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Before the Law

Parable

     Before the law sits a gatekeeper.

     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.”

Origin

     Before the Law (Vor dem Gesetz), by Franz Kafka, was first published in 1915. It appeared in a collection, A Country Doctor (Ein Landarzt), in 1919, and was later incorporated into his book, The Trial (Der Prozess), published posthumously in 1925.

     This translation is by Ian Johnston of Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC. It was retrieved from Kafka, Before the Law on Friday 2017.05.26, and is subject to the following copyright:

     “All general readers, teachers, students, and performing artists may download any material on johnstonia web pages without permission and without charge, provided they do not use the material in a commercial publication. They may edit the material to suit their purposes and distribute the texts in printed or electronic form to their friends and students.

     “Performing artists may use the material for commercial projects (e.g., drama productions, films, and so on) free of charge, provided they inform Ian Johnston of the details of the project.

     “No commercial publishing of these materials is permitted, without the written permission of Ian Johnston.

     “For further information, please contact Ian Johnston <ian.johnston@viu.ca>.”

     Ian Johnston has additional Kafka translations at Kafka Stories: Table of Contents.

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