Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Franz Kafka " Legenda o Zakonu" (iz romana Proces)

Pred Zakonom stoji vratar.
Vrataru prilazi čovjek sa sela i moli da uđe u Zakon. Ali vratar kaže da mu ne može dopustiti da uđe. Čovjek razmisli i potom upita hoće li smjeti poslije. 'Možda', reče vratar, 'ali sada ne.' Budući da su dveri Zakona otvorene kao uvijek, vratar se odmakne u stranu, čovjek se sagne da kroz dveri pogleda unutra. Kada to vratar primijeti, nasmije se i reče: 'Ako te to tako mami, pokušaj ući unatoč zabrani. Ali zapamti: ja sam moćan. A ja sam samo najniži vratar. A od dvorane do dvorane stoje vratari, jedan moćniji od drugoga. Već trećega ni ja se ne usuđujem pogledati.'

Takve poteškoće čovjek sa sela nije očekivao, Zakon bi valjda svakom i svagda morao biti dostupan, ali sada kad je bolje pogledao vratara u krznenom ogrtaču, njegov velik šiljast nos, dugu rijetku crnu tatarsku bradu, odluči ipak radije pričekati dok mu se ne dozvoli da uđe. Vratar mu doda klupčicu i dopusti da sjedne pokraj samih dveri.

Sjedi on tamo danima i godinama. Neprestano pokušava ući i iznuri vratara svojim moljakanjem. Vratar ga pomalo preslušava, ispituje ga o njegovu zavičaju i o mnogočem drugom, ali to su ravnodušna pitanja kakva postavljaju velika gospoda i na kraju mu uvijek kaže da ga još ne može pustiti. Čovjek se za putovanje opremio mnogočime, iskoristi sve, ma koliko bilo dragocjeno, da podmiti vratara. On sve to uzima, ali pritom govori: 'Uzimam to samo zato da ne misliš kako si nešto propustio.'

Godinama čovjek gotovo neprekidno promatra vratara. Zaboravi na druge vratare i taj mu se prvi čini jedinom preprekom na ulazu u Zakon. Proklinje nesretan slučaj, prve godine glasno, poslije, sve stariji, samo još tiho mrmlja. Podjetinjivši, dugogodišnjim je proučavanjem raspoznavao i buhe u njegovu krznenom ovratniku, pa moli i buhe da mu pomognu i nagovore vratara.

Napokon mu oslabi vid i ne zna je li se oko njega uistinu smračilo ili ga samo varaju oči. Ali sada u tami razabere neki sjaj što prodorno izbija iz vrata Zakona. I tada mu više nema mnogo života. Prije smrti u glavi mu se sva iskustva čitavog tog vremena svedu u jedino pitanje koje dotad još nije uputio vrataru. Domahne mu jer više ne može uspraviti ukrućeno tijelo. Vratar se mora dobrano prignuti, jer se razlika u visini uvelike izmijenila na uštrb čovjeka. 'No što još hoćeš', upita vratar, 'ti si nezasitan.' 'Svi streme Zakonu', reče čovjek, 'kako to da svih tih godina nitko osim mene nije zatražio da uđe.' Vratar uvidi da je čovjek na izdisaju i zaurla na njega da ga čuje jer ga sluh izdaje. 'Nitko ovdje ionako ne bi mogao ući, jer je taj ulaz određen samo za tebe. Sad odlazim i zaključavam.'»

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Franz Kafka "Before the Law" (from the novel "Trial")

(This translation, which has been prepared by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC, Canada, is in the public domain and may be used by anyone, in whole or in part, without permission and without charge, provided the source is acknowledged, released October 2003).



Before the law sits a gatekeeper.

To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in later on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” At the moment the gate to the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, so the man bends over in order to see through the gate into the inside. When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it tempts you so much, try it in spite of my prohibition. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the most lowly gatekeeper. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other. I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third.”

The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside. The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the gate.

There he sits for days and years. He makes many attempts to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and many other things, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet. The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, “I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.”

During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost continuously. He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this one seems to him the only obstacle for entry into the law. He curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud, later, as he grows old, he still mumbles to himself. He becomes childish and, since in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has come to know the fleas in his fur collar, he even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper.

Finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether things are really darker around him or whether his eyes are merely deceiving him. But he recognizes now in the darkness an illumination which breaks inextinguishably out of the gateway to the law. Now he no longer has much time to live. Before his death he gathers in his head all his experiences of the entire time up into one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper. He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body. The gatekeeper has to bend way down to him, for the great difference has changed things to the disadvantage of the man. “What do you still want to know, then?” asks the gatekeeper. “You are insatiable.” “Everyone strives after the law,” says the man, “so how is that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?” The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you. I’m going now to close it.”