HOW MANY WORDS (1900)
How many words are in books!
How many words are in books!
They’re meant for reminders!
As though words were ever reminders!
Because words are poor mountaineers and mountain men.
They do not fetch treasures from the mountaintops and
mountain deeps.
But there is a live remembrance which
beyond the worth of any reminder gently leads there
like a coaxing hand. And if from this ash flame rises,
glowing and hot, mighty and strong and you stare within,
as spellbound with the magic of it, then–
But in this chaste remembrance, one cannot
inscribe oneself with clumsy hand and rude
implement, one can do that only
in these white, undemanding sheets.
That did I on September 4, 1900.
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| Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) Translated by Christopher Mulrooney |
If you seriously want to know what it means
to be Kafkaesque, click here.
For the next GoFather/Kafka page–written with
tongue firmly imbedded in cheek–click there.
For the next GoFather/Kafka page–written with
tongue firmly imbedded in cheek–click there.
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