A Fully Glossed Russian Text of “The Death of Ivan Ilich” with Explanatory and Interpretive Annotations
Chapter 10
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- Chapters Two, Three, and Four cover a period of many years in the life of Ivan Ilich, up to the onset of his illness. In Chapter Seven it was noted that his illness was in its third month. Here we learn that two more weeks have gone by. In Chapter Eleven weeks are mentioned again, and Chapter Twelve begins by mentioning days and concludes with the note that the agony of the patient lasted another two hours. Clearly, the steadily diminishing units of time which are mentioned in the text are matched with the steadily decreasing size of the chapters in which they are mentioned. (See the section "Proportions of the Text" in the "Introduction.") This brings a steadily accelerating rhythm to the final chapters. The text draws our attention to this in the final paragraph of Chapter Ten: "And the example of a stone falling downwards with increasing velocity entered his mind." The Russian text might more exactly be translated as: "And the image of a stone flying downward with increasing speed lodged in his soul" (literally, 'fell into his spirit' (Russ. 'zapal v duxu'). ↵
- In Tolstoy's study in his house at Yasnaya polyana (his country estate) the largest item of furniture was a broad couch in black leather which was positioned against the wall just behind the desk and chair at which Tolstoy usually sat while writing. It was at this desk that he wrote "The Death of Ivan Ilich." The black couch had been in the family a long time. It was on this couch, in fact, that, according to family tradition, Tolstoy himself and each of his siblings had been born in the 1820's. This couch seems very similar to the one described in Ivan Ilich's study, on which he lies in his final weeks and days with his face turned to the wall. There is an interesting and perhaps significant juxtaposition between the couch in the story as the site of Ivan Ilich's death and the couch in Tolstoy's study as the site of his own and his siblings' births. Here is a picture of Tolstoy in his study with the couch at his back. ↵
- We note that both of the images supplied here ("at the bottom of the sea" and "in the earth") suggest places of burial, providing confirmation that Ivan Ilich is, for practical purposes, already long since dead and even buried. Thus, the struggles which he continues to face are suggested once more to be spiritual rather than physical in kind, and to be associated with the rebirth of the spirit. From this also stems the importance which Ivan Ilich attaches to his memories of childhood and his desire to be a child again and to be treated as a child (Chapter Nine). His preference is to move, in thought, spiritually, back from the life he has led toward the moment of his birth. ↵
- The similarity between Ivan Ilich's reflections ("course of thoughts") pertaining to his illness and physical decline and his deliberate remembering of his life as a whole makes it virtually explicit that his illness is a metaphor of his life. "The one and the other flowed together. As the torments became ever worse and worse, so also did my life as a whole become ever worse." ↵
Two more weeks went by
Ivan Ilich was no longer getting up from the couch
He did not want to lie in bed and (he) would lie on the couch
And, lying almost all the time with (his) face to the wall
he suffered all alone always the same unresolved sufferings
and all alone (he) thought always the same unresolved thought
What is this
Is (it) really true that (it) is death
And the inner voice answered: yes, (it) is true
Why these torments
And the voice answered, "(it's) just so, (there is) no why"
Further and beyond this (there) was nothing
From the very beginning of (his) illness, from the time when Ivan Ilich for the first time went to the doctor
his life had divided itself into two opposite moods
(which) replaced one another (i.e., alternated with one another)
now (there) was despair and the expectation of incomprehensible and terrible death
now (there) was hope and the observation, filled with interest, of the activity of his body
Now before (his) eyes (there) would be a kidney or intestine
which for a time had become disinclined to fulfill (lit., had leaned away from fulfilling) its obligations
now (there) would be an incomprehensible, terrible death
from which it is in no way possible to save himself
These two moods from the very beginning of (his) illness alternated with one another (lit., replaced one another)
but the further the illness went
the more doubtful and fantastic were becoming considerations about the kidney
and the more real (was becoming) the consciousness of encroaching death
It was of value to him (i.e., He need only) to recall what he had been three months before
and what he is now
to recall how steadily he was going downhill
in order that any possibility of hope would be destroyed
In this most recent (lit., latest) time of aloneness, in which he found himself, lying with his face to the back of the couch
of that aloneness in the middle of the many-peopled city and of his numerous acquaintances and family
of an aloneness more complete than which (there) could not be anywhere
neither at the bottom of the sea nor in the earth
during the recent time of this dreadful aloneness Ivan Ilich had been living only in imagination in the past
One after another pictures of his past presented themselves to him
(It) began always from (that which is) closest in time and converged toward the most distant
towards childhood, and on it (it) stopped
If Ivan Ilich recalled about the stewed prunes
which (they) had offered him to eat today
he recalled about the moist wrinkled French prunes of (his) childhood (lit., in (his) childhood)
about the particular taste of them and the abundance of saliva
when the action got down to the pit
and along with this recollection of the taste would arise a whole series of recollections of that time
(his) nurse, brother, toys
(I) mustn't (think) about this
too painful
Ivan Ilich would say to himself and again would bring himself back into the present
(There is) a button on the back of the couch and creases in the (soft, Morrocco) leather
The Morocco leather is expensive, not sturdy
(there) was an argument on account of it
But (it) was different Morocco leather and a different quarrel
when we tore father's briefcase and (they) punished us
and mama brought (us) pasties
And again (it) would stop on childhood
and again (it) was (too) painful for Ivan Ilich and he tried to drive (it) away and to think about something else
And again just at this point, together with this course of recollections
in his soul was going on another course of recollections
about how his illness was strengthening and growing
The same thing (there) (i.e., with the course of his disease), the farther back, the more (there) was of life
The more (there) was of goodness in life, and the more (there) was of life itself
And the (one) thing and the other flowed together
As the torments always get worse and worse, so also (my) whole life got always worse and worse
thought he
One point of light is there, far back, in the beginning of life
and then always blacker and blacker and always faster and faster
Inversely proportional to the square of the distance from death
thought Ivan Ilich
And the image of a stone falling downwards with increasing speed, sank down into his soul
Life, a series of increasing sufferings, flies faster and faster to (its) end, the most dreadful suffering (of all)
I am flying
He shuddered, shook, tried to resist
but already he knew that it is impossible to resist
and again with eyes worn out from looking, but being unable not to look, at that which was right in front of him
(he) looked at the back of the couch and waited
(he) waited for that dreadful falling, the shock (of hitting bottom), and destruction
(It) is impossible to resist, said he to himself
But if only (one could) understand, what this is for
Even that is impossible
(It) would be possible to explain, if (one) were to say that I lived not the way, as (it) is necessary (to live) (i.e., that I lived wrongly)
But it is just this (that is) impossbile to acknowledge
said he himself to himself
recalling all the lawfulness, correctness, and propriety of his life
(It's) just this (that) is impossible to assume
said he to himself, smiling with (his) lips
as if anyone could see that smile of his and be deceived by it
There is no explanation
Torment, death . . . What for
