Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich is surprised to discover

托尔斯泰笔下的伊万里奇惊讶地发现
that he's going to die.

自己竟然会死
It's the sort of thing he's given lip service to,

虽然他一直把死亡挂在嘴边
no doubt, over the course of his life.

毋庸置疑他这辈子都在说自己会死
But when he finally gets ill and comes up to the fact of his mortality,

但当他最后病倒开始真正面对死亡
that his body is going to sicken and eventually die,

抱着残弱不堪的躯体等待死神降临时
the fact of his mortality seems to shock him,

即将奔赴黄泉的事实却使他大为震惊
seems to surprise him.

乃至惊讶万分
We might say,

也许可以说
on one level he believes that he was mortal.

在某个层面上他相信自己是会死的
He's believed it all along.

这点他一直都相信
But at another level, at some deeper level,

但在另一个更深的层面上