Excursion into the Mountains
Franz Kafka
“I don’t know,” I cried without a sound, “I just don’t know. If nobody comes, then nobody comes. I have not done anyone any harm, nobody has done me any harm, but nobody wants to help me. Absolutely nobody. But really it is not this way. Just that nobody helps me — otherwise absolutely nobody would be fine. I would really like — and why not? — to make an excursion in the company of absolutely nobody. Into the mountains of course, where else? How these nobodies press against each other, all these arms, crossed and entangled, all these feet, separated by tiny steps! It is understood that everyone is in tails. We don’t walk so badly, and the wind moves through the gaps that we and our limbs leave open. In the mountains throats become free! It’s a wonder we don’t sing.”
trans. by Kevin Blahut
published by Twisted Spoon Press
