Letters to Milena

by Franz Kafka

must have brought wrack and ruin to the souls of the world.

Writing letters is actually an intercourse with ghosts

Why don’t you leave Vienna for a little while? After all, you aren’t homeless like other people. Wouldn’t some time in Bohemia give you new strength?

It occurs to me that I really can’t remember your face in any precise detail. Only the way you walked away through the tables in the café, your figure, your dress, that I still see.

I understand, but after all there are beautiful places close to Vienna as well, which offer many different cures and possibilities of care.

When I pulled your translation out of the large envelope, I was almost disappointed. I wanted to hear from you and not the voice from the old grave,

why you never write in Czech. Not to imply that your command of German leaves anything to be desired.

sleep is the most innocent creature there is and a sleepless man the most guilty.

Why and since when do you have no money? Are you in touch with your relatives? (I think you must be, because you once gave me an address from which you regularly received packages, has that stopped?)

you obviously don’t trust me to place them properly in the picture I am forming of you.

clairvoyant intelligence.