In search of the little sea lost 5

2.  peoples in grape-colored mantle

*to be continued

 

there the winter relatively was long. After the sunset ,the cold came earlier

lingering on till the spring. More than anything else, most patients suffering

from abnormal body temperature were in fear of getting cold,

which possibly caused the horrible endless cough. In spite of it,

In the evening when it was snowy or thickly cloudy, the corridor of the wooden

structure began to liven up, with the electric light on, assuming  a picturesque look 

against the dark woods outside for the background. In such a evening 

men and women, who could walk without any help from others,

could'nt resist the temtation of the lights in poetic warmth. 

 

At that moment they easily yielded to temptation of the rhythmic sound

of guitar played by someone in the hall at the end of corridors.

Some spending daytime in bed ,motionless as if were laid in the coffin,

began to get up and sticked their heads out at first, with the body still

put inside the sickroom, to look right and left around the long corridor.

Others under recuperation headed out ,without any hesitation,

to the resting hall. Most appeared, with  mufflers on their necks,

and the mantles on their shoulders, excepting young ladies who wished

to get their bare necks revealed before men patients. the quiet corridor

was showing signs of life with a spasmatic coughs and laughters women

burst out dragging their slippers . Following them ,men hummed the songs  

to the guitar rhythm  heard far.

 

 

 Strangely enough, Hagya happened to know that on trimming up

his mustache he could forget the unbearable suffering and fear

which the breathing itself gave him.  one day reading a Nietche, he felt

attracted by a picture of Nietche with a mustache in a book of his

titled 'Das Sprake Zaratustra.' Then in a moment he wished to grow

a mustache like his. With this as a momentum, in the sanatorium

he began to grow a  mustache modelled on the philospher's and 

embellished it everyday in the morning before the morror. It grew

better and better day after day, keeping him from the suffering of

the fearful cough to continue .

 

Adding to it, more importantly, the mustache let him look charismatic

and athoritative to the eyes of 2 persons in red grape-color-ed mantle

in the ward: one, Mr. Guago deaf-half mute. and  another,Tango dancer,

tall and slender. The two were hospitalized almost the same time

where Hagya stayed. A week or so  after the two patients passed

over their serious condition, they began to step out of the sick room,

one by one, first to the corridor and farther to the resting room

in the ward, as most of newcomers to this sanatoirum  did that way.

Then when they encountered Hagya , the two  newcomers payed

their respects, with their eyes fixed on his upper lip. Mr. Guago 

in aprticular was polite ,in the obedient manner,to Hagya with a mustache.

 

But  in a month or so Mr. Guago suddenly turned his attitude to Hagya 

from that of respect into the opposite , even making fun of him before 

pepoles in red-grape-colored mantle. Such a change of his attitude 

might be related with a reason: One day he and Hagya happened to be

in the bathroom together and while the two sat, naked, side by side

on the floor, he suggested  to Hagya that he should wash off the dirt on

his back. 

Rubbing the back of Hagya softly, he got disappointed at his skinny body. 

In his heart he lost his mind of respect to him. So,stealing a glance at Hagya ,

this time not his mustache but his shoulder reduced to skin and bones. 

Without Hagya's notice of it, Mr. Guaga began to measure of his wrist,

ankle and neck by his hand, one after another, furitively and smoothly. 

He was sure that Hagya was nothing and from then on treated Hagya

as if he were his Sancho.

For example, Mr. Guaga liked to walk through the long corridor

to the resting hall,where tens of the people, women amd men, 

in red grape-colored mantle was passing time gossiping. with one hand

grasping  him by the coat collar around his back neck.  there he liked

to pride himself, by comparing his splendid physique with Hagya's. 

 

On the other hand, Tango, we called the tango dancer so, 

kept his respect he paid t first to Hagya's mustache to the last day

of their farewell. He was hospitalized at first as an emergency case.

He stayed longer than any other new comer in his sickness, lying

in bed without moving. As soon as he got better enough to sit alone

on the chair in his sickroom ,he tried to walk out in the corridor.

When he could stand alone ,he began to come in the resting room

and dance tango alone with a pillow as a dance partner in his bosom .

After a while he  liked to enter in person to Hagya's sickroom

holding beberages or something nutritious for him ifor the purpose of

getting friendly with him whose mustache was attractive to him..

 His first impression was his playfulness,.

??????

e got more and more interested in what literary and marvelous 

Hagya told him. He even dangle after him ,mimicking his way of

citing a pharase of Nietsche as follows:

O man, take care!
What does the deep midnight declare?
"I was asleep—
From a deep dream I woke and swear:—
The world is deep,
Deeper than day had been aware.
Deep is its woe—
Joy—deeper yet than agony:
Woe implores: Go!
But all joy wants eternity—
Wants deep, wants deep eternity."