Youth Without Youth

Sometimes I admit to

myself that it's possible

I will never be able

to finish my life's work.

My one and only book.

And that in the end,

without her...

...there will be nothing.

And I will die alone.

What are you doing here,

Coane Dominic?

I have a migraine.

I thought a walk might help.

But in your pajamas

on Christmas Eve?

Don't catch cold. Look.

At the first opportunity,

I'll...

What do you do

at the first opportunity?

At the first

opportunity, I have to- I have-

It's in the drawer.

I- I have saved-

I saved it for-

At the first opportunity,

I will open the blue envelope.

Not here in Piatra Neamt

where everyone knows me,

but somewhere far away.

Bucharest perhaps.

At Easter.

Universal.

Universal.

Special Easter

edition. Universal.

War clouds over Romania.

Oh, it's pouring.

Universal.

He was struck by lightning.

Call an ambulance.

Call for some help.

Look, who knows

what sins he has committed

that God would strike him

on Easter.

They say whoever dies during

Easter goes straight to heaven.

Dominic.

Oh...

I will wish you.

You know what I mean. I mean...

I will love you

until the day I die.

The eye seems intact,

but I don't know

if he is blind or not.

I don't even know

if he's conscious,

if he hears or

if he understands what he hears.

If you understand what I say,

squeeze my finger.

I'm Dr. Roman Stanciulescu.

I'm here to help you.

Good.

We wish to find out

your age.

For every 10 years,

squeeze my finger once.

Ten.

Twenty.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Forty.

Forty.

Fifty.

Fifty.

Sixty.

Sixty.

Seventy.

Seventy.

Seventy years old.

Seventy. I would

have thought less.

Well, in this larval state,

it's hard to estimate.

I've never

met anyone like you.

You want to know

absolutely everything.

Laura, try to imagine

conceiving a passion

for something,

having one desire,

dedicating your life to it

and then failing.

I am 26.

I have no accomplishments,

I've made no discoveries.

I'm a failure.

Do you have a wife?

No.

- No.

Nephew?

Yes.

- Nephew.

Nephew.

- Do you want us

to inform your nephew

about your condition?

No.

Let us know the first letter

of your name. Continue.

I am going to say

the alphabet.

A, B, C, D...

D.

- D.

He doesn't live

in Bucharest.

He has only one relative,

a distant one,

and he has no wife.

Thank you.

He'll accept any test,

no matter how dangerous

or painful,

to verify whether

the optic nerve was damaged.

That's interesting.

How old did you say he was?

Seventy.

He's hiding his age.

He's a young man

in the prime of his life.

I didn't come here...

I came here for an education.

- Come.

What did you think

about the lecture?

Professor Matei

is getting senile.

He told us the same thing

three or four times.

I didn't

notice. I was asleep.

Let's go get

something to eat.

Is it true?

Failure, success.

Such extremes, Dominic.

You yourself taught me

about Chandrakirti.

The concept of tetralemma logic,

the four possibilities.

What you say is so,

or it is not so,

it's also so

and not so combined, heh,

or it's neither so

nor not so combined.

You know,

I've never told you this,

but Dr. Chavannes' lecture

in Paris...

I waited to see him.

I was hoping that he would

accept me as a student.

And he told me that if I didn't

master Chinese, Sanskrit,

Tibetan and Japanese,

I would never become

a great Oriental list.

But didn't you tell him

you wanted to study

only the Chinese language?

I did.

I told him that

I'd been studying Chinese

for six months,

six hours a day.

He stepped up

to the blackboard.

He wrote

some 20 characters on it,

and he asked me

to pronounce them

one by one

and then translate the passage.

In order to master Chinese,

one must have

the memory of Mandarin.

Photographic memory.

A memory of a Mandarin.

I remember hearing

about another case,

a priest hit by lightning.

Burned over his whole body

and would survive

many years afterwards.

True, he was left

blind and mute,

as our man is also probably.

Don't talk so loud.

Maybe he can hear you.

I want him to hear me.

Let's see how he'll react.

Maybe he isn't mute at all.

No!

Not mute! Not mute!

Try to pronounce any word,

anything.

Blue envelope.

Envelope...

The teeth,

they're barely holding.

Call the dentist right now

and see if the x-rays are ready.

What's next?

"Romania may be forced

to negotiate with Hitler. "

France is abandoning us

to the Nazis.

He is right.

His x-rays have come in.

You really should

take a look at them.

The roots are healthy, but they

are being pushed up by new ones.

So we feel you're out

of danger.

Only now do you begin

to become an interesting case.

You understand why,

don't you?

The way the lightning

struck you,

you had to have been killed

on the spot,

or else to have died

of asphyxiation.

At best you'd

be left paralyzed,

mute or blind.

You are lucky,

I'll give you that.

Yes.

We had ordered a set of dentures

to allow you to eat

and above all,

to speak normally.

But the x-rays show

that, uh,

a new set of teeth

are ready to appear.

It's impossible.

Yes. It's simply impossible.

And yet the x-rays are clear.

You are getting new teeth.

This is no longer a case

of a living dead man,

but of something else.

What, exactly,

we still don't know.

Your recovery is amazing.

I don't want to tire you out.

Get some rest.

I'll be back tomorrow.

News stories

and feature articles

are starting to appear

in different papers,

the majority of them absurd,

ridiculous.

What are you doing?

New teeth!

But you must help us

understand this.

We have to know more about you,

who you are,

what your profession is.

What's your real age?

Please cooperate

a little more.

Were you so stubborn

when you were young?

Always.

What is this you

insist on writing, young man?

Well, I've almost finished

with antiquity, the Middle Ages.

But the most exciting part,

the origins.

The origins of language, of-

But when will

you finish it, Dominic?

He needs 10 lifetimes

to do it all.

The origins of

language, human consciousness,

even the idea

of time itself.

This would call for years

of research.

And what with the inexperience

of our provincial...

...librarians.

I'm terribly sorry,

professor.

I have an appointment.

I really must run.

He's brilliant. Brilliant. But-

Laura, I'm so sorry.

I completely forgot.

We have to talk,

Dominic.

It's very important

for both of us,

and I can't hide it

any longer.

Of course.

It's snowing. Should we go

to the Caf Select?

No. And please don't interrupt.

It's not what you think.

I feel that you aren't mine,

that you are never here with me.

That you-

That you live in another time.

I'm not thinking

of your research,

which in spite of what

you believe, does interest me.

I wanted to help you

with that.

But you keep yourself shut away

in an alien world,

one I can't enter.

So for my sake and for yours,

we should break

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