person
The black-bearded doctor
also: доктор, чернобородый доктор
The stout, black-bearded doctor who attends Klimov through his typhus, addressing him with a condescending, lisping "young fellow" (юноша) that irritates the delirious lieutenant even as the doctor remains unfailingly good-humored.
Reading notes
- Typhus §30 "young fellow"
The doctor's speech is rendered with a mild lisp or drawl in the Russian ("тэк" for "так," "дэ" for "да"), a vocal tic reproduced here as "tha-at's it" and "yea-es"; combined with his condescending use of "юноша" (young fellow) for the grown lieutenant, it is this bedside manner -- brisk, cheerful, faintly infantilizing -- that irritates Klimov in his fever rather than any incompetence; the doctor in fact successfully brings him through the typhus.