Companion to the Works of Franz Kafka.pdf - tywls12ela

24 u JAMES ROLLESTON
Volume Seven: Zur Frage der Gesetze und andere Schriften aus dem
Nachlaß (On the Question of the Laws and Other Writings from the
Literary Remains).
The texts here date from the winter of 1917–18 to summer 1922
and include the unique “Brief an den Vater” (Letter to His Father,
1919); its blend of autobiography and “lawyer’s tricks” make it indispensable
for understanding Kafka. The other texts, all fragmentary but some
substantial, are very little known. They include “Ich war bei den Toten
zu Gast” (I was a Guest of the Dead), “Ein regnerischer Tag” (A rainy
Day), “Unser Städtchen liegt nicht etwa an der Grenze” (Our Town
doesn’t lie on the Border), “Poseidon saß an seinem Arbeitstisch und
rechnete” (Poseidon sat at his Worktable and figured), “Anfangs war
beim babylonischen Turmbau alles in leidlicher Ordnung” (In the Beginning
of the Babylonian Tower-Building all was in tolerable Order),
“In der Karawanserei war niemals Schlaf” (In the Caravanserai there was
no Sleep)
Volume Eight: Das Ehepaar und andere Schriften aus dem Nachlaß (The
Married Couple and Other Writings from the Literary Remains).
Very substantial texts from Kafka’s last two years are here. Apart
from the four stories collected in Ein Hungerkünstler (vol. 1), there is
the long text to which Brod gave the title “Forschungen eines Hundes”
(Investigations of a Dog), beginning “Wie sich mein Leben verändert
hat . . .” and concluding “Aber immerhin Freiheit, immerhin ein Besitz.”
Unsatisfied, Kafka then began a second version, stopping in midsentence
after four pages. And Kafka’s final long fragment, “Ich habe
den Bau eingerichtet und er scheint wohlgelungen” (discussed by Clayton
Koelb under Brod’s familiar title, “Der Bau”), follows immediately
upon a paragraph in which K. from Das Schloß is named.
By the end of his writing life, virtually all of Kafka’s beginnings have
the power to fascinate. Particularly intriguing are “Es war sehr unsicher,
ob ich Fürsprecher hatte” (It was very uncertain, whether I had Advocates),
“In unserer Synagoge lebt ein Tier in der Größe etwa eines Marders”
(In our Synagogue lives an Animal of about the Size of a Marten),
“Bilder von der Verteidigung eines Hofes” (Pictures from the Defense
of a Manor House), “In der Stadt wird immerfort gebaut” (In the City
Building goes on constantly), “Die allgemeine Geschäftslage ist so
schlecht” (Business in general is so bad [which in a second version receives
the title “Das Ehepaar”]), and “Ein Sarg war fertiggestellt worden”
(A Coffin had been made ready). While the decision about what is
complete and what is fragmentary in Kafka may never be final, the Criti-