Poetry
from “All this is a continuation of the lie, but . . . if I remain consistent, it comes close to the truth”
a poem found in kafka's notebooks, for title Ibid, 416.
i "I'm supposed to serve as a nude model for a Saint Sebastian": Ibid., 186.
i "emotionally impossible, for how could one even": Ibid., 317.
i "have a little toy hammer in place of a heart": Ibid., 323.
ii "look at the floor": Ibid., 334.
ii "its neckline is filled with tulle": Ibid., 370.
iii "am sad that a shirt is pinching my neck, am damned": Ibid., 335.
iii "decaying and falling over": Ibid., 319.
iii "The Virgins etc.": Ibid., 132
iii "bound to a tree until they turn blue": Ibid., 367.
iii "everything can be risked": Ibid., 240.
iii "on a beautiful horse": Ibid., 262.
iii "this is": Ibid., 256.
iii "not nearly so great as the lament led one to believe": Ibid., 373.
iv "The torment": Ibid., 169
iv "covered with filth and slime": Ibid., 257.
iv "prolonged, inexorable dissatisfaction": Ibid., 223
iv "Long torment." Ibid., 224.
iv "all the torment": Ibid., 233.
iv "because she lifted her skirts like this and like this and like this": Ibid., 239.
v "This is how it is in all bedrooms." Ibid., 389.
v "her hands through her hair": Ibid., 346.
v "illuminated by the gaslight": Ibid., 120.
v "this filth": Ibid., 382.
v "dripping with": Ibid., 382.
v "this wretched little happiness": Ibid., 389.
v "this burden": Ibid., 382.
v "this clenching:" Ibid., 256.
v "this contempt": Ibid., 385.
vi "Each has only the experience that his affliction grants": Ibid., 281.
vi "but I'm afraid to write about it": Ibid., 217.
vii "the ruin": Ibid., 371.
vii "pacing in a ravine": Ibid., 403
vii "the back of a chair in terror": Ibid., 122.
vii "her skirt with my little finger": Ibid., 121.
vii "vague surge": Ibid., 298.
vii "red sofa": Ibid., 376.
vii "heart palpitation": Ibid., 473
vii "Playing with the thoughts of F": Ibid., 359
vii "wind blows through": Ibid., 417.
vii "noise in the next room": Ibid., 208.
vii "we remain upright, because it relieves us": Ibid., 11.
vii "the same spot on the floor": Ibid., 343.
vii "the door": Ibid., 344.
vii "the accusation": Ibid., 456.
vii "Salvation or exacerbation": Ibid., 468.
viii "I in my craving": Ibid., 391
viii "to arouse historical interest": Ibid., 161.
viii "patent leather boots": Ibid., 213.
viii "the girl's voice in the choir": Ibid., 376.
viii "a little ball": Ibid., 217
viii "blown up": Ibid., 399.
viii "like little fires": Ibid., 195.
viii "doing needlework": Ibid., 420.
ix "Strauss’ ‘Fruhlingsstimmen’”: Ibid., 596.
ix "Short fainting spell": Ibid., 194.
ix "a paw close to my face": Ibid., 149.
ix "silhouette of": Ibid. 324.
ix "an unshakeable judgment": Ibid., 226.
ix "seen with small binoculars": Ibid., 568.
ix "rainless and still": Ibid., 421.
x "I have lost myself to F.": Ibid., 263.
x "The window was open": Ibid., 282.
x "the moonlight fell through": Ibid., 343.
x "the skylight": Ibid., 343.
x "almost": Ibid., 343.
x "Herder’s wife": Ibid., 210.
xi "a baby is crying": Ibid., 355.
xi "I stand there with my evil eye": Ibid., 286.
xi "like a bagpipe": Ibid., 408.
xi "growing muddled": Ibid., 313.
xi "I": Ibid., 482.
xi "ruin": Ibid., 371.
xi "everything that doesn't relate to literature": Ibid., 298.
xii "Nothing else can ever satisfy me." Ibid., 286.
xii "but the onslaught": Ibid., 298.
xii "the all-too-great": Ibid., 129.
xii "inner need for it": Ibid., 291.
xii "two as I am:" Ibid., 134.
xii "Today I got Kierkegaard": Ibid., 303.
xiii "I mounted my horse and sat down firmly in the saddle." Ibid., 353.
xiii "all the signs of dilettantism": Ibid., 444.
xiii "aberrations with girls despite all headaches": Ibid., 416.
xiii "always the same": Ibid., 440.
xiii "rat hole of wretched ulterior": Ibid., 382.
xiii "marriage or Berlin": Ibid., 263.
xiii "This feeling of falseness I have when writing": Ibid., 168.
xiii "burned by it": Ibid., 194.
xiv "L. confessed his gonorrhea to me": Ibid., 47.
xiv "maliciously": Ibid., 323.
xiv "trembling like a sick animal": Ibid., 275.
xiv "in light of:" Ibid, 326.
xiv "ulterior motives": Ibid., 382.
xiv "a band of little golden beads around a tanned neck": Ibid., 296.
xiv "The other view: saved for later": Ibid., 473.
xiv “dirty, oldish, complete stranger with wrinkled thighs": Ibid., 489.
xiv "irretrievably abandoned": Ibid. 326.
xiv "The third view: already forgotten.": Ibid., 473.
xv "hovering somewhere in emptiness": Ibid., 313.
xv "the inkwell": Ibid., 313.
xvi "hold on to the toes of the corpse and at the same time ask forgiveness": Ibid., 165.
xvi "in lust and defiance": Ibid., 143.
xvi "only what happens is possible": Ibid., 326.
xvi "everything that is possible": Ibid., 326.
xvi "our snake tolerates": Ibid., 437.
xvi "like a sheep that is running after this sheep": Ibid., 312.
xvii "the story of the kiss": Ibid., 330.
xvii "the sixth strophe of which": Ibid., 593.
xvii "extracts his semen": Ibid., 489.
xvii "the original sin": Ibid., 456.
xvii "that the original sin was committed against": Ibid., 456.
xvii "his own forehead bone": Ibid., 453.
xviii "table music:" Ibid., 348.
xviii "she is again the center of it all": Ibid., 358.
xviii "torn pants": Ibid., 349.
xviii "tribunal in the hotel:" Ibid., 347.
xviii "asphalt like the apparatus": Ibid., 504.
xviii "three times ": Ibid., 234.
xviii “lamps in the asphalt as in a river": Ibid., 504.
xix "exciting statues of saints on the Karlsbruecke": Ibid., 417.
xix "The invention of the devil." Ibid., 223.
xix "in a corner": Ibid., 313.
xix "to run one little finger over one’s eyebrows": Ibid., 194.
xix "as with a furiously torn-open tin can." Ibid., 307
xix "striving": Ibid., p. 159.
xx "I am lost": Ibid., 348.
xx "I can no longer go on writing.": Ibid., 370.
xx "I am turning into stone": Ibid., 348.
xx "I make ghosts for myself": Ibid., 208.
xx "I have finally made F. unhappy": Ibid., 371.
xx "I am completely alone": Ibid., 355.
xx "a moment I thought": Ibid., 208.
xx "when I woke up": Ibid., 343.
xx "I saw something real in the description of the landscape": Ibid., 208.