C
Codreanu
Guest
On the Bachelor.
> No "dear", I am what was once whimsically referred to as a
> "confirmed bachelor"....
It seems so dreadful to remain a bachelor, to become an old man who must
beg for hospitality with such dignity as he can muster each time he wants
to spend an evening in human company, to be ill and stare for weeks on end
at an empty room from your bed in the corner, always to have to say your
goodbyes outside the front door, never to scurry upstairs with your wife at
your side, to have in your room only side-doors that lead into other
people's flats, to carry home your supper in your hand, to have to gaze in
wonder at strange children and not be allowed constantly to repeat 'I do
not have any', to model yourself in appearance and behaviour on one or two
bachelors remembered from your youth.
That's how it will be, except that there you will stand in stark reality,
each very day and from that day forward, with a body and a real head,
that's to say a forehead too, for you to beat upon with your hand.
--Franz Kafka
> No "dear", I am what was once whimsically referred to as a
> "confirmed bachelor"....
It seems so dreadful to remain a bachelor, to become an old man who must
beg for hospitality with such dignity as he can muster each time he wants
to spend an evening in human company, to be ill and stare for weeks on end
at an empty room from your bed in the corner, always to have to say your
goodbyes outside the front door, never to scurry upstairs with your wife at
your side, to have in your room only side-doors that lead into other
people's flats, to carry home your supper in your hand, to have to gaze in
wonder at strange children and not be allowed constantly to repeat 'I do
not have any', to model yourself in appearance and behaviour on one or two
bachelors remembered from your youth.
That's how it will be, except that there you will stand in stark reality,
each very day and from that day forward, with a body and a real head,
that's to say a forehead too, for you to beat upon with your hand.
--Franz Kafka