On 03/31/2017 06:36 PM, juan wrote: > On Fri, 31 Mar 2017 00:24:50 -0400 > grarpamp <grarp...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Before the law sits a gatekeeper. > > I wonder what he meant by "law" - actually what's the original > word in german? > > >
Google translate shows multiple definitions all having legal implications: law Recht, Gesetz, Jura, Rechtsordnung, Rechtswissenschaft, Regel act Akt, Gesetz, Handlung, Tat, Urkunde, Aufzug bill Rechnung, Gesetz, Gesetzentwurf, Schein, Entwurf statute Satzung, Statut, Gesetz >> To this gatekeeper comes a man from >> the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper >> says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks >> about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in sometime later >> on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” The gate to >> the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, >> so the man bends over in order to see through the gate into the >> inside. When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it >> tempts you so much, try going inside in spite of my prohibition. But >> take note. I am powerful. And I am only the lowliest gatekeeper. But >> from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the last. >> I cannot endure even one glimpse of the third.” The man from the >> country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be >> accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely >> at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his >> long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better >> to wait until he gets permission to go inside. The gatekeeper gives >> him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the >> gate. There he sits for days and years. He makes many attempts to be >> let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The >> gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his >> homeland and many other things, but they are indifferent questions, >> the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells him once more >> that he cannot let him inside yet. The man, who has equipped himself >> with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how >> valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it all but, as >> he does so, says, “I am taking this only so that you do not think you >> have failed to do anything.” >> During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost >> continuously. He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this first one >> seems to him the only obstacle for entry into the law. He curses the >> unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud; >> later, as he grows old, he only mumbles to himself. He becomes >> childish and, since in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has >> also come to know the fleas in his fur collar, he even asks the fleas >> to help him persuade the gatekeeper. Finally his eyesight grows weak, >> and he does not know whether things are really darker around him or >> whether his eyes are merely deceiving him. But he recognizes now in >> the darkness an illumination which breaks inextinguishably out of the >> gateway to the law. Now he no longer has much time to live. Before his >> death he gathers up in his head all his experiences of the entire time >> into one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper. He waves >> to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body. The >> gatekeeper has to bend way down to him, for the difference between >> them has changed considerably to the disadvantage of the man. “What do >> you want to know now?” asks the gatekeeper. “You are insatiable.” >> “Everyone strives after the law,” says the man, “so how is it that in >> these many years no one except me has requested entry?” The gatekeeper >> sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his >> diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one else can >> gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you. I’m going >> now to close it.” >> -- Kafka