Quotes from Franz Kafka

Should I be grateful or should I curse the fact that despite all misfortune I can still feel love, an unearthly love but still for earthly objects. ? Franz Kafka, Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-1923 . (Schocken October 30, 1988) Originally published 1949.

Meanwhile, the majority of the audience- this is plain to see- has retreated into itself. Here in these brief gaps between their troubles our people dream; it is as if the limbs of each were loosened, as if every last uneasy individual were for once allowed to stretch out and relax freely in the great warm bed of the people.

los libros son códigos y es propio de este tipo de justicia que uno sea condenado no sólo inocente, sino también ignorante.

he gave way to a pleasant lassitude

Kafkaesque The term's meaning has transcended the literary realm to apply to real-life occurrences and situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.

Amalia smiled, and that smile, although a sad one, lit up her sombre face, made her silence eloquent and her strangeness familiar. It was like the telling of a secret, a hitherto closely guarded possession that could be taken back, but never taken back entirely.

Beni hayal k?r?kl???na u?ratan benden ba?kas? de?il.

Omoar?-m?, altfel e?ti un uciga?.

10 februarie. Insomnie; nici cea mai mic? leg?tur? cu oamenii, decât leg?turile create de ei, ÅŸi care pentru moment m? conving, ca de altfel tot ceea ce fac ei.

Your letters arrived today together, at noon, they aren't there to be read, but to be unfolded, to rest one's face on while losing one's mind.

Sobre su espalda y sus costados arrastraba consigo por todas partes hilos, pelos, restos de comida... Su indiferencia hacia todo era demasiado grande como para tumbarse sobre su espalda y restregarse contra la alfombra, tal como hacia antes varias veces al día.

By his own account he had no real contact with the local colony of his countrymen and virtually no social intercourse with the Russian families and so resigned himself to becoming an incurable bachelor.

Under the conditions prevailing here the servant could not work unerringly, some time the accumulated annoyance, the accumulated uneasiness, must break ou t, and if it manifested itself only in the tearing up of a little piece of paper it was still comparatively innocent.

Nun, ich pflege Fragen dadurch zu lösen, daß ich mich von ihnen auffressen lasse

En el portón me detuvo para preguntarme: «¿Hacia dónde cabalga el señor?». «No lo sé -respondí-. Sólo quiero irme de aquí, solamente irme de aquí. Sólo así puedo alcanzar mi meta.» «¿Conoce, pues, su meta?», preguntó él. «Sí -contesté yo-. Lo he dicho ya. Salir de aquí, ésa es mi meta.»

Oare era doar un simplu animal,când muzica îl emoÈ›iona atât de profund?Avea impresia c? descoper?,în fine,calea c?tre hrana necunoscut? pe care o dorea atât de mult.

As I lie in bed I assume the shape of a big beetle, a stag beetle or a cockchafer, I think.

No, hay algo más para hoy: si usted distrae un solo minuto de su sueño para dedicarlo a la tarea de traducción será como si me estuviera maldiciendo. Porque si algún día se me somete a juicio, no habrá largas investigaciones, bastará con afirmar: él la privó del sueño. Eso bastará para que me condenen, y con razón. De modo que estoy luchando por mí cuando le ruego que no vuelva a hacer algo así.

Die Erklärung wird mir auch deshalb schwer werden, weil ich hier alles in sovielen Tagen und Nächten durchdacht und durchgraben habe, daß selbst mich jetzt der Anblick schon verwirrt.

But Georg was not inclined to write of his commercial success to his friend, and were he to do so now, it would appear especially peculiar. So Georg always confined himself to relating the trivial matters that randomly arise from a disorganized memory on a reflective Sunday.

Please, Father, let he future rest, as it deserves. If you wake it ahead of time, the only result is a sleepy-headed present. You shouldn't need your son to remind you of that.

On the other hand, there are also dark moments, such as everyone has, when you think you've achieved nothing at all, when it seems that the only trials to come to a good end are those that were determined to have a good end from the start and would do so without any help, while all the others are lost despite all the running to and fro, all the effort, all the little, apparent successes that gave such joy.

O tu sei mia e tutto va bene, o invece ti perdo e allora... non c'è niente, ...niente di niente.

I must be alone a great deal. What I have achieved is only a result of being alone.