Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Prijavi me trajno:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:

ConQUIZtador
Trenutno vreme je: 28. Mar 2024, 13:29:10
nazadnapred
Korisnici koji su trenutno na forumu 0 članova i 1 gost pregledaju ovu temu.

Ovo je forum u kome se postavljaju tekstovi i pesme nasih omiljenih pisaca.
Pre nego sto postavite neki sadrzaj obavezno proverite da li postoji tema sa tim piscem.

Idi dole
Stranice:
1 2 4 5
Počni novu temu Nova anketa Odgovor Štampaj Dodaj temu u favorite Pogledajte svoje poruke u temi
Tema: Franz Kafka ~ Franc Kafka  (Pročitano 18146 puta)
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
        She suddenly interrupted herself and lay her hand on K.'s as if
she wanted to calm him down, and whispered, "Be quiet, Berthold is
watching us."  K. slowly looked up.  In the doorway to the courtroom
stood a young man, he was short, his legs were not quite straight, and
he continually moved his finger round in a short, thin, red beard with
which he hoped to make himself look dignified.  K. looked at him with
some curiosity, he was the first student he had ever met of the
unfamiliar discipline of jurisprudence, face to face at least, a man who
would even most likely attain high office one day.  The student, in
contrast, seemed to take no notice of K. at all, he merely withdrew his
finger from his beard long enough to beckon to the woman and went over
to the window, the woman leant over to K. and whispered, "Don't be cross
with me, please don't, and please don't think ill of me either, I've got
to go to him now, to this horrible man, just look at his bent legs.  But
I'll come straight back and then I'll go with you if you'll take me,
I'll go wherever you want, you can do whatever you like with me, I'll be
happy if I can be away from here for as long as possible, it'd be best
if I could get away from here for good."  She stroked K.'s hand once
more, jumped up and ran over to the window.  Before he realised it, K.
grasped for her hand but failed to catch it.   He really was attracted
to the woman, and even after thinking hard about it could find no good
reason why he should not give in to her allure.  It briefly crossed his
mind that the woman meant to entrap him on behalf of the court, but that
was an objection he had no difficulty in fending off.  In what way could
she entrap him?  Was he not still free, so free that he could crush the
entire court whenever he wanted, as least where it concerned him?  Could
he not have that much confidence in himself?  And her offer of help
sounded sincere, and maybe it wasn't quite worthless.  And maybe there
was no better revenge against the examining judge and his cronies than
to take this woman from him and have her for himself.  Maybe then, after
much hard work writing dishonest reports about K., the judge would go to
the woman's bed late one night and find it empty.  And it would be empty
because she belonged to K., because this woman at the window, this lush,
supple, warm body in its sombre clothes of rough, heavy material
belonged to him, totally to him and to him alone.  Once he had settled
his thoughts towards the woman in this way, he began to find the quiet
conversation at the window was taking too long, he rapped on the podium
with his knuckles, and then even with his fist.  The student briefly
looked away from the woman to glance at K. over his shoulder but did
allow himself to be disturbed, in fact he even pressed himself close to
the woman and put his arms around her.  She dropped her head down low as
if listening to him carefully, as she did so he kissed her right on the
neck, hardly even interrupting what he was saying.   K. saw this as
confirmation of the tyranny the student held over the woman and which
she had already complained about, he stood up and walked up and down the
room.  Glancing sideways at the student, he wondered what would be the
quickest possible way to get rid of him, and so it was not unwelcome to
him when the student, clearly disturbed by K.'s to-ing and fro-ing which
K. had now developed into a stamping up and down, said to him,
"You don't have to stay here, you know, if you're getting impatient.
You could have gone earlier, no-one would have missed you.  In fact you
should have gone, you should have left as quickly as possible as soon as
I got here."  This comment could have caused all possible rage to break
out between them, but K. also bore in mind that this was a prospective
court official speaking to a disfavoured defendant, and he might well
have been taking pride in speaking in this way.  K. remained standing
quite close to him and said with a smile, "You're quite right, I am
impatient, but the easiest way to settle this impatience would be if you
left us.  On the other hand, if you've come here to study - you are a
student, I hear - I'll be quite happy to leave the room to you and go
away with the woman.  I'm sure you'll still have a lot of study to do
before you're made into a judge.  It's true that I'm still not all that
familiar with your branch of jurisprudence but I take it it involves a
lot more than speaking roughly - and I see you have no shame in doing
that extremely well."  "He shouldn't have been allowed to move about so
freely," said the student, as if he wanted to give the woman an
explanation for K.'s insults, "that was a mistake.  I've told the
examining judge so.  He should at least have been detained in his room
between hearings.  Sometimes it's impossible to understand what the
judge thinks he's doing."
"You're wasting your breath," said K., then he reached his hand out
towards the woman and said, "come with me."  "So that's it," said the
student, "oh no, you're not going to get her," and with a strength you
would not have expected from him, he glanced tenderly at her, lifted her
up on one arm and, his back bent under the weight, ran with her to the
door.  In this way he showed, unmistakeably, that he was to some extent
afraid of K., but he nonetheless dared to provoke him still further by
stroking and squeezing the woman's arm with his free hand.  K. ran the
few steps up to him, but when he had reached him and was about to take
hold of him and, if necessary, throttle him, the woman said, "It's no
good, it's the examining judge who's sent for me, I daren't go with you,
this little bastard... " and here she ran her hand over the student's
face, "this little bastard won't let me."  "And you don't want to be set
free!" shouted K., laying his hand on the student's shoulder, who then
snapped at it with his teeth.  "No!" shouted the woman, pushing K. away
with both hands, "no, no don't do that, what d'you think you're doing!?
That'd be the end of me.  Let go of him, please just let go of him.
He's only carrying out the judge's orders, he's carrying me to him."
"Let him take you then, and I want to see nothing more of you," said K.,
enraged by his disappointment and giving the student a thump in the back
so that he briefly stumbled and then, glad that he had not fallen,
immediately jumped up all the higher with his burden.  K. followed them
slowly.  He realised that this was the first unambiguous setback he had
suffered from these people.  It was of course nothing to worry about, he
accepted the setback only because he was looking for a fight.  If he
stayed at home and carried on with his normal life he would be a
thousand times superior to these people and could get any of them out of
his way just with a kick.  And he imagined the most laughable scene
possible as an example of this, if this contemptible student, this
inflated child, this knock-kneed redbeard, if he were kneeling at Elsa's
bed wringing his hands and begging for forgiveness.  K. so enjoyed
imagining this scene that he decided to take the student along to Elsa
with him if ever he should get the opportunity.

        K. was curious to see where the woman would be taken and he
hurried over to the door, the student was not likely to carry her
through the streets on his arm.  It turned out that the journey was far
shorter.  Directly opposite the flat there was a narrow flight of wooden
steps which probably led up to the attic, they turned as they went so
that it was not possible to see where they ended.  The student carried
the woman up these steps, and after the exertions of running with her he
was soon groaning and moving very slowly.  The woman waved down at K.
and by raising and lowering her shoulders she tried to show that she was
an innocent party in this abduction, although the gesture did not show a
lot of regret.  K. watched her without expression like a stranger, he
wanted to show neither that he was disappointed nor that he would easily
get over his disappointment.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
        The two of them had disappeared, but K. remained standing in the
doorway.  He had to accept that the woman had not only cheated him but
that she had also lied to him when she said she was being taken to the
examining judge.  The examining judge certainly wouldn't be sitting and
waiting in the attic.  The wooden stairs would explain nothing to him
however long he stared at them.  Then K. noticed a small piece of paper
next to them, went across to it and read, in a childish and unpractised
hand, "Entrance to the Court Offices".  Were the court offices here, in
the attic of this tenement, then?  If that was how they were
accommodated it did not attract much respect, and it was some comfort
for the accused to realise how little money this court had at its
disposal if it had to locate its offices in a place where the tenants of
the building, who were themselves among the poorest of people, would
throw their unneeded junk.  On the other hand, it was possible that the
officials  had enough money but that they squandered it on themselves
rather than use it for the court's purposes.  Going by K.'s experience
of them so far, that even seemed probable, except that if the court were
allowed to decay in that way it would not just humiliate the accused but
also give him more encouragement than if the court were simply  in a
state of poverty.  K. also now understood that the court was ashamed to
summon those it accused to the attic of this building for the initial
hearing, and why it preferred to impose upon them in their own homes.
What a position it was that K. found himself in, compared with the judge
sitting up in the attic!  K., at the bank, had a big office with an
ante-room, and had an enormous window through which he could look down
at the activity in the square.  It was true, though, that he had no
secondary income from bribes and fraud, and he couldn't tell a servant
to bring him a woman up to the office on his arm.  K., however, was
quite willing to do without such things, in this life at least.  K. was
still looking at the notice when a man came up the stairs, looked
through the open door into the living room where it was also possible to
see the courtroom, and finally asked K. whether he had just seen a woman
there.  "You're the court usher, aren't you?" asked K.  "That's right,"
said the man, "oh, yes, you're defendant K., I recognise you now as
well.  Nice to see you here."  And he offered K. his hand, which was far
from what K. had expected.  And when K. said nothing, he added, "There's
no court session planned for today, though."  "I know that," said K. as
he looked at the usher's civilian coat which, beside its ordinary
buttons, displayed two gilded ones as the only sign of his office and
seemed to have been taken from an old army officer's coat.  "I was
speaking with your wife a little while ago.  She is no longer here.  The
student has carried her off to the examining judge."  "Listen to this,"
said the usher, "they're always carrying her away from me.  It's Sunday
today, and it's not part of my job to do any work today, but they send
me off with some message which isn't even necessary just to get me away
from here.  What they do is they send me off not too far away so that I
can still hope to get back on time if I really hurry.  So off I go
running as fast as I can, shout the message through the crack in the
door of the office I've been sent to, so out of breath they'll hardly be
able to understand it, run back here again, but the student's been even
faster than I have - well he's got less far to go, he's only got to run
down the steps.  If I wasn't so dependent on them I'd have squashed the
student against the wall here a long time ago.  Right here, next to the
sign.  I'm always dreaming of doing that.  Just here, just above the
floor, that's where he's crushed onto the wall, his arms stretched out,
his fingers spread apart, his crooked legs twisted round into a circle
and blood squirted out all around him.  It's only ever been a dream so
far, though."  "Is there nothing else you do?" asked K. with a smile.
"Nothing that I know of," said the usher.  "And it's going to get even
worse now, up till now he's only been carrying her off for himself, now
he's started carrying her off for the judge and all, just like I'd
always said he would."  "Does your wife, then, not share some of the
responsibility?" asked K.  He had to force himself as he asked this
question, as he, too, felt so jealous now.  "Course she does," said the
usher, "it's more her fault than theirs.  It was her who attached
herself to him.  All he did, he just chases after any woman.  There's
five flats in this block alone where he's been thrown out after working
his way in there.  And my wife is the best looking woman in the whole
building, but it's me who's not even allowed to defend himself."  "If
that's how things are, then there's nothing that can be done," said K.
"Well why not?" asked the usher.  "He's a coward that student, if he
wants to lay a finger on my wife all you'd have to do is give him such a
good hiding he'd never dare do it again.  But I'm not allowed to do
that, and nobody else is going to do me the favour as they're all afraid
of his power.  The only one who could do it is a man like you."  "What,
how could I do it?" asked K. in astonishment.
"Well you're facing a charge, aren't you," said the usher.  "Yes, but
that's all the more reason for me to be afraid.  Even if he has no
influence on the outcome of the trial he probably has some on the
initial examination."  "Yes, exactly," said the usher, as if K.'s view
had been just as correct as his own.  "Only we don't usually get any
trials heard here with no hope at all."  "I am not of the same opinion",
said K., "although that ought not to prevent me from dealing with the
student if the opportunity arises."  "I would be very grateful to you,"
said the usher of the court, somewhat formally, not really seeming to
believe that his highest wish could be fulfilled.  "Perhaps," continued
K., "perhaps there are some other officials of yours here, perhaps all
of them, who would deserve the same."  "Oh yes, yes," said the usher, as
if this was a matter of course.  Then he looked at K. trustingly which,
despite all his friendliness, he had not done until then, and added,
"they're always rebelling."  But the conversation seemed to have become
a little uncomfortable for him, as he broke it off by saying, "now I
have to report to the office.  Would you like to come with me?"
"There's nothing for me to do there," said K.
"You'd be able to have a look at it.  No-one will take any notice of
you."  "Is it worth seeing then?" asked K. hesitatingly, although he
felt very keen to go with him.  "Well," said the usher, "I thought you'd
be interested in it."  "Alright then," said K. finally, "I'll come with
you."  And, quicker than the usher himself, he ran up the steps.

        At the entrance he nearly fell over, as behind the door there was
another step. "They don't show much concern for the public," he said.
"They don't show any concern at all," said the usher, "just look at the
waiting room here."  It consisted of a long corridor from which roughly
made doors led out to the separate departments of the attic.  There was
no direct source of light but it was not entirely dark as many of the
departments, instead of solid walls, had just wooden bars reaching up to
the ceiling to separate them from the corridor.  The light made its way
in through them, and it was also possible to see individual officials
through them as they sat writing at their desks or stood up at the
wooden frameworks and watched the people on the corridor through the
gaps.  There were only a few people in the corridor, probably because it
was Sunday.  They were not very impressive.  They sat, equally spaced,
on two rows of long wooden benches which had been placed along both
sides of the corridor.  All of them were carelessly dressed although the
expressions on their faces, their bearing, the style of their beards and
many details which were hard to identify showed that they belonged to
the upper classes.  There were no coat hooks for them to use, and so
they had placed their hats under the bench, each probably having
followed the example of the others.  When those who were sitting nearest
the door saw K. and the usher of the court they stood up to greet them,
and when the others saw that, they also thought they had to greet them,
so that as the two of them went by all the people there stood up.  None
of them stood properly upright, their backs were bowed, their knees
bent, they stood like beggars on the street.  K. waited for the usher,
who was following just behind him.  "They must all be very dispirited,"
he said.  "Yes," said the usher, "they are the accused, everyone you see
here has been accused."  "Really!" said K.  "They're colleagues of mine
then."  And he turned to the nearest one, a tall, thin man with hair
that was nearly grey.  "What is it you are waiting for here?" asked K.,
politely, but the man was startled at being spoken to unexpectedly,
which was all the more pitiful to see because the man clearly had some
experience of the world and elsewhere would certainly have been able to
show his superiority and would not have easily given up the advantage he
had acquired.  Here, though, he did not know what answer to give to such
a simple question and looked round at the others as if they were under
some obligation to help him, and as if no-one could expect any answer
from him without this help.  Then the usher of the court stepped forward
to him and, in order to calm him down and raise his spirits, said, "The
gentleman here's only asking what it is you're waiting for.  You can
give him an answer."  The voice of the usher was probably familiar to
him, and had a better effect than K.'s.  "I'm ... I'm waiting ..." he
began, and then came to a halt.  He had clearly chosen this beginning so
that he could give a precise answer to the question, but now he didn't
know how to continue.  Some of the others waiting had come closer and
stood round the group, the usher of the court said to them, "Get out the
way, keep the gangway free."  They moved back slightly, but not as far
as where they had been sitting before.  In the meantime, the man whom K.
had first approached had pulled himself together and even answered him
with a smile.
"A month ago I made some applications for evidence to be heard in my
case, and I'm waiting for it to be settled."  "You certainly seem to be
going to a lot of effort," said K.  "Yes," said the man, "it is my
affair after all."  "Not everyone thinks the same way as you do," said
K. "I've been indicted as well but I swear on my soul that I've neither
submitted evidence nor done anything else of the sort.  Do you really
think that's necessary?"  "I don't really know, exactly," said the man,
once more totally unsure of himself; he clearly thought K. was joking
with him and therefore probably thought it best to repeat his earlier
answer in order to avoid making any new mistakes.  With K. looking at
him impatiently, he just said, "as far as I'm concerned, I've applied to
have this evidence heard."  "Perhaps you don't believe I've been
indicted?" asked K.  "Oh, please, I certainly do," said the man,
stepping slightly to one side, but there was more anxiety in his answer
than belief.  "You don't believe me then?" asked K., and took hold of
his arm, unconsciously prompted by the man's humble demeanour, and as if
he wanted to force him to believe him.  But he did not want to hurt the
man and had only taken hold of him very lightly.  Nonetheless, the man
cried out as if K. had grasped him not with two fingers but with red hot
tongs.  Shouting in this ridiculous way finally made K. tired of him, if
he didn't believe he was indicted then so much the better; maybe he even
thought K. was a judge.  And before leaving, he held him a lot harder,
shoved him back onto the bench and walked on.  "These defendants are so
sensitive, most of them," said the usher of the court.  Almost all of
those who had been waiting had now assembled around the man who, by now,
had stopped shouted and they seemed to be asking him lots of precise
questions about the incident.  K. was approached by a security guard,
identifiable mainly by his sword, of which the scabbard seemed to be
made of aluminium.  This greatly surprised K., and he reached out for it
with his hand.  The guard had come because of the shouting and asked
what had been happening.  The usher of the court said a few words to try
and calm him down but the guard explained that he had to look into it
himself, saluted, and hurried on, walking with very short steps,
probably because of gout.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
        K. didn't concern himself long with the guard or these people,
especially as he saw a turning off the corridor, about half way along it
on the right hand side, where there was no door to stop him going that
way.  He asked the usher whether that was the right way to go, the usher
nodded, and that is the way that K. went.  The usher remained always one
or two steps behind K, which he found irritating as in a place like this
it could give the impression that he was being driven along by someone
who had arrested him, so he frequently waited for the usher to catch up,
but the usher always remained behind him.  In order to put an end to his
discomfort, K. finally said, "Now that I've seen what it looks like
here, I'd like to go."  "You haven't seen everything yet," said the
usher ingenuously.
"I don't want to see everything," said K., who was also feeling very
tired, "I want to go, what is the way to the exit?"  "You haven't got
lost, have you?" asked the usher in amazement, "you go down this way to
the corner, then right down the corridor straight ahead as far as the
door."  "Come with me," said K., "show me the way, I'll miss it, there
are so many different ways here."  "It's the only way there is," said
the usher, who had now started to sound quite reproachful, "I can't go
back with you again, I've got to hand in my report, and I've already
lost a lot of time because of you as it is."  "Come with me!" K.
repeated, now somewhat sharper as if he had finally caught the usher out
in a lie.  "Don't shout like that," whispered the usher, "there's
offices all round us here.  If you don't want to go back by yourself
come on a bit further with me or else wait here till I've sorted out my
report, then I'll be glad to go back with you again."  "No, no," said
K., "I will not wait and you must come with me now."  K. had still not
looked round at anything at all in the room where he found himself, and
it was only when one of the many wooden doors all around him opened that
he noticed it.  A young woman, probably summoned by the loudness of K.'s
voice, entered and asked, "What is it the gentleman wants?"  In the
darkness behind her there was also a man approaching.  K. looked at the
usher.  He had, after all, said that no-one would take any notice of K.,
and now there were two people coming, it only needed a few and everyone
in the office would become aware of him and asking for explanations as
to why he was there.  The only understandable and acceptable thing to
say was that he was accused of something and wanted to know the date of
his next hearing, but this was an explanation he did not want to give,
especially as it was not true - he had only come out of curiosity.  Or
else, an explanation even less usable, he could say that he wanted to
ascertain that the court was as revolting on the inside as it was on the
outside.  And it did seem that he had been quite right in this
supposition, he had no wish to intrude any deeper, he was disturbed
enough by what he had seen already, he was not in the right frame of
mind just then to face a high official such as might appear from behind
any door, and he wanted to go, either with the usher of the court or, if
needs be, alone.

        But he must have seemed very odd standing there in silence, and
the young woman and the usher were indeed looking at him as if they
thought he would go through some major metamorphosis any second which
they didn't want to miss seeing.  And in the doorway stood the man whom
K. had noticed in the background earlier, he held firmly on to the beam
above the low door swinging a little on the tips of his feet as if
becoming impatient as he watched.  But the young woman was the first to
recognise that K.'s behaviour was caused by his feeling slightly unwell,
she brought a chair and asked,
"Would you not like to sit down?"  K. sat down immediately and, in order
to keep his place better, put his elbows on the armrests.  "You're a
little bit dizzy, aren't you?" she asked him.  Her face was now close in
front of him, it bore the severe expression that many young women have
just when they're in the bloom of their youth.  "It's nothing for you to
worry about," she said, "that's nothing unusual here, almost everyone
gets an attack like that the first time they come here.  This is your
first time is it?  Yes, it's nothing unusual then.  The sun burns down
on the roof and the hot wood makes the air so thick and heavy.  It makes
this place rather unsuitable for offices, whatever other advantages it
might offer.  But the air is almost impossible to breathe on days when
there's a lot of business, and that's almost every day.  And when you
think that there's a lot of washing put out to dry here as well - and we
can't stop the tenants doing that - it's not surprising you started to
feel unwell.  But you get used to the air alright in the end.  When
you're here for the second or third time you'll hardly notice how
oppressive the air is.  Are you feeling any better now?"  K. made no
answer, he felt too embarrassed at being put at the mercy of these
people by his sudden weakness, and learning the reason for feeling ill
made him feel not better but a little worse.  The girl noticed it
straight away, and to make the air fresher for K., she took a window
pole that was leaning against the wall and pushed open a small hatch
directly above K.'s head that led to the outside.  But so much soot fell
in that the girl had to immediately close the hatch again and clean the
soot off K.'s hands with her handkerchief, as K. was too tired to do
that for himself.  He would have liked just to sit quietly where he was
until he had enough strength to leave, and the less fuss people made
about him the sooner that would be.  But then the girl said, "You can't
stay here, we're in people's way here ..."  K. looked at her as if to
ask whose way they were impeding.  "If you like, I can take you to the
sick room," and turning to the man in the doorway said, "please help
me".  The man immediately came over to them, but K. did not want to go
to the sick room, that was just what he wanted to avoid, being led
further from place to place, the further he went the more difficult it
must become.  So he said, "I am able to walk now," and stood up, shaking
after becoming used to sitting so comfortably.  But then he was unable
to stay upright. "I can't manage it," he said shaking his head, and sat
down again with a sigh.  He remembered the usher who, despite
everything, would have been able to lead him out of there but who seemed
to have gone long before.  K. looked out between the man and the young
woman who were standing in front of him but was unable to find the
usher.  "I think," said the man, who was elegantly dressed and whose
appearance was made especially impressive with a grey waistcoat that had
two long, sharply tailored points, "the gentleman is feeling unwell
because of the atmosphere here, so the best thing, and what he would
most prefer, would be not to take him to the sick room but get him out
of the offices altogether."  "That's right," exclaimed K., with such joy
that he nearly interrupted what the man was saying, "I'm sure that'll
make me feel better straight away, I'm really not that weak, all I need
is a little support under my arms, I won't cause you much trouble, it's
not such a long way anyway, lead me to the door and then I'll sit on the
stairs for a while and soon recover, as I don't suffer from attacks like
this at all, I'm surprised at it myself.  I also work in an office and
I'm quite used to office air, but here it seems to be too strong, you've
said so yourselves.  So please, be so kind as to help me on my way a
little, I'm feeling dizzy, you see, and it'll make me ill if I stand up
by myself."  And with that he raised his shoulders to make it easier for
the two of them to take him by the arms.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
        The man, however, didn't follow this suggestion but just stood
there with his hands in his trouser pockets and laughed out loud.
"There, you see," he said to the girl, "I was quite right.  The
gentleman is only unwell here, and not in general."  The young woman
smiled too, but lightly tapped the man's arm with the tips of her
fingers as if he had allowed himself too much fun with K.  "So what do
you think, then?" said the man, still laughing, "I really do want to
lead the gentleman out of here."  "That's alright, then," said the girl,
briefly inclining her charming head.  "Don't worry too much about him
laughing," said the girl to K., who had become unhappy once more and
stared quietly in front of himself as if needing no further explanation.
"This gentleman - may I introduce you?" - (the man gave his permission
with a wave of the hand) - "so, this gentleman's job is to give out
information.  He gives all the information they need to people who are
waiting, as our court and its offices are not very well known among the
public he gets asked for quite a lot.  He has an answer for every
question, you can try him out if you feel like it.  But that's not his
only distinction, his other distinction is his elegance of dress.  We,
that's to say all of us who work in the offices here, we decided that
the information-giver would have to be elegantly dressed as he
continually has to deal with the litigants and he's the first one they
meet, so he needs to give a dignified first impression.  The rest of us
I'm afraid, as you can see just by looking at me, dress very badly and
old-fashioned; and there's not much point in spending much on clothes
anyway, as we hardly ever leave the offices, we even sleep here.  But,
as I said, we decided that the information-giver would have to have nice
clothes.  As the management here is rather peculiar in this respect, and
they would get them for us, we had a collection - some of the litigants
contributed too - and bought him these lovely clothes and some others
besides.  So everything would be ready for him to give a good
impression, except that he spoils it again by laughing and frightening
people."  "That's how it is," said the man, mocking her, "but I don't
understand why it is that you're explaining all our intimate facts to
the gentleman, or rather why it is that you're pressing them on him, as
I'm sure he's not all interested.  Just look at him sitting there, it's
clear he's occupied with his own affairs."  K. just did not feel like
contradicting him.. The girl's intention may have been good, perhaps she
was under instructions to distract him or to give him the chance to
collect himself, but the attempt had not worked.  "I had to explain to
him why you were laughing," said the girl.  "I suppose it was
insulting."  "I think he would forgive even worse insults if I finally
took him outside."  K. said nothing, did not even look up, he tolerated
the two of them negotiating over him like an object, that was even what
suited him best.  But suddenly he felt the information-giver's hand on
one arm and the young woman's hand on the other.  "Up you get then,
weakling," said the information-giver.  "Thank you both very much," said
K., pleasantly surprised, as he slowly rose and personally guided these
unfamiliar hands to the places where he most needed support.
As they approached the corridor, the girl said quietly into K.'s ear, "I
must seem to think it's very important to show the information-giver in
a good light, but you shouldn't doubt what I say, I just want to say the
truth.  He isn't hard-hearted.  It's not really his job to help
litigants outside if they're unwell but he's doing it anyway, as you can
see.  I don't suppose any of us is hard-hearted, perhaps we'd all like
to be helpful, but working for the court offices it's easy for us to
give the impression we are hard-hearted and don't want to help anyone.
It makes me quite sad."  "Would you not like to sit down here a while?"
asked the information-giver, there were already in the corridor and just
in front of the defendant whom K. had spoken to earlier.  K. felt almost
ashamed to be seen by him, earlier he had stood so upright in front of
him and now he had to be supported by two others, his hat was held up by
the information-giver balanced on outstretched fingers, his hair was
dishevelled and hung down onto the sweat on his forehead.  But the
defendant seemed to notice nothing of what was going on and just stood
there humbly, as if wanting to apologise to the information-giver for
being there. The information-giver looked past him.  "I know," he said,
"that my case can't be settled today, not yet, but I've come in anyway,
I thought, I thought I could wait here anyway, it's Sunday today, I've
got plenty of time, and I'm not disturbing anyone here."  "There's no
need to be so apologetic," said the information-giver, "it's very
commendable for you to be so attentive.  You are taking up space here
when you don't need to but as long as you don't get in my way I will do
nothing to stop you following the progress of your case as closely as
you like.  When one has seen so many people who shamefully neglect their
cases one learns to show patience with people like you.   Do sit down."
"He's very good with the litigants," whispered the girl.  K. nodded, but
started to move off again when the information-giver repeated, "Would
you not like to sit down here a while?"  "No, "said K., "I don't want to
rest."  He had said that with as decisively as he could, but in fact it
would have done him a lot of good to sit down.  It was as if he were
suffering sea-sickness.  He felt as if he were on a ship in a rough sea,
as if the water were hitting against the wooden walls, a thundering from
the depths of the corridor as if the torrent were crashing over it, as
if the corridor were swaying and the waiting litigants on each side of
it rising and sinking.  It made the calmness of the girl and the man
leading him all the more incomprehensible.  He was at their mercy, if
they let go of him he would fall like a board.  Their little eyes
glanced here and there, K. could feel the evenness of their steps but
could not do the same, as from step to step he was virtually being
carried.  He finally noticed they were speaking to him but he did not
understand them, all he heard was a noise that filled all the space and
through which there seemed to be an unchanging higher note sounding,
like a siren.  "Louder," he whispered with his head sunk low, ashamed at
having to ask them to speak louder when he knew they had spoken loudly
enough, even if it had been, for him, incomprehensible.  At last, a
draught of cool air blew in his face as if a gap had been torn out in
the wall in front of him, and next to him he heard someone say, "First
he says he wants to go, and then you can tell him a hundred times that
this is the way out and he doesn't move."  K. became aware that he was
standing in front of the way out, and that the young woman had opened
the door.  It seemed to him that all his strength returned to him at
once, and to get a foretaste of freedom he stepped straight on to one of
the stairs and took his leave there of his companions, who bowed to him.
"Thank you very much," he repeated, shook their hands once more and did
not let go until he thought he saw that they found it hard to bear the
comparatively fresh air from the stairway after being so long used to
the air in the offices.  They were hardly able to reply, and the young
woman might even have fallen over if K. had not shut the door extremely
fast.  K. then stood still for a while, combed his hair with the help of
a pocket mirror, picked up his hat from the next stair - the
information-giver must have thrown it down there - and then he ran down
the steps so fresh and in such long leaps that the contrast with his
previous state nearly frightened him.  His normally sturdy state of
health had never prepared him for surprises such as this.  Did his body
want to revolt and cause him a new trial as he was bearing the old one
with such little effort?  He did not quite reject the idea that he
should see a doctor the next time he had the chance, but whatever he did
- and this was something on which he could advise himself - he wanted to
spend all Sunday mornings in future better than he had spent this one.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
Chapter Four
Miss BŸrstner's Friend

        For some time after this, K. found it impossible to exchange even
just a few words with Miss BŸrstner.  He tried to reach her in many and
various ways but she always found a way to avoid it.  He would come
straight home from the office, remain in her room without the light on,
and sit on the sofa with nothing more to distract him than keeping watch
on the empty hallway.  If the maid went by and closed the door of the
apparently empty room he would get up after a while and open it again.
He got up an hour earlier than usual in the morning so that he might
perhaps find Miss BŸrstner alone as she went to the office.  But none of
these efforts brought any success.  Then he wrote her a letter, both to
the office and the flat, attempting once more to justify his behaviour,
offered to make whatever amends he could, promised never to cross
whatever boundary she might set him and begged merely to have the chance
to speak to her some time, especially as he was unable to do anything
with Mrs. Grubach either until he had spoken with Miss BŸrstner, he
finally informed her that the following Sunday he would stay in his room
all day waiting for a sign from her that there was some hope of his
request being fulfilled, or at least that she would explain to him why
she could not fulfil it even though he had promised to observe whatever
stipulations she might make.  The letters were not returned, but there
was no answer either.  However, on the following Sunday there was a sign
that seemed clear enough.  It was still early when K. noticed, through
the keyhole, that there was an unusual level of activity in the hallway
which soon abated.  A French teacher, although she was German and called
Montag, a pale and febrile girl with a slight limp who had previously
occupied a room of her own, was moving into Miss BŸrstner's room.  She
could be seen shuffling through the hallway for several hours, there was
always another piece of clothing or a blanket or a book that she had
forgotten and had to be fetched specially and brought into the new home.

        When Mrs. Grubach brought K. his breakfast - ever since the time
when she had made K. so cross she didn't trust the maid to do the
slightest job - he had no choice but to speak to her, for the first time
in five days.  "Why is there so much noise in the hallway today?" he
asked as she poured his coffee out, "Can't something be done about it?
Does this clearing out have to be done on a Sunday?"  K. did not look up
at Mrs. Grubach, but he saw nonetheless that she seemed to feel some
relief as she breathed in.  Even sharp questions like this from Mr. K.
she perceived as forgiveness, or as the beginning of forgiveness.
"We're not clearing anything out, Mr. K.," she said, "it's just that
Miss Montag is moving in with Miss BŸrstner and is moving her things
across."  She said nothing more, but just waited to see how K. would
take it and whether he would allow her to carry on speaking.  But K.
kept her in uncertainty, took the spoon and pensively stirred his coffee
while he remained silent.  Then he looked up at her and said, "What
about the suspicions you had earlier about Miss BŸrstner, have you given
them up?"  "Mr. K.," called Mrs. Grubach, who had been waiting for this
very question, as she put her hands together and held them out towards
him.  "I just made a chance remark and you took it so badly.  I didn't
have the slightest intention of offending anyone, not you or anyone
else.  You've known me for long enough, Mr. K., I'm sure you're
convinced of that.  You don't know how I've been suffering for the past
few days!  That I should tell lies about my tenants!  And you, Mr. K.,
you believed it!  And said I should give you notice!  Give you notice!"
At this last outcry, Mrs. Grubach was already choking back her tears,
she raised her apron to her face and blubbered out loud.

        "Oh, don't cry Mrs. Grubach," said K., looking out the window, he
was thinking only of Miss BŸrstner and how she was accepting an unknown
girl into her room.  "Now don't cry," he said again as he turned his
look back into the room where Mrs. Grubach was still crying.  "I meant
no harm either when I said that.  It was simply a misunderstanding
between us.  That can happen even between old friends sometimes."  Mrs.
Grubach pulled her apron down to below her eyes to see whether K. really
was attempting a reconciliation.  "Well, yes, that's how it is," said
K., and as Mrs. Grubach's behaviour indicated that the captain had said
nothing he dared to add, "Do you really think, then, that I'd want to
make an enemy of you for the sake of a girl we hardly know?" "Yes,
you're quite right, Mr. K.," said Mrs. Grubach, and then, to her
misfortune, as soon as she felt just a little freer to speak, she added
something rather inept.  "I kept asking myself why it was that Mr. K.
took such an interest in Miss BŸrstner.  Why does he quarrel with me
over her when he knows that any cross word from him and I can't sleep
that night?  And I didn't say anything about Miss BŸrstner that I hadn't
seen with my own eyes."  K. said nothing in reply, he should have chased
her from the room as soon as she had opened her mouth, and he didn't
want to do that.  He contented himself with merely drinking his coffee
and letting Mrs. Grubach feel that she was superfluous.  Outside, the
dragging steps of Miss Montag could still be heard as she went from one
side of the hallway to the other.  "Do you hear that?" asked K. pointing
his hand at the door.  "Yes," said Mrs. Grubach with a sigh, "I wanted
to give her some help and I wanted the maid to help her too but she's
stubborn, she wants to move everything in herself.  I wonder at Miss
BŸrstner.  I often feel it's a burden for me to have Miss Montag as a
tenant but Miss BŸrstner accepts her into her room with herself."
"There's nothing there for you to worry about" said K., crushing the
remains of a sugar lump in his cup.  "Does she cause you any trouble?"
"No," said Mrs. Grubach, "in itself it's very good to have her there, it
makes another room free for me and I can let my nephew, the captain,
occupy it.  I began to worry he might be disturbing you when I had to
let him live in the living room next to you over the last few days.
He's not very considerate."  "What an idea!" said K. standing up,
"there's no question of that.  You seem to think that because I can't
stand this to-ing and fro-ing of Miss Montag that I'm over-sensitive -
and there she goes back again."  Mrs. Grubach appeared quite powerless.
"Should I tell her to leave moving the rest of her things over till
later, then, Mr. K.?  If that's what you want I'll do it immediately."
"But she has to move in with Miss BŸrstner!" said K.  "Yes," said Mrs.
Grubach, without quite understanding what K. meant.  "So she has to take
her things over there."  Mrs. Grubach just nodded.  K. was irritated all
the more by this dumb helplessness which, seen from the outside, could
have seemed like a kind of defiance on her part.  He began to walk up
and down the room between the window and the door, thus depriving Mrs.
Grubach of the chance to leave, which she otherwise probably would have
done.

        Just as K. once more reached the door, someone knocked at it.  It
was the maid, to say that Miss Montag would like to have a few words
with Mr. K., and therefore requested that he come to the dining room
where she was waiting for him.  K. heard the maid out thoughtfully, and
then looked back at the shocked Mrs. Grubach in a way that was almost
contemptuous.  His look seemed to be saying that K. had been expecting
this invitation for Miss Montag for a long time, and that it was
confirmation of the suffering he had been made to endure that Sunday
morning from Mrs. Grubach's tenants.  He sent the maid back with the
reply that he was on his way, then he went to the wardrobe to change his
coat, and in answer to Mrs. Grubach's gentle whining about the nuisance
Miss Montag was causing merely asked her to clear away the breakfast
things.  "But you've hardly touched it," said Mrs. Grubach.  "Oh just
take it away!" shouted K.  It seemed to him that Miss Montag was mixed
up in everything and made it repulsive to him.

        As he went through the hallway he looked at the closed door of
Miss BŸrstner's room.  But it wasn't there that he was invited, but the
dining room, to which he yanked the door open without knocking.

        The room was long but narrow with one window.  There was only
enough space available to put two cupboards at an angle in the corner by
the door, and the rest of the room was entirely taken up with the long
dining table which started by the door and reached all the way to the
great window, which was thus made almost inaccessible.  The table was
already laid for a large number of people, as on Sundays almost all the
tenants ate their dinner here at midday.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
        When K. entered, Miss Montag came towards him from the window
along one side of the table.  They greeted each other in silence.  Then
Miss Montag, her head unusually erect as always, said, "I'm not sure
whether you know me."  K. looked at her with a frown.  "Of course I do,"
he said, "you've been living here with Mrs. Grubach for quite some time
now."  "But I get the impression you don't pay much attention to what's
going on in the lodging house,"  said Miss Montag.  "No," said K.
"Would you not like to sit down?" said Miss Montag.  In silence, the two
of them drew chairs out from the farthest end of the table and sat down
facing each other.  But Miss Montag stood straight up again as she had
left her handbag on the window sill and went to fetch it; she shuffled
down the whole length of the room.  When she came back, the handbag
lightly swinging, she said, "I'd like just to have a few words with you
on behalf of my friend.  She would have come herself, but she's feeling
a little unwell today.  Perhaps you'll be kind enough to forgive her and
listen to me instead.  There's anyway nothing that she could have said
that I won't.  On the contrary, in fact, I think I can say even more
than her because I'm relatively impartial.  Would you not agree?"  "What
is there to say, then?" answered K., who was tired of Miss Montag
continuously watching his lips.  In that way she took control of what he
wanted to say before he said it.  "Miss BŸrstner clearly refuses to
grant me the personal meeting that I asked her for."  "That's how it
is," said Miss Montag, " or rather, that's not at all how it is, the way
you put it is remarkably severe.  Generally speaking, meetings are
neither granted nor the opposite.  But it can be that meetings are
considered unnecessary, and that's how it is here.  Now, after your
comment, I can speak openly.  You asked my friend, verbally or in
writing, for the chance to speak with her.  Now my friend is aware of
your reasons for asking for this meeting - or at least I suppose she is
- and so, for reasons I know nothing about, she is quite sure that it
would be of no benefit to anyone if this meeting actually took place.
Moreover, it was only yesterday, and only very briefly, that she made it
clear to me that such a meeting could be of no benefit for yourself
either, she feels that it can only have been a matter of chance that
such an idea came to you, and that even without any explanations from
her, you will very soon come to realise yourself, if you have not done
so already, the futility of your idea.  My answer to that is that
although it may be quite right, I consider it advantageous, if the
matter is to be made perfectly clear, to give you an explicit answer.  I
offered my services in taking on the task, and after some hesitation my
friend conceded.  I hope, however, also to have acted in your interests,
as even the slightest uncertainty in the least significant of matters
will always remain a cause of suffering and if, as in this case, it can
be removed without substantial effort, then it is better if that is done
without delay."  "I thank you," said K. as soon as Miss Montag had
finished.  He stood slowly up, looked at her, then across the table,
then out the window - the house opposite stood there in the sun - and
went to the door.  Miss Montag followed him a few paces, as if she did
not quite trust him.  At the door, however, both of them had to step
back as it opened and Captain Lanz entered.  This was the first time
that K. had seen him close up.  He was a large man of about forty with a
tanned, fleshy face.  He bowed slightly, intending it also for K., and
then went over to Miss Montag and deferentially kissed her hand.  He was
very elegant in the way he moved. The courtesy he showed towards Miss
Montag made a striking contrast with the way she had been treated by K.
Nonetheless, Miss Montag did not seem to be cross with K. as it even
seemed to him that she wanted to introduce the captain.  K. however, did
not want to be introduced, he would not have been able to show any sort
of friendliness either to Miss Montag or to the captain, the kiss on the
hand had, for K., bound them into a group which would keep him at a
distance from Miss BŸrstner whilst at the same time seeming to be
totally harmless and unselfish.  K. thought, however, that he saw more
than that, he thought he also saw that Miss Montag had chosen a means of
doing it that was good, but two-edged.  She exaggerated the importance
of the relationship between K. and Miss BŸrstner, and above all she
exaggerated the importance of asking to speak with her and she tried at
the same time to make out that K. was exaggerating everything.  She
would be disappointed, K. did not want to exaggerate anything, he was
aware that Miss BŸrstner was a little typist who would not offer him
much resistance for long.  In doing so he deliberately took no account
of what Mrs. Grubach had told him about Miss BŸrstner.  All these things
were going through his mind as he left the room with hardly a polite
word.  He wanted to go straight to his room, but a little laugh from
Miss Montag that he heard from the dining room behind him brought him to
the idea that he might prepare a  surprise for the two of them, the
captain and Miss Montag.  He looked round and listened to find out if
there might be any disturbance from any of the surrounding rooms,
everywhere was quiet, the only thing to be heard was the conversation
from the dining room and Mrs. Grubach's voice from the passage leading
to the kitchen.  This seemed an opportune time, K. went to Miss
BŸrstner's room and knocked gently.  There was no sound so he knocked
again but there was still no answer in reply.  Was she asleep?  Or was
she really unwell?  Or was she just pretending as she realised it could
only be K. knocking so gently?  K. assumed she was pretending and
knocked harder, eventually, when the knocking brought no result, he
carefully opened the door with the sense of doing something that was not
only improper but also pointless.  In the room there was no-one.  What's
more, it looked hardly at all like the room K. had known before.
Against the wall there were now two beds behind one another, there were
clothes piled up on three chairs near the door, a wardrobe stood open.
Miss BŸrstner must have gone out while Miss Montag was speaking to him
in the dining room.  K. was not greatly bothered by this, he had hardly
expected to be able to find Miss BŸrstner so easily and had made this
attempt for little more reason than to spite Miss Montag.  But that made
it all the more embarrassing for him when, as he was closing the door
again, he saw Miss Montag and the captain talking in the open doorway of
the dining room.  They had probably been standing there ever since K.
had opened the door, they avoided seeming to observe K. but chatted
lightly and followed his movements with glances, the absent minded
glances to the side such as you make during a conversation.  But these
glances were heavy for K., and he rushed alongside the wall back into
his own room.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
Chapter Five
The whip-man

        One evening, a few days later, K. was walking along one of the
corridors that separated his office from the main stairway - he was
nearly the last one to leave for home that evening, there remained only
a couple of workers in the light of a single bulb in the dispatch
department - when he heard a sigh from behind a door which he had
himself never opened but which he had always thought just led into a
junk room.  He stood in amazement and listened again to establish
whether he might not be mistaken.  For a while there was silence, but
then came some more sighs.  His first thought was to fetch one of the
servitors, it might well have been worth having a witness present, but
then he was taken by an uncontrollable curiosity that make him simply
yank the door open.  It was, as he had thought, a junk room.  Old,
unusable forms, empty stone ink-bottles lay scattered behind the
entrance.  But in the cupboard-like room itself stood three men,
crouching under the low ceiling.  A candle fixed on a shelf gave them
light.  "What are you doing here?" asked K. quietly, but crossly and
without thinking.  One of the men was clearly in charge, and attracted
attention by being dressed in a kind of dark leather costume which left
his neck and chest and his arms exposed.  He did not answer.  But the
other two called out, "Mr. K.!  We're to be beaten because you made a
complaint about us to the examining judge."  And now, K. finally
realised that it was actually the two policemen, Franz and Willem, and
that the third man held a cane in his hand with which to beat them.
"Well," said K., staring at them, "I didn't make any complaint, I only
said what took place in my home.  And your behaviour was not entirely
unobjectionable, after all."  "Mr. K.," said Willem, while Franz clearly
tried to shelter behind him as protection from the third man, "if you
knew how badly we get paid you wouldn't think so badly of us.  I've got
a family to feed, and Franz here wanted to get married, you just have to
get more money where you can, you can't do it just by working hard, not
however hard you try.  I was sorely tempted by your fine clothes,
policemen aren't allowed to do that sort of thing, course they aren't,
and it wasn't right of us, but it's tradition that the clothes go to the
officers, that's how it's always been, believe me; and it's
understandable too, isn't it, what can things like that mean for anyone
unlucky enough to be arrested?  But if he starts talking about it openly
then the punishment has to follow."  "I didn't know about any of this
that you've been telling me, and I made no sort of request that you be
punished, I was simply acting on principle."  "Franz," said Willem,
turning to the other policeman, "didn't I tell you that the gentleman
didn't say he wanted us to be punished?  Now you can hear for yourself,
he didn't even know we'd have to be punished."  "Don't you let them
persuade you, talking like that," said the third man to K., "this
punishment is both just and unavoidable."  "Don't listen to him," said
Willem, interrupting himself only to quickly bring his hand to his mouth
when it had received a stroke of the cane, "we're only being punished
because you made a complaint against us.  Nothing would have happened to
us otherwise, not even if they'd found out what we'd done.  Can you call
that justice?  Both of us, me especially, we'd proved our worth as good
police officers over a long period - you've got to admit yourself that
as far as official work was concerned we did the job well - things
looked good for us, we had prospects, it's quite certain that we
would've been made whip-men too, like this one, only he had the luck not
to have anyone make a complaint about him, as you really don't get many
complaints like that.  Only that's all finished now, Mr. K., our careers
are at an end, we're going to have to do work now that's far inferior to
police work and besides all this we're going to get this terrible,
painful beating."  "Can the cane really cause so much pain, then?" asked
K., testing the cane that the whip-man swang in front of him.  "We're
going to have to strip off totally naked," said Willem.  "Oh, I see,"
said K., looking straight at the whip-man, his skin was burned brown
like a sailor's, and his face showed health and vigorous.  "Is there
then no possibility of sparing these two their beating?" he asked him.
"No," said the whip-man, shaking his head with a laugh.  "Get
undressed!" he ordered the policemen.  And to K. he said, "You shouldn't
believe everything they tell you, it's the fear of being beaten, it's
already made them a bit weak in the head.  This one here, for instance,"
he pointed at Willem, "all that he told you about his career prospects,
it's just ridiculous.  Look at him, look how fat he is - the first
strokes of the cane will just get lost in all that fat.   Do you know
what it is that's made him so fat?  He's in the habit of, everyone that
gets arrested by him, he eats their breakfast.  Didn't he eat up your
breakfast?  Yeah, I thought as much.  But a man with a belly like that
can't be made into a whip-man and never will be, that is quite out of
the question."  "There are whip-men like that," Willem insisted, who had
just released the belt of this trousers.  "No," said the whip-man,
striking him such a blow with the cane on his neck that it made him
wince, "you shouldn't be listening to this, just get undressed."  "I
would make it well worth your while if you would let them go," said K.,
and without looking at the whip-man again - as such matters are best
carried on with both pairs of eyes turned down - he pulled out his
wallet.  "And then you'd try and put in a complaint against me, too,"
said the whip-man, "and get me flogged.  No, no!"  "Now, do be
reasonable," said K., "if I had wanted to get these two punished I would
not now be trying to buy their freedom, would I.  I could simply close
the door here behind me, go home and see or hear nothing more of it.
But that's not what I'm doing, it really is of much more importance to
me to let them go free; if I had realised they would be punished, or
even that they might be punished, I would never have named them in the
first place as they are not the ones I hold responsible.  It's the
organisation that's to blame, the high officials are the ones to blame."
"That's how it is!" shouted the policemen, who then immediately received
another blow on their backs, which were by now exposed.  "If you had a
senior judge here beneath your stick," said K., pressing down the cane
as he spoke to stop it being raised once more, "I really would do
nothing to stop you, on the contrary, I would even pay you money to give
you all the more strength."  "Yeah, that's all very plausible, what
you're saying there," said the whip-man , "only I'm not the sort of
person you can bribe.  It's my job to flog people, so I flog them."
Franz, the policeman, had been fairly quiet so far, probably in
expectation of a good result from K.'s intervention, but now he stepped
forward to the door wearing just his trousers, kneeled down hanging on
to K.'s arm and whispered, "Even if you can't get mercy shown for both
of us, at least try and get me set free.  Willem is older than me, he's
less sensitive than me in every way, he even got a light beating a
couple of years ago, but my record's still clean, I only did things the
way I did because Willem led me on to it, he's been my teacher both for
good and bad.  Down in front of the bank my poor bride is waiting for me
at the entrance, I'm so ashamed of myself, it's pitiful."  His face was
flowing over with tears, and he wiped it dry on K.'s coat.  "I'm not
going to wait any longer," said the whip-man, taking hold of the cane in
both hands and laying in to Franz while Willem cowered back in a corner
and looked on secretly, not even daring to turn his head.  Then, the
sudden scream that shot out from Franz was long and irrevocable, it
seemed to come not from a human being but from an instrument that was
being tortured, the whole corridor rang with it, it must have been heard
by everyone in the building.  "Don't shout like that!", called out K.,
unable to prevent himself, and, as he looked anxiously in the direction
from which the servitor would come, he gave Franz a shove, not hard, but
hard enough for him to fall down unconscious, clawing at the ground with
his hands by reflex; he still did not avoid being hit; the rod still
found him on the floor; the tip of the rod swang regularly up and down
while he rolled to and fro under its blows.  And now one of the
servitors appeared in the distance, with another a few steps behind him.
K. had quickly thrown the door shut, gone over to one of the windows
overlooking the yard and opened it.  The screams had completely stopped.
So that the servitor wouldn't come in, he called out, "It's only me!"
"Good evening, chief clerk," somebody called back.  "Is there anything
wrong?"  "No, no," answered K., "it's only a dog yelping in the yard."
There was no sound from the servitors so he added, "You can go back to
what you were doing."  He did not want to become involved with a
conversation with them, and so he leant out of the window.  A little
while later, when he looked out in the corridor, they had already gone.
Now, K. remained at the window, he did not dare go back into the junk
room, and he did not want to go home either.  The yard he looked down
into was small and rectangular, all around it were offices, all the
windows were now dark and only those at the very top caught a reflection
of the moon.  K tried hard to see into the darkness of one corner of the
yard, where a few handcarts had been left behind one another. He felt
anguish at not having been able to prevent the flogging, but that was
not his fault, if Franz had not screamed like that - clearly it must
have caused a great deal of pain but it's important to maintain control
of oneself at important moments - if Franz had not screamed then it was
at least highly probable that K. would have been able to dissuade the
whip-man.  If all the junior officers were contemptible why would the
whip-man, whose position was the most inhumane of all, be any exception,
and K. had noticed very clearly how his eyes had lit up when he saw the
banknotes, he had obviously only seemed serious about the flogging to
raise the level of the bribe a little. And K. had not been ungenerous,
he really had wanted to get the policemen freed; if he really had now
begun to do something against  the degeneracy of the court then it was a
matter of course that he would have to do something here as well.  But
of course, it became impossible for him to do anything as soon as Franz
started screaming.  K. could not possibly have let the junior bank
staff, and perhaps even all sorts of other people, come along and catch
him by surprise as he haggled with those people in the junk room.
Nobody could really expect that sort of sacrifice of him.  If that had
been his intention then it would almost have been easier, K. would have
taken his own clothes off and offered himself to the whip-man in the
policemen's place.  The whip-man would certainly not have accepted this
substitution anyway, as in that way he would have seriously violated his
duty without gaining any benefit.  He would most likely have violated
his duty twice over, as court employees were probably under orders not
to cause any harm to K. while he was facing charges, although there may
have been special conditions in force here.  However things stood, K.
was able to do no more than throw the door shut, even though that would
still do nothing to remove all the dangers he faced.  It was regrettable
that he had given Franz a shove, and it could only be excused by the
heat of the moment.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
        In the distance, he heard the steps of the servitors; he did not
want them to be too aware of his presence, so he closed the window and
walked towards the main staircase.  At the door of the junk room he
stopped and listened for a little while.  All was silent.  The two
policemen were entirely at the whip-man's mercy; he could have beaten
them to death.  K. reached his hand out for the door handle but drew it
suddenly back.  He was no longer in any position to help anyone, and the
servitors would soon be back;  he did, though, promise himself that he
would raise the matter again with somebody and see that, as far as it
was in his power, those who really were guilty, the high officials whom
nobody had so far dared point out to him, received their due punishment.
As he went down the main stairway at the front of the bank,  he looked
carefully round at everyone who was passing, but there was no girl to be
seen who might have been waiting for somebody, not even within some
distance from the bank.  Franz's claim that his bride was waiting for
him was thus shown to be a lie, albeit one that was forgivable and
intended only to elicit more sympathy.

        The policemen were still on K.'s mind all through the following
day; he was unable to concentrate on his work and had to stay in his
office a little longer than the previous day so that he could finish it.
On the way home, as he passed by the junk room again, he opened its door
as if that had been his habit.  Instead of the darkness he expected, he
saw everything unchanged from the previous evening, and did not know how
he should respond.  Everything was exactly the same as he had seen it
when he had opened the door the previous evening.   The forms and
bottles of ink just inside the doorway, the whip-man with his cane, the
two policemen, still undressed, the candle on the shelf, and the two
policemen began to wail and call out "Mr. K.!"  K. slammed the door
immediately shut, and even thumped on it with his fists as if that would
shut it all the firmer.  Almost in tears, he ran to the servitors
working quietly at the copying machine.  "Go and get that junk room
cleared out!" he shouted, and, in amazement, they stopped what they were
doing. "It should have been done long ago, we're sinking in dirt!"  They
would be able to do the job the next day, K. nodded, it was too late in
the evening to make them do it there and then as he had originally
intended.  He sat down briefly in order to keep them near him for a
little longer, looked through a few of the copies to give the impression
that he was checking them and then, as he saw that they would not dare
to leave at the same time as himself, went home tired and with his mind
numb.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
Chapter Six
K.'s uncle - Leni

        One afternoon - K. was very busy at the time, getting the post
ready - K.'s Uncle Karl, a small country land owner, came into the room,
pushing his way between two of the staff who were bringing in some
papers.   K. had long expected his uncle to appear, but the sight of him
now shocked K. far less than the prospect of it had done a long time
before.  His uncle was bound to come, K. had been sure of that for about
a month.  He already thought at the time he could see how his uncle
would arrive, slightly bowed, his battered panama hat in his left hand,
his right hand already stretched out over the desk long before he was
close enough as he rushed carelessly towards K. knocking over everything
that was in his way.  K.'s uncle was always in a hurry, as he suffered
from the unfortunate belief that he had a number things to do while he
was in the big city and had to settle all of them in one day - his
visits were only ever for one day - and at the same time thought he
could not forgo any conversation or piece of business or pleasure that
might arise by chance.  Uncle Karl was K.'s former guardian, and so K.
was duty-bound to help him in all of this as well as to offer him a bed
for the night.  'I'm haunted by a ghost from the country', he would say.

        As soon as they had greeted each other - K. had invited him to sit
in the armchair but Uncle Karl had no time for that - he said he wanted
to speak briefly with K. in private.  "It is necessary," he said with a
tired gulp, "it is necessary for my peace of mind."   K. immediately
sent the junior staff from the room and told them to let no-one in.
"What's this that I've been hearing, Josef?" cried K.'s uncle when they
were alone, as he sat on the table shoving various papers under himself
without looking at them to make himself more comfortable.  K. said
nothing, he knew what was coming, but, suddenly relieved from the effort
of the work he had been doing, he gave way to a pleasant lassitude and
looked out the window at the other side of the street.  From where he
sat, he could see just a small, triangular section of it, part of the
empty walls of houses between two shop windows.  "You're staring out the
window!" called out his uncle, raising his arms, "For God's sake, Josef,
give me an answer!  Is it true, can it really be true?"  "Uncle Karl,"
said K., wrenching himself back from his daydreaming, "I really don't
know what it is you want of me."  "Josef," said his uncle in a warning
tone, "as far as I know, you've always told the truth.  Am I to take
what you've just said as a bad sign?"  "I think I know what it is you
want," said K. obediently, "I expect you've heard about my trial."
"That's right," answered his uncle with a slow nod, "I've heard about
your trial."  "Who did you hear it from, then?" asked K.  "Erna wrote to
me," said his uncle, "she doesn't have much contact with you, it's true,
you don't pay very much attention to her, I'm afraid to say, but she
learned about it nonetheless.  I got her letter today and, of course, I
came straight here.  And for no other reason, but it seems to me that
this is reason enough.  I can read you out the part of the letter that
concerns you."  He drew the letter out from his wallet.  "Here it is.
She writes; 'I have not seen Josef for a long time, I was in the bank
last week but Josef was so busy that they would not let me through; I
waited there for nearly an hour but then I had to go home as I had my
piano lesson.  I would have liked to have spoken to him, maybe there
will be a chance another time.  He sent me a big box of chocolates for
my name-day, that was very nice and attentive of him.  I forgot to tell
you about it when I wrote, and I only remember now that you ask me about
it.  Chocolate, as I am sure you are aware, disappears straight away in
this lodging house, almost as soon as you know somebody has given you
chocolate it is gone.  But there is something else I wanted to tell you
about Josef.  Like I said, they would not let me through to see him at
the bank because he was negotiating with some gentleman just then.
After I had been waiting quietly for quite a long time I asked one of
the staff whether his meeting would last much longer.  He said it might
well do, as it was probably about the legal proceedings, he said, that
were being conducted against him.   I asked what sort of legal
proceedings it was that were being conducted against the chief clerk,
and whether he was not making some mistake, but he said he was not
making any mistake, there were legal proceedings underway and even that
they were about something quite serious, but he did not know any more
about it.   He would have liked to have been of some help to the chief
clerk himself, as the chief clerk was a gentleman, good and honest, but
he did not know what it was he could do and merely hoped there would be
some influential gentlemen who would take his side.  I'm sure that is
what will happen and that everything will turn out for the best in the
end, but in the mean time things do not look at all good, and you can
see that from the mood of the chief clerk himself.  Of course, I did not
place too much importance on this conversation, and even did my best to
put the bank clerk's mind at rest, he was quite a simple man.  I told
him he was not to speak to anyone else about this, and I think it is all
just a rumour, but I still think it might be good if you, Dear Father,
if you looked into the matter the next time you visit.   It will be easy
for you to find out more detail and, if it is really necessary, to do
something about it through the great and influential people you know.
But if it is not necessary, and that is what seems most likely, then at
least your daughter will soon have the chance to embrace you and I look
forward to it.' - She's a good child," said K.'s uncle when he had
finished reading, and wiped a few tears from his eyes.  K. nodded.  With
all the different disruptions he had had recently he had completely
forgotten about Erna, even her birthday, and the story of the chocolates
had clearly just been invented so that he wouldn't get in trouble with
his aunt and uncle.  It was very touching, and even the theatre tickets,
which he would regularly send her from then on, would not be enough to
repay her,  but he really did not feel, now, that it was right for him
to visit her in her lodgings and hold conversations with a little,
eighteen year old schoolgirl.  "And what do you have to say about that?"
asked his uncle,who had forgotten all his rush and excitement as he read
the letter, and seemed to be about to read it again.  "Yes, Uncle," said
K., "it is true."  "True!" called out his uncle. "What is true?  How can
this be true?  What sort of trial is it?  Not a criminal trial, I hope?"
"It's a criminal trial," answered K.  "And you sit quietly here while
you've got a criminal trial round your neck?" shouted his uncle, getting
ever louder.  "The more calm I am, the better it will be for the
outcome," said K. in a tired voice, "don't worry."  "How can I help
worrying?!" shouted his uncle, "Josef, my Dear Josef, think about
yourself, about your family, think about our good name!  Up till now,
you've always been our pride, don't now become our disgrace.  I don't
like the way you're behaving," he said, looking at K. with his head at
an angle, "that's not how an innocent man behaves when he's accused of
something, not if he's still got any strength in him.  Just tell me what
it's all about so that I can help you.  It's something to do with the
bank, I take it?"  "No," said K. as he stood up, "and you're speaking
too loud, Uncle, I expect one of the staff is listening at the door and
I find that rather unpleasant.  It's best if we go somewhere else, then
I can answer all your questions, as far as I can.  And I know very well
that I have to account to the family for what I do."  "You certainly
do!" his uncle shouted, "Quite right, you do.  Now just get a move on,
Josef, hurry up now!"  "I still have a few documents I need to prepare,"
said K., and, using the intercom, he summoned his deputy who entered a
few moments later.  K.'s uncle, still angry and excited, gestured with
his hand to show that K. had summoned him, even though there was no need
whatever to do so.  K. stood in front of the desk and explained to the
young man, who listened calm and attentive, what would need to be done
that day in his absence, speaking in a calm voice and making use of
various documents.   The presence of K.'s uncle while this was going on
was quite disturbing; he did not listen to what was being said,  but at
first he stood there with eyes wide open and nervously biting his lips.
Then he began to walk up and down the room, stopped now and then at the
window, or stood in front of a picture always making various
exclamations such as, "That is totally incomprehensible to me!" or "Now
just tell me, what are you supposed to make of that?!"  The young man
pretended to notice nothing of this and listened to K.'s instructions
through to the end, he made a few notes, bowed to both K. and his uncle
and then left the room.  K.'s uncle had turned his back to him and was
looking out the window, bunching up the curtains with his outstretched
hands.  The door had hardly closed when he called out, "At last!  Now
that he's stopped jumping about we can go too!"  Once they were in the
front hall of the bank, where several members of staff were standing
about and where, just then, the deputy director was walking across,
there was unfortunately no way of stopping K.'s uncle from continually
asking questions about the trial.  "Now then, Josef," he began, lightly
acknowledging the bows from those around them as they passed, "tell me
everything about this trial; what sort of trial is it?"  K. made a few
comments which conveyed little information, even laughed a little, and
it  was only when they reached the front steps that he explained to his
uncle that he had not wanted to talk openly in front of those people.
"Quite right," said his uncle, "but now start talking."  With his head
to one side, and smoking his cigar in short, impatient draughts, he
listened.  "First of all, Uncle," said K., "it's not a trial like you'd
have in a normal courtroom."  "So much the worse," said his uncle.
"How's that?" asked K., looking at him.  "What I mean is, that's for the
worse," he repeated.  They were standing on the front steps of the bank;
as the doorkeeper seemed to be listening to what they were saying K.
drew his uncle down further, where they were absorbed into the bustle of
the street.  His uncle took K.'s arm and stopped asking questions with
such urgency about the trial, they walked on for a while in silence.
"But how did all this come about?" he eventually asked, stopping
abruptly enough to startle the people walking behind, who had to avoid
walking into him.  "Things like this don't come all of a sudden, they
start developing a long time beforehand, there must have been warning
signs of it, why didn't you write to me?  You know I'd do anything for
you, to some extent I am still your guardian, and until today that's
something I was proud of.  I'll still help you, of course I will, only
now, now that the trial is already underway, it makes it very difficult.
But whatever; the best thing now is for you to take a short holiday
staying with us in the country.  You've lost weight, I can see that now.
The country life will give you strength, that will be good, there's
bound to be a lot of hard work ahead of you.  But besides that it'll be
a way of getting you away from the court, to some extent.  Here they've
got every means of showing the powers at their disposal and they're
automatically bound to use them against you; in the country they'll
either have to delegate authority to different bodies or just have to
try and bother you by letter, telegram or telephone.  And that's bound
to weaken the effect, it won't release you from them but it'll give you
room to breathe."  "You could forbid me to leave," said K., who had been
drawn slightly into his uncle's way of thinking by what he had been
saying.  "I didn't think you would do it," said his uncle thoughtfully,
"you won't suffer too much loss of power by moving away."  K. grasped
his uncle under the arm to prevent him stopping still and said, "I
thought you'd think all this is less important than I do, and now you're
taking it so hard."  "Josef," called his uncle trying to disentangle
himself from him so that he could stop walking, but K. did not let go,
"you've completely changed, you used to be so astute, are you losing it
now?  Do you want to lose the trial?  Do you realise what that would
mean?  That would mean you would be simply destroyed.  And that everyone
you know would be pulled down with you or at the very least humiliated,
disgraced right down to the ground.  Josef, pull yourself together.  The
way you're so indifferent about it, it's driving me mad.  Looking at you
I can almost believe that old saying: 'Having a trial like that means
losing a trial like that'."  "My dear Uncle," said K., "it won't do any
good to get excited, it's no good for you to do it and it'd be no good
for me to do it.  The case won't be won by getting excited, and please
admit that my practical experience counts for something, just as I have
always and still do respect your experience, even when it surprises me.
You say that the family will also be affected by this trial; I really
can't see how, but that's beside the point and I'm quite willing to
follow your instructions in all of this.  Only, I don't see any
advantage in staying in the country, not even for you, as that would
indicate flight and a sense of guilt.  And besides, although I am more
subject to persecution if I stay in the city I can also press the matter
forward better here."  "You're right," said his uncle in a tone that
seemed to indicate they were finally coming closer to each other, "I
just made the suggestion because, as I saw it, if you stay in the city
the case will be put in danger by your indifference to it, and I thought
it was better if I did the work for you.  But will you push things
forward yourself with all your strength, if so, that will naturally be
far better."  "We're agreed then," said K.  "And do you have any
suggestions for what I should do next?"  "Well, naturally I'll have to
think about it," said his uncle, "you must bear in mind that I've been
living in the country for twenty years now, almost without a break, you
lose your ability to deal with matters like this.  But I do have some
important connections with several people who, I expect, know their way
around these things better than I do, and to contact them is a matter of
course.  Out there in the country I've been getting out of condition,
I'm sure you're already aware of that.  It's only at times like this
that you notice it yourself.  And this affair of yours came largely
unexpected, although, oddly enough, I had expected something of the sort
after I'd read Erna's letter, and today when I saw your face I knew it
with almost total certainty.  But all that is by the by, the important
thing now is, we have no time to lose."  Even while he was still
speaking, K.'s uncle had stood on tiptoe to summon a taxi and now he
pulled K. into the car behind himself as he called out an address to the
driver.  "We're going now to see Dr. Huld, the lawyer," he said, "we
were at school together.  I'm sure you know the name, don't you?  No?
Well that is odd.  He's got a very good reputation as a defence
barrister and for working with the poor.  But I esteem him especially as
someone you can trust."  "It's alright with me, whatever you do," said
K., although he was made uneasy by the rushed and urgent way his uncle
was dealing with the matter.  It was not very encouraging, as the
accused, be to taken to a lawyer for poor people.  "I didn't know," he
said, "that you could take on a lawyer in matters like this."  "Well of
course you can," said his uncle, "that goes without saying.  Why
wouldn't you take on a lawyer?  And now, so that I'm properly instructed
in this matter, tell me what's been happening so far."  K. instantly
began telling his uncle about what had been happening, holding nothing
back - being completely open with him was the only way that K. could
protest at his uncle's belief that the trial was a great disgrace.  He
mentioned Miss BŸrstner's name just once and in passing, but that did
nothing to diminish his openness about the trial as Miss BŸrstner had no
connection with it.  As he spoke, he looked out the window and saw how,
just then, they were getting closer to the suburb where the court
offices were.  He drew this to his uncle's attention, but he did not
find the coincidence especially remarkable.  The taxi stopped in front
of a dark building.  K.'s uncle knocked at the very first door at ground
level; while they waited he smiled, showing his big teeth, and
whispered, "Eight o'clock; not the usual sort of time to be visiting a
lawyer, but Huld won't mind it from me."  Two large, black eyes appeared
in the spy-hatch in the door, they stared at the two visitors for a
while and then disappeared; the door, however, did not open.  K. and his
uncle confirmed to each other the fact that they had seen the two eyes.
"A new maid, afraid of strangers," said K.'s uncle, and knocked again.
The eyes appeared once more.  This time they seemed almost sad, but the
open gas flame that burned with a hiss close above their heads gave off
little light and that may have merely created an illusion.  "Open the
door," called K.'s uncle, raising his fist against it, "we are friends
of Dr. Huld, the lawyer!"  "Dr. Huld is ill," whispered someone behind
them.  In a doorway at the far end of a narrow passage stood a man in
his dressing gown, giving them this information in an extremely quiet
voice.  K.'s uncle, who had already been made very angry by the long
wait, turned abruptly round and retorted, "Ill?  You say he's ill?" and
strode towards the gentleman in a way that seemed almost threatening, as
if he were the illness himself.  "They've opened the door for you, now,"
said the gentleman, pointing at the door of the lawyer.  He pulled his
dressing gown together and disappeared.  The door had indeed been
opened, a young girl - K. recognised the dark, slightly bulging eyes -
stood in the hallway in a long white apron, holding a candle in her
hand.  "Next time, open up sooner!" said K.'s uncle instead of a
greeting, while the girl made a slight curtsey. "Come along, Josef," he
then said to K. who was slowly moving over towards the girl. "Dr. Huld
is unwell," said the girl as K.'s uncle, without stopping, rushed
towards one of the doors.  K. continued to look at the girl in amazement
as she turned round to block the way into the living room, she had a
round face like a puppy's, not only the pale cheeks and the chin were
round but the temples and the hairline were too.  "Josef!" called his
uncle once more, and he asked the girl, "It's trouble with his heart, is
it?"  "I think it is, sir," said the girl, who by now had found time to
go ahead with the candle and open the door into the room. In one corner
of the room, where the light of the candle did not reach, a face with a
long beard looked up from the bed.  "Leni, who's this coming in?" asked
the lawyer, unable to recognise his guests because he was dazzled by the
candle.  "It's your old friend, Albert," said K.'s uncle.  "Oh, Albert,"
said the lawyer, falling back onto his pillow as if this visit meant he
would not need to keep up appearances.  "Is it really as bad as that?"
asked K.'s uncle, sitting on the edge of the bed.  "I don't believe it
is.  It's a recurrence of your heart trouble and it'll pass over like
the other times."  "Maybe," said the lawyer quietly, "but it's just as
much trouble as it's ever been.  I can hardly breathe, I can't sleep at
all and I'm getting weaker by the day."  "I see," said K.'s uncle,
pressing his panama hat firmly against his knee with his big hand.
"That is bad news.  But are you getting the right sort of care?  And
it's so depressing in here, it's so dark.  It's a long time since I was
last here, but it seemed to me friendlier then.  Even your young lady
here doesn't seem to have much life in her, unless she's just
pretending."  The maid was still standing by the door with the candle;
as far as could be made out, she was watching K. more than she was
watching his uncle even while the latter was still speaking about her.
K. leant against a chair that he had pushed near to the girl.  "When
you're as ill as I am," said the lawyer, "you need to have peace.  I
don't find it depressing."  After a short pause he added, "and Leni
looks after me well, she's a good girl."  But that was not enough to
persuade K.'s uncle, he had visibly taken against his friend's carer
and, even though he did not contradict the invalid, he persecuted her
with his scowl as she went over to the bed, put the candle on the
bedside table and, leaning over the bed, made a fuss of him by tidying
the pillows.  K.'s uncle nearly forgot the need to show any
consideration for the man who lay ill in bed, he stood up, walked up and
down behind the carer, and K. would not have been surprised if he had
grabbed hold of her skirts behind her and dragged her away from the bed.
K. himself looked on calmly, he was not even disappointed at finding the
lawyer unwell, he had been able to do nothing to oppose the enthusiasm
his uncle had developed for the matter, he was glad that this enthusiasm
had now been distracted without his having to do anything about it.  His
uncle, probably simply wishing to be offensive to the lawyer's
attendant, then said, "Young lady, now please leave us alone for a
while, I have some personal matters to discuss with my friend."  Dr.
Huld's carer was still leant far over the invalid's bed and smoothing
out the cloth covering the wall next to it, she merely turned her head
and then, in striking contrast with the anger that first stopped K.'s
uncle from speaking and then let the words out in a gush, she said very
quietly, "You can see that Dr. Huld is so ill that he can't discuss any
matters at all."  It was probably just for the sake of convenience that
she had repeated the words spoken by K.'s uncle, but an onlooker might
even have perceived it as mocking him and he, of course, jumped up as if
he had just been stabbed.  "You damned ... ," in the first gurglings of
his excitement his words could hardly be understood, K. was startled
even though he had been expecting something of the sort and ran to his
uncle with the intention, no doubt, of closing his mouth with both his
hands.  Fortunately, though, behind the girl, the invalid raised himself
up, K.'s uncle made an ugly face as if swallowing something disgusting
and then, somewhat calmer, said, "We have naturally not lost our senses,
not yet; if what I am asking for were not possible I would not be asking
for it.  Now please, go!"  The carer stood up straight by the bed
directly facing K.'s uncle, K. thought he noticed that with one hand she
was stroking the lawyer's hand.  "You can say anything in front of
Leni," said the invalid, in a tone that was unmistakably imploring.
"It's not my business," said K.'s uncle, "and it's not my secrets."  And
he twisted himself round as if wanting to go into no more negotiations
but giving himself a little more time to think. "Whose business is it
then?" asked the lawyer in an exhausted voice as he leant back again.
"My nephew's," said K.'s uncle, "and I've brought him along with me."
And he introduced him, "Chief Clerk Josef K."  "Oh!" said the invalid,
now with much more life in him, and reached out his hand towards K.  "Do
forgive me, I didn't notice you there at all."  Then he then said to his
carer, "Leni, go," stretching his hand out to her as if this were a
farewell that would have to last for a long time.  This time the girl
offered no resistance.  "So you," he finally said to K.'s uncle, who had
also calmed down and stepped closer, "you haven't come to visit me
because I'm ill but you've come on business."  The lawyer now looked so
much stronger that it seemed the idea of being visited because he was
ill had somehow made him weak, he remained supporting himself of one
elbow, which must have been rather tiring, and continually pulled at a
lock of hair in the middle of his beard.  "You already look much
better," said K.'s uncle, "now that that witch has gone outside." He
interrupted himself, whispered, "I bet you she's listening!" and sprang
over to the door.  But behind the door there was no-one, K.'s uncle came
back not disappointed, as her not listening seemed to him worse than if
she had been, but probably somewhat embittered.  "You're mistaken about
her," said the lawyer, but did nothing more to defend her; perhaps that
was his way of indicating that she did not need defending.  But in a
tone that was much more committed he went on, "As far as your nephew's
affairs are concerned, this will be an extremely difficult undertaking
and I'd count myself lucky if my strength lasted out long enough for it;
I'm greatly afraid it won't do, but anyway I don't want to leave
anything untried; if I don't last out you can always get somebody else.
To be honest, this matters interests me too much, and I can't bring
myself to give up the chance of taking some part in it.  If my heart
does totally give out then at least it will have found a worthy affair
to fail in."  K. believed he understood not a word of this entire
speech, he looked at his uncle for an explanation but his uncle sat on
the bedside table with the candle in his hand, a medicine bottle had
rolled off the table onto the floor, he nodded to everything the lawyer
said, agreed to everything, and now and then looked at K. urging him to
show the same compliance.  Maybe K.'s uncle had already told the lawyer
about the trial.  But that was impossible, everything that had happened
so far spoke against it.  So he said,
IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Administrator
Capo di tutti capi


Underpromise; overdeliver.

Zodijak Gemini
Pol Muškarac
Poruke Odustao od brojanja
Zastava 44°49′N - 20°29′E
mob
Apple iPhone 6s
"I don't understand ... "  "Well, maybe I've misunderstood what you've
been saying," said the lawyer, just as astonished and embarrassed as K.
"Perhaps I've been going too fast.  What was it you wanted to speak to
me about?  I thought it was to do with your trial."  "Of course it is,"
said K.'s uncle, who then asked K., "So what is it you want?"  "Yes, but
how is it that you know anything about me and my case?" asked K.  "Oh, I
see," said the lawyer with a smile.  "I am a lawyer, I move in court
circles, people talk about various different cases and the more
interesting ones stay in your mind, especially when they concern the
nephew of a friend.  There's nothing very remarkable about that."  "What
is it you want, then?" asked K.'s uncle once more, "You seem so uneasy
about it"  "You move in this court's circles?" asked K.  "Yes," said the
lawyer.  "You're asking questions like a child," said K.'s uncle.  "What
circles should I move in, then, if not with members of my own
discipline?" the lawyer added.  It sounded so indisputable that K. gave
no answer at all.  "But you work in the High Court, not that court in
the attic," he had wanted to say but could not bring himself to actually
utter it.  "You have to realise," the lawyer continued, in a tone as if
he were explaining something obvious, unnecessary and incidental,  "you
have to realise that I also derive great advantage for my clients from
mixing with those people, and do so in many different ways, it's not
something you can keep talking about all the time.  I'm at a bit of a
disadvantage now, of course, because of my illness, but I still get
visits from some good friends of mine at the court and I learn one or
two things.  It might even be that I learn more than many of those who
are in the best of health and spend all day in court.  And I'm receiving
a very welcome visit right now, for instance."  And he pointed into a
dark corner of the room.  "Where?" asked K., almost uncouth in his
surprise.  He looked round uneasily; the little candle gave off far too
little light to reach as far as the wall opposite.  And then, something
did indeed begin to move there in the corner.  In the light of the
candle held up by K.'s uncle an elderly gentleman could be seen sitting
beside a small table.  He had been sitting there for so long without
being noticed that he could hardly have been breathing.  Now he stood up
with a great deal of fuss, clearly unhappy that attention had been drawn
to him.  It was as if, by flapping his hands about like short wings, he
hoped to deflect any introductions and greetings, as if he wanted on no
account to disturb the others by his presence and seemed to be exhorting
them to leave him back in the dark and forget about his being there.
That, however, was something that could no longer be granted him.  "You
took us by surprise, you see," said the lawyer in explanation,
cheerfully indicating to the gentleman that he should come closer,
which, slowly, hesitatingly, looking all around him, but with a certain
dignity, he did.  "The office director - oh, yes, forgive me, I haven't
introduced you - this is my friend Albert K., this is his nephew, the
chief clerk Josef K., and this is the office director - so, the office
director was kind enough to pay me a visit.  It's only possible to
appreciate just how valuable a visit like this is if you've been let
into the secret of what a pile of work the office director has heaped
over him.  Well, he came anyway, we were having a peaceful chat, as far
as I was able when I'm so weak, and although we hadn't told Leni she
mustn't let anyone in as we weren't expecting anyone, we still would
rather have remained alone, but then along came you, Albert, thumping
your fists on the door, the office director moved over into the corner
pulling his table and chair with him, but now it turns out we might
have, that is, if that's what you wish, we might have something to
discuss with each other and it would be good if we can all come back
together again.  - Office director  ... , " he said with his head on one
side, pointing with a humble smile to an armchair near the bed.  "I'm
afraid I'll only be able to stay a few minutes more," smiled the office
director as he spread himself out in the armchair and looked at the
clock.  "Business calls.  But I wouldn't want to miss the chance of
meeting a friend of my friend."  He inclined his head slightly toward
K.'s uncle, who seemed very happy with his new acquaintance, but he was
not the sort of person to express his feelings of deference and
responded to the office director's words with embarrassed, but loud,
laughter.  A horrible sight!  K. was able to quietly watch everything as
nobody paid any attention to him, the office director took over as
leader of the conversation as seemed to be his habit once he had been
called forward, the lawyer listened attentively with his hand to his
ear, his initial weakness having perhaps only had the function of
driving away his new visitors, K.'s uncle served as candle-bearer -
balancing the candle on his thigh while the office director frequently
glanced nervously at it - and was soon free of his embarrassment and was
quickly enchanted not only by the office director's speaking manner but
also by the gentle, waving hand-movements with which he accompanied it.
K., leaning against the bedpost, was totally ignored by the office
director, perhaps deliberately, and served the old man only as audience.
And besides, he had hardly any idea what the conversation was about and
his thoughts soon turned to the care assistant and the ill treatment she
had suffered from his uncle.  Soon after, he began to wonder whether he
had not seen the office director somewhere before, perhaps among the
people who were at his first hearing.  He may have been mistaken, but
thought the office director might well have been among the old gentlemen
with the thin beards in the first row.

IP sačuvana
social share
Pobednik, pre svega.

Napomena: Moje privatne poruke, icq, msn, yim, google talk i mail ne sluze za pruzanje tehnicke podrske ili odgovaranje na pitanja korisnika. Za sva pitanja postoji adekvatan deo foruma. Pronadjite ga! Takve privatne poruke cu jednostavno ignorisati!
Preporuke za clanove: Procitajte najcesce postavljana pitanja!
Pogledaj profil WWW GTalk Twitter Facebook
 
Prijava na forum:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Zelim biti prijavljen:
Trajanje:
Registruj nalog:
Ime:
Lozinka:
Ponovi Lozinku:
E-mail:
Idi gore
Stranice:
1 2 4 5
Počni novu temu Nova anketa Odgovor Štampaj Dodaj temu u favorite Pogledajte svoje poruke u temi
Trenutno vreme je: 28. Mar 2024, 13:29:10
nazadnapred
Prebaci se na:  

Poslednji odgovor u temi napisan je pre više od 6 meseci.  

Temu ne bi trebalo "iskopavati" osim u slučaju da imate nešto važno da dodate. Ako ipak želite napisati komentar, kliknite na dugme "Odgovori" u meniju iznad ove poruke. Postoje teme kod kojih su odgovori dobrodošli bez obzira na to koliko je vremena od prošlog prošlo. Npr. teme o određenom piscu, knjizi, muzičaru, glumcu i sl. Nemojte da vas ovaj spisak ograničava, ali nemojte ni pisati na teme koje su završena priča.

web design

Forum Info: Banneri Foruma :: Burek Toolbar :: Burek Prodavnica :: Burek Quiz :: Najcesca pitanja :: Tim Foruma :: Prijava zloupotrebe

Izvori vesti: Blic :: Wikipedia :: Mondo :: Press :: Naša mreža :: Sportska Centrala :: Glas Javnosti :: Kurir :: Mikro :: B92 Sport :: RTS :: Danas

Prijatelji foruma: Triviador :: Domaci :: Morazzia :: TotalCar :: FTW.rs :: MojaPijaca :: Pojacalo :: 011info :: Burgos :: Alfaprevod

Pravne Informacije: Pravilnik Foruma :: Politika privatnosti :: Uslovi koriscenja :: O nama :: Marketing :: Kontakt :: Sitemap

All content on this website is property of "Burek.com" and, as such, they may not be used on other websites without written permission.

Copyright © 2002- "Burek.com", all rights reserved. Performance: 0.096 sec za 17 q. Powered by: SMF. © 2005, Simple Machines LLC.