounded. And the Baccans wailed the word with the 2529 02:52:35.600 --> 02:52:39.520 soft consonants and the drawn out ue sound at once 2530 02:52:39.719 --> 02:52:44.760 sweet and savage, like nothing ever heard before. In one place, 2531 02:52:45.079 --> 02:52:48.639 it rang out as though piped into the air by stags, 2532 02:52:48.680 --> 02:52:51.479 and it was echoed in another by many voices. In 2533 02:52:51.559 --> 02:52:56.000 wild triumph with it. They incited one another to dance 2534 02:52:56.079 --> 02:52:58.799 and to fling out their arms and legs. And it 2535 02:52:58.920 --> 02:53:03.479 was never silent, but everything was pierced and dominated by 2536 02:53:03.520 --> 02:53:08.040 the deep, coaxing flute. He who was fighting against this experience, 2537 02:53:08.520 --> 02:53:12.000 did it not coax him too, with its shameless penetration 2538 02:53:12.559 --> 02:53:16.280 into the feast and the excesses of the extreme sacrifice. 2539 02:53:16.600 --> 02:53:21.319 His repugnance, his fear were keen. He was honorably set 2540 02:53:21.360 --> 02:53:25.360 on defending himself to the very last against the barbarian, 2541 02:53:25.719 --> 02:53:30.040 the foe to intellectual poise and dignity. But the noise, 2542 02:53:30.319 --> 02:53:34.799 the howling, multiplied by the resonant walls of the hills, grew, 2543 02:53:35.120 --> 02:53:38.440 took the upper hand, swelled to a fury of rapture. 2544 02:53:39.200 --> 02:53:43.000 Odors oppressed the senses, the pungent smell of the bucks, 2545 02:53:43.319 --> 02:53:47.000 the scent of moist bodies, and a waft of stagnant water, 2546 02:53:47.319 --> 02:53:52.040 with another smell, something familiar, the smell of wounds and 2547 02:53:52.280 --> 02:53:56.920 prevalent disease. At the beating of the drum, his heart fluttered, 2548 02:53:57.239 --> 02:54:00.120 his head was spinning. He was caught in a frenzy, 2549 02:54:00.520 --> 02:54:04.280 in a blinding, deafening lewdness, and he yearned to join 2550 02:54:04.319 --> 02:54:08.760 the ranks of the god. The obscene symbol huge wooden 2551 02:54:09.280 --> 02:54:12.920 was uncovered and raised up. Then they howled the magic 2552 02:54:12.959 --> 02:54:16.799 word with more abandon Foaming at the mouth, they raged 2553 02:54:17.159 --> 02:54:21.639 teased one another with ruddish gestures and caressing hands, laughing 2554 02:54:21.680 --> 02:54:25.120 and groaning. They stuck the goats into one another's flesh 2555 02:54:25.600 --> 02:54:28.760 and licked the blood from their limbs. But the dreamer 2556 02:54:28.879 --> 02:54:32.040 now was with them, in them, and he belonged to 2557 02:54:32.120 --> 02:54:36.440 the foreign God. Yes, they were he himself. As they 2558 02:54:36.479 --> 02:54:41.239 hurled themselves, biting and tearing upon the animals, got entangled 2559 02:54:41.239 --> 02:54:45.079 in steaming rags and fell in promiscuous unions on the 2560 02:54:45.120 --> 02:54:49.040 torn moss and sacrifice to their god, and his soul 2561 02:54:49.280 --> 02:54:55.879 tasted the unchastity and fury of decay. End of Chapter five, 2562 02:54:56.200 --> 02:55:02.440 Part two, Chapter five three. When he awakened from the 2563 02:55:02.479 --> 02:55:07.079 affliction of this dream, he was unnerved, shattered, and hopelessly 2564 02:55:07.319 --> 02:55:10.559 under the power of the demon. He no longer avoided 2565 02:55:10.559 --> 02:55:13.879 the inquisitive glances of other people. He did not care 2566 02:55:13.920 --> 02:55:16.959 if he was exciting their suspicions. And as a matter 2567 02:55:17.040 --> 02:55:22.159 of fact, they were fleeing, traveling elsewhere. Numerous bathing houses 2568 02:55:22.200 --> 02:55:25.920 stood empty. The occupants of the dining hall became more 2569 02:55:26.000 --> 02:55:29.159 and more scattered, and in the city now one rarely 2570 02:55:29.200 --> 02:55:33.639 saw foreigner. The truth seemed to have leaked out. The panic, 2571 02:55:33.920 --> 02:55:38.000 despite the reticence of those whose interests were involved, seemed 2572 02:55:38.040 --> 02:55:42.120 no longer avoidable. But the woman with the pearls remained 2573 02:55:42.159 --> 02:55:45.479 with her family, either because the rumors had not yet 2574 02:55:45.520 --> 02:55:48.760 reached her, or because she was too proud and fearless 2575 02:55:48.799 --> 02:55:54.879 to heed them. Tadzio remained, and to Oshenbach, in his infatuation, 2576 02:55:55.440 --> 02:55:58.760 it seemed at times as though flight and death might 2577 02:55:58.799 --> 02:56:02.360 remove all the disturbing elements of life around them. And 2578 02:56:02.440 --> 02:56:06.280 he stayed here alone with the boy yes by the 2579 02:56:06.319 --> 02:56:10.760 sea in the forenoon, when his eyes rested heavily, irresponsibly, 2580 02:56:10.840 --> 02:56:14.440 unwaveringly on the thing he coveted, or when as the 2581 02:56:14.520 --> 02:56:17.840 day was ending, he followed shamelessly after him through the 2582 02:56:17.879 --> 02:56:22.239 streets where the hideous death lurked in secret. At such times, 2583 02:56:22.520 --> 02:56:27.000 the atrocious seemed to him, rich in possibilities and laws 2584 02:56:27.040 --> 02:56:31.600 of morality, had dropped away, like any lover he wanted 2585 02:56:31.600 --> 02:56:34.719 to please, and he felt a bitter anguish lest it 2586 02:56:34.840 --> 02:56:38.799 might not be possible. He added bright, youthful details to 2587 02:56:38.879 --> 02:56:43.440 his dress. He put on jewels, and used perfumes. During 2588 02:56:43.479 --> 02:56:46.719 the day, he often spent much time over his toilet 2589 02:56:47.159 --> 02:56:52.120 and came to the table strikingly dressed, excited and in suspense. 2590 02:56:52.920 --> 02:56:55.399 In the light of the sweet youthfulness which had done 2591 02:56:55.440 --> 02:56:59.639 this to him, he detested his aging body. The sight 2592 02:56:59.680 --> 02:57:03.600 of his gray hair, his sharp features plunged him into 2593 02:57:03.639 --> 02:57:08.319 shame and hopelessness. It induced him to attempt rejuvenating his 2594 02:57:08.440 --> 02:57:13.719 body and appearance. He often visited the hotel barber. Beneath 2595 02:57:13.760 --> 02:57:17.200 the barber's apron, Leaning back in the chair under the 2596 02:57:17.200 --> 02:57:21.680 gossiper's expert hands, he winced to observe his reflection in 2597 02:57:21.719 --> 02:57:27.479 the mirror. Gray, he said, making a wry face. A 2598 02:57:27.600 --> 02:57:31.719 little the man answered, due entirely to a slight neglect, 2599 02:57:32.040 --> 02:57:35.879 an indifference to outward things, which is conceivable in people 2600 02:57:35.920 --> 02:57:39.959 of importance. But it is not exactly praiseworthy, and all 2601 02:57:40.000 --> 02:57:43.879 the less so, since such persons are above prejudice than 2602 02:57:44.000 --> 02:57:48.079 matters of nature or art. If the moral objections of 2603 02:57:48.159 --> 02:57:50.840 certain people to the art of cosmetics were to be 2604 02:57:50.920 --> 02:57:54.040 logically extended to the care of the teeth, they would 2605 02:57:54.040 --> 02:57:57.719 give no slight offense. And after all, we are just 2606 02:57:57.799 --> 02:58:01.280 as old as we feel and unders in some circumstances, 2607 02:58:01.680 --> 02:58:04.600 gray hair would actually stand for more of an untruth 2608 02:58:04.959 --> 02:58:09.040 than the despised correction. In your case, sir, you are 2609 02:58:09.200 --> 02:58:12.280 entitled to the natural color of your hair. Will you 2610 02:58:12.360 --> 02:58:16.520 permit me simply to return what belongs to you? How 2611 02:58:16.639 --> 02:58:21.799 is that? Aschenbach asked. Then the orator washed his client's 2612 02:58:21.879 --> 02:58:26.120 hair with two kinds of water, one clear and one dark, 2613 02:58:26.520 --> 02:58:29.840 and it was as black as in youth. Following this, 2614 02:58:30.239 --> 02:58:33.879 he curled it with irons into soft waves, stepped back, 2615 02:58:34.159 --> 02:58:38.040 and eyed his work. All that is left now, he said, 2616 02:58:38.360 --> 02:58:41.399 would be to freshen up the skin a little. And 2617 02:58:41.600 --> 02:58:46.200 like someone who cannot finish, cannot satisfy himself, he passed 2618 02:58:46.200 --> 02:58:52.280 with quickening energy, from one manipulation to another. Aschenbach rested comfortably, 2619 02:58:52.799 --> 02:58:57.079 incapable of resistance, or rather, his hopes aroused by what 2620 02:58:57.239 --> 02:59:00.719 was taking place in the glass. He saw his brows 2621 02:59:00.840 --> 02:59:05.959 arch more evenly and decisively. His eyes became longer, Their 2622 02:59:06.000 --> 02:59:08.920 brilliance was heightened by a light touching up of the 2623 02:59:09.000 --> 02:59:13.040 lids a little lower where the skin had been leatherish brown. 2624 02:59:13.440 --> 02:59:16.920 He saw a delicate crimson tint grow beneath a deft 2625 02:59:16.959 --> 02:59:21.399 application of color. His lips bloodless a little while past, 2626 02:59:21.920 --> 02:59:26.520 became full and as red as raspberries. The furrows in 2627 02:59:26.600 --> 02:59:29.200 the cheeks and about the mouth. The wrinkles of the 2628 02:59:29.239 --> 02:59:34.159 eyes disappeared. Beneath lotions and cream. With a knocking heart, 2629 02:59:34.399 --> 02:59:39.239 he beheld a blossoming youth. Finally, the beauty specialist declared 2630 02:59:39.319 --> 02:59:43.760 himself content after the manner of such people, by obsequiously 2631 02:59:43.879 --> 02:59:48.040 thanking the man he had been serving a trifling assistance, 2632 02:59:48.440 --> 02:59:52.440 he said, as he applied one parting touch. Now the 2633 02:59:52.559 --> 02:59:58.000 gentleman can fall in love. Unhesitatingly, he walked away, fascinated. 2634 02:59:58.479 --> 03:00:01.879 He was happy as in a dream, Timid and bewildered. 2635 03:00:02.319 --> 03:00:06.120 His necktie was red, His broad brimmed straw hat was 2636 03:00:06.200 --> 03:00:10.920 trimmed with a variegated band. A tepid storm wind had risen. 2637 03:00:11.440 --> 03:00:14.799 It was raining sparsely and at intervals, but the air 2638 03:00:14.920 --> 03:00:18.520 was damp, thick, and filled with the smell of things rotting. 2639 03:00:19.200 --> 03:00:23.040 All around him, he heard a fluttering, pattering, and swishing, 2640 03:00:23.559 --> 03:00:26.680 and under the fever of his cosmetics, it seemed to 2641 03:00:26.799 --> 03:00:30.360 him as though evil wind spirits were haunting the place, 2642 03:00:31.000 --> 03:00:34.319 Impure sea birds which rooted and gnawed at the food 2643 03:00:34.360 --> 03:00:38.280 of the condemned and befouled it with their droppings, for 2644 03:00:38.360 --> 03:00:43.000 the sultiness destroyed his appetite, and the fancy suggested itself 2645 03:00:43.319 --> 03:00:48.440 that the foods were poisoned with contaminating substances. Tracking the boy, 2646 03:00:48.479 --> 03:00:52.760 one afternoon, Haschenbach had plunged deep into the tangled center 2647 03:00:53.000 --> 03:00:56.719 of the diseased city. He was becoming uncertain of where 2648 03:00:56.760 --> 03:01:01.559 he was, since the alleys, waterways, bridge and little squares 2649 03:01:01.639 --> 03:01:04.879 of the labyrinth were all so much alike, and he 2650 03:01:05.000 --> 03:01:08.799 was no longer even sure of directions. He was absorbed 2651 03:01:08.799 --> 03:01:12.000 with the problem of keeping the pursued figure in sight, 2652 03:01:12.840 --> 03:01:18.680 and driven to disgraceful subterfuges. Flattened himself against walls, hiding 2653 03:01:18.760 --> 03:01:22.040 behind the backs of other people. For a long time, 2654 03:01:22.200 --> 03:01:25.559 he did not notice the weariness, the exhaustion with which 2655 03:01:25.559 --> 03:01:29.760 emotion and the continual suspense had taxed his mind and 2656 03:01:29.799 --> 03:01:35.399 his body. Tazio walked behind his companions. He always allowed 2657 03:01:35.440 --> 03:01:38.760 the governess and the nun like sisters to precede him 2658 03:01:38.799 --> 03:01:42.879 in the narrow places, and loitering behind alone, he would 2659 03:01:42.879 --> 03:01:46.600 turn his head occasionally to look over his shoulder and 2660 03:01:46.799 --> 03:01:49.799 make sure by a glance of his peculiarly dark gray 2661 03:01:49.840 --> 03:01:54.280 eyes that his admirer was following. He saw him and 2662 03:01:54.520 --> 03:01:57.760 did not betray him. Drunk with the knowledge of this, 2663 03:01:58.360 --> 03:02:02.479 lured forward by those eyes, eyes led meekly by his passion, 2664 03:02:02.920 --> 03:02:07.159 the lover stole after his unseemly hope. But finally he 2665 03:02:07.280 --> 03:02:10.799 was cheated and lost sight of him. The poles had 2666 03:02:10.840 --> 03:02:13.920 crossed a short arching bridge. The height of the curve 2667 03:02:14.079 --> 03:02:17.360 hid them from the pursuer, and when he himself had 2668 03:02:17.479 --> 03:02:21.120 arrived there, he no longer saw them. He hunted for 2669 03:02:21.159 --> 03:02:25.399 them vainly in three directions, straight ahead and to either side, 2670 03:02:25.799 --> 03:02:29.159 along the narrow, dirty wharf. In the end he was 2671 03:02:29.200 --> 03:02:32.120 so tired and unnerved that he had to give up 2672 03:02:32.159 --> 03:02:36.360 the search. His head was on fire, his body was 2673 03:02:36.440 --> 03:02:40.680 covered with a sticky sweat, his knees trembled. He could 2674 03:02:40.719 --> 03:02:44.319 no longer endure the thirst that was torturing him, and 2675 03:02:44.399 --> 03:02:47.840 he looked around for some immediate relief. From a little 2676 03:02:47.920 --> 03:02:53.239 vegetable store, he bought some fruit strawberries, soft and overly ripe, 2677 03:02:53.600 --> 03:02:56.600 and he ate them. As he walked. The very charming, 2678 03:02:56.799 --> 03:03:01.600 forsaken little square opened up before him. He recognized it. 2679 03:03:02.079 --> 03:03:05.959 Here he had made his frustrated plans for flight weeks ago. 2680 03:03:06.559 --> 03:03:08.920 He let himself sink down on the steps of the 2681 03:03:08.920 --> 03:03:11.799 cistern in the middle of the square and laid his 2682 03:03:11.920 --> 03:03:16.120 head against the stone cylinder. It was quiet. Grass was 2683 03:03:16.159 --> 03:03:20.559 growing up through the pavement. Refuse was scattered about among 2684 03:03:20.600 --> 03:03:24.719 the weather beaten, usually tall houses surrounding him. There was 2685 03:03:24.799 --> 03:03:28.920 one like a palace, with little lion covered balconies and 2686 03:03:29.040 --> 03:03:33.479 gothic windows with blank emptiness behind them. On the ground 2687 03:03:33.520 --> 03:03:37.200 floor of another house was a drug store. Warm gusts 2688 03:03:37.200 --> 03:03:41.920 of wind occasionally carried the smell of carbolic acid. He 2689 03:03:41.959 --> 03:03:46.280 sat there. He the master, the artist of dignity, the 2690 03:03:46.319 --> 03:03:49.879 author of The Wretch, a work which had, in such 2691 03:03:49.959 --> 03:03:55.200 accurate symbols renounced vagabondage and the depths of misery, had 2692 03:03:55.200 --> 03:03:58.559 denied all sympathy with the engulfed, and had cast out 2693 03:03:58.639 --> 03:04:02.920 the outcast. The man who had arrived and victor over 2694 03:04:03.000 --> 03:04:07.639 his own knowledge, had outgrown all irony and acclimatized himself 2695 03:04:07.879 --> 03:04:12.559 to the obligations of public confidence. Whose reputation was official, 2696 03:04:12.879 --> 03:04:16.479 whose name had been knighted, and on whose style boys 2697 03:04:16.520 --> 03:04:21.399 were urged to pattern themselves. He sat there, His eyelids 2698 03:04:21.399 --> 03:04:25.319 were shut only now and then a mocking uneasy side 2699 03:04:25.360 --> 03:04:29.639 glance slipped out from beneath them, and his loose lips 2700 03:04:29.680 --> 03:04:33.319 set off by the cosmetics formed isolated words of the 2701 03:04:33.360 --> 03:04:38.680 strange dream logic created by his half slumbering brain. For beauty, 2702 03:04:38.799 --> 03:04:43.399 Phaedrus mark me. Beauty alone is both divine and visible 2703 03:04:43.440 --> 03:04:46.799 at once, and thus it is the road of the sensuous. 2704 03:04:47.239 --> 03:04:50.639 It is, little Fiadrus, the road of the artist to 2705 03:04:50.719 --> 03:04:54.639 the spiritual. But do you now believe, my dear, that 2706 03:04:54.719 --> 03:04:58.360 they can ever attain wisdom and true human dignity, for 2707 03:04:58.479 --> 03:05:01.719 whom the road to the spiritual leads through the senses, 2708 03:05:02.399 --> 03:05:05.559 Or do you believe? Rather, I leave the choice to you, 2709 03:05:06.319 --> 03:05:09.680 that this is a pleasant but perilous road, a really 2710 03:05:09.719 --> 03:05:14.399 wrong and sinful road which necessarily leads astray. For you 2711 03:05:14.520 --> 03:05:17.760 must know that we poets cannot take the road of 2712 03:05:17.840 --> 03:05:21.639 beauty without having Eros join us and set himself up 2713 03:05:21.680 --> 03:05:25.760 as our leader. Indeed, we may even be heroes after 2714 03:05:25.840 --> 03:05:29.879 our fashion, and hardened warriors, though we be like women, 2715 03:05:30.360 --> 03:05:35.239 for passion is our exultation, and our desire must remain love. 2716 03:05:35.959 --> 03:05:40.120 That is our pleasure and our disgrace. You now see, 2717 03:05:40.239 --> 03:05:44.200 do you not that we poets cannot be wise and dignified, 2718 03:05:44.799 --> 03:05:50.399 that we necessarily go astray, necessarily remain lesscivious and adventurers 2719 03:05:50.399 --> 03:05:54.440 in emotion. The mastery of our style is all lies 2720 03:05:54.479 --> 03:05:58.639 and foolishness. Our renown and honor are a farce. The 2721 03:05:58.639 --> 03:06:02.639 confidence of the masses in us is highly ridiculous, and 2722 03:06:02.799 --> 03:06:05.319 the training of the public and of youth through art 2723 03:06:05.760 --> 03:06:10.159 is a precarious undertaking, which should be forbidden. For how 2724 03:06:10.239 --> 03:06:13.479 indeed could he be a fit instructor who is born 2725 03:06:13.600 --> 03:06:17.440 with a natural leaning towards the precipice. We might well 2726 03:06:17.440 --> 03:06:21.559 disavow it and reach after dignity, But wherever we turn 2727 03:06:21.879 --> 03:06:27.120 it attracts us. Let us say, renounce the dissolvent of knowledge, 2728 03:06:27.440 --> 03:06:32.120 Since knowledge phaedrus has no dignity or strength. It is aware, 2729 03:06:32.440 --> 03:06:37.159 it understands and pardons, but without reserve and form, it 2730 03:06:37.200 --> 03:06:41.799 feels sympathy with the precipice. It is the precipice. This, 2731 03:06:41.959 --> 03:06:45.559 then we abandon with firmness, and from now on our 2732 03:06:45.639 --> 03:06:48.959 efforts matter only by their yield of beauty or in 2733 03:06:49.000 --> 03:06:54.319 other words, simplicity, greatness and new rigor form and a 2734 03:06:54.399 --> 03:06:59.559 second type of openness. But form and openness phaedrus lead 2735 03:06:59.639 --> 03:07:03.879 to an intoxication and to desire lead the noble, perhaps 2736 03:07:04.079 --> 03:07:07.879 into sinister rebels of emotion, which his own beautiful rigor 2737 03:07:08.159 --> 03:07:12.920 rejects as infamous, lead to the precipice. Yes, they too, 2738 03:07:13.159 --> 03:07:17.159 lead to the precipice. They lead us poets. There, I say, 2739 03:07:17.639 --> 03:07:21.079 since we cannot force ourselves, since we can merely let 2740 03:07:21.159 --> 03:07:26.200 ourselves out. And now I am going. Phedrius, you stay here, 2741 03:07:26.639 --> 03:07:29.680 and when you no longer see me, then you go too. 2742 03:07:31.159 --> 03:07:34.959 A few days later, as gustav On Oschenbach was not 2743 03:07:35.000 --> 03:07:38.319 feeling well, he left the beach hotel at a later 2744 03:07:38.399 --> 03:07:41.360 hour in the morning than usual. He had to fight 2745 03:07:41.399 --> 03:07:45.639 against certain attacks of vertigo, which were only partially physical 2746 03:07:46.040 --> 03:07:49.719 and were accompanied by a pronounced malaise, a feeling of 2747 03:07:49.840 --> 03:07:54.000 bafflement and hopelessness. While he was not certain whether this 2748 03:07:54.079 --> 03:07:56.959 had to do with conditions outside him or with his 2749 03:07:57.000 --> 03:08:00.239 own nature. In the lobby he noticed a law larch 2750 03:08:00.319 --> 03:08:04.399 pile of luggage ready for shipment. He asked the doorkeeper 2751 03:08:04.440 --> 03:08:07.600 who it was that was leaving, and heard in answer 2752 03:08:07.840 --> 03:08:12.239 the Polish title, which he had learned secretly. He accepted 2753 03:08:12.280 --> 03:08:15.959 this without any alteration of his sunken features. With that 2754 03:08:16.079 --> 03:08:19.639 Curt elevation of the head by which one acknowledges something 2755 03:08:19.639 --> 03:08:23.399 he does not need to know. Then he asked. When 2756 03:08:24.000 --> 03:08:28.959 the answer was after lunch. He nodded and went to 2757 03:08:29.079 --> 03:08:33.799 the beach. It was not very inviting. Rippling patches of 2758 03:08:33.920 --> 03:08:38.120 rain retreated across the wide flat water separating the beach 2759 03:08:38.159 --> 03:08:41.520 from the first long sand bank. An air of autumn, 2760 03:08:41.760 --> 03:08:45.000 of things past their prime, seemed to lie over the 2761 03:08:45.040 --> 03:08:48.399 pleasure spot, which had once been so alive with color 2762 03:08:48.719 --> 03:08:52.479 and was now almost abandoned. The sand was no longer 2763 03:08:52.559 --> 03:08:56.959 kept clean. A camera, seemingly without an owner, stood on 2764 03:08:57.000 --> 03:08:59.600 its tripod by the edge of the sea, and a 2765 03:08:59.639 --> 03:09:04.639 black cloth thrown over it was flapping noisily in the wind. Tatsio, 2766 03:09:05.120 --> 03:09:08.479 with the three or four companions still left, was moving 2767 03:09:08.520 --> 03:09:11.360 about to the right in front of his family's cabin 2768 03:09:11.959 --> 03:09:15.360 and midway between the sea and the row of bathing houses, 2769 03:09:15.799 --> 03:09:19.079 lying back in his chair with a robe over his knees. 2770 03:09:19.520 --> 03:09:23.600 Aschenbach looked at him once more. The game, which was 2771 03:09:23.680 --> 03:09:27.719 not being supervised since the women were probably occupied with 2772 03:09:27.840 --> 03:09:31.879 preparations for the journey, seemed to have no rules, and 2773 03:09:32.040 --> 03:09:36.159 it was degenerating. The stocky boy with the sleek black hair, 2774 03:09:36.559 --> 03:09:40.360 who was called Joshu, had been angered and blinded by 2775 03:09:40.440 --> 03:09:43.920 sand flung in his face. He forced Totsio into a 2776 03:09:43.920 --> 03:09:47.200 wrestling match, which quickly ended in the fall of the beauty, 2777 03:09:47.440 --> 03:09:50.440 who was weaker. But as though in the hour of 2778 03:09:50.600 --> 03:09:54.360 parting the servile feelings of the inferior had turned to 2779 03:09:54.479 --> 03:09:58.079 merciless brutality and were trying to get vengeance for a 2780 03:09:58.079 --> 03:10:01.399 long period of slavery, the victor did not let go 2781 03:10:01.520 --> 03:10:04.520 of the boy beneath, but knelt on his back and 2782 03:10:04.680 --> 03:10:08.479 pressed his face so persistently into the sand that Tasio, 2783 03:10:08.840 --> 03:10:12.760 already breathless from the struggle, was in danger of strangling. 2784 03:10:13.280 --> 03:10:16.959 His attempts to shake off the weight were fitful for moments, 2785 03:10:17.000 --> 03:10:20.799 they stopped entirely and were resumed again as mere twitchings. 2786 03:10:21.479 --> 03:10:25.440 Enraged Aschenbach was about to spring to the rescue when 2787 03:10:25.440 --> 03:10:31.000 the torturer finally released his victim. Tasio, very pale, raised 2788 03:10:31.040 --> 03:10:35.399 himself half way and sat motionless for several minutes, resting 2789 03:10:35.440 --> 03:10:39.760 on one arm, with rumpled hair and glowering eyes. Then 2790 03:10:39.799 --> 03:10:44.360 he stood up completely and moved slowly away. They called 2791 03:10:44.399 --> 03:10:48.840 him cheerfully at first, then anxiously and imploringly. He did 2792 03:10:48.879 --> 03:10:52.559 not listen. The swarthy boy, who seemed to regret his 2793 03:10:52.639 --> 03:10:56.559 excesses immediately afterwards, caught up with him and tried to 2794 03:10:56.600 --> 03:10:59.719 placate him. A movement of the shoulder put him at 2795 03:10:59.760 --> 03:11:03.879 his distance. Tasio went down obliquely to the water. He 2796 03:11:04.040 --> 03:11:07.079 was barefoot and wore his striped linen suit with the 2797 03:11:07.120 --> 03:11:10.159 red bow. He lingered on the edge of the water 2798 03:11:10.520 --> 03:11:13.760 with his head down, drawing figures in the wet sand 2799 03:11:13.879 --> 03:11:17.440 with one toe. Then he went into the shallows, which 2800 03:11:17.479 --> 03:11:20.799 did not cover his knees in the deepest place, crossed 2801 03:11:20.799 --> 03:11:24.719 them leisurely, and arrived at the sand bank. He stood 2802 03:11:24.799 --> 03:11:28.120 there a moment, his face turned to the open sea. 2803 03:11:28.760 --> 03:11:32.600 Soon after, he began stepping slowly to the left along 2804 03:11:32.680 --> 03:11:36.959 the narrow stretch of exposed ground, separated from the mainland 2805 03:11:37.040 --> 03:11:41.079 by the expanse of water, separated from his companions by 2806 03:11:41.120 --> 03:11:45.680 a proud moodiness. He moved along a strong, isolated and 2807 03:11:45.840 --> 03:11:50.159 unrelated figure with fluttering hair placed out there in the sea, 2808 03:11:50.600 --> 03:11:54.920 the wind against the vague mists. He stopped once more 2809 03:11:54.920 --> 03:11:58.840 to look around, and suddenly, as though at some recollection 2810 03:11:59.360 --> 03:12:02.479 some impulse, els with one hand on his hip, he 2811 03:12:02.520 --> 03:12:05.200 turned the upper part of his body in a beautiful 2812 03:12:05.239 --> 03:12:08.680 twist which began from the base, and he looked over 2813 03:12:08.719 --> 03:12:12.799 his shoulder towards the shore. The watcher sat there as 2814 03:12:12.799 --> 03:12:16.079 he had sat once before, when the first time these 2815 03:12:16.120 --> 03:12:19.600 twilight gray eyes had turned at the doorway and met 2816 03:12:19.600 --> 03:12:23.079 his own. His head against the back of the chair 2817 03:12:23.600 --> 03:12:26.920 had slowly followed the movements of the boy walking yonder. 2818 03:12:27.559 --> 03:12:31.840 Now simultaneously with his glance. It rose and sank on 2819 03:12:31.920 --> 03:12:35.239 his breast, so that his eyes looked out from beneath, 2820 03:12:35.680 --> 03:12:39.360 while his face took on the loose, inwardly relaxed expression 2821 03:12:39.680 --> 03:12:43.440 of deep sleep. But it seemed to him as though 2822 03:12:43.440 --> 03:12:46.920 the pale and lovely lure out there were smiling to him, 2823 03:12:47.399 --> 03:12:51.280 nodding to him, as though, removing his hand from his 2824 03:12:51.399 --> 03:12:55.159 hip he were signaling to come out, were vaguely guiding 2825 03:12:55.319 --> 03:13:00.600 towards egregious promises, and as often before he stood up 2826 03:13:00.639 --> 03:13:05.520 to follow him, some minutes passed before anyone hurried to 2827 03:13:05.559 --> 03:13:08.239 the aid of the man, who had collapsed into one 2828 03:13:08.319 --> 03:13:11.719 corner of his chair. He was brought to his room, 2829 03:13:12.440 --> 03:13:16.719 and on the same day a respectfully shocked world received 2830 03:13:16.799 --> 03:13:23.079 the news of his death. End of Chapter five. End 2831 03:13:23.159 --> 03:13:25.600 of Death in Venice by Thomas Mann