In the Penal Colony Quotes

“You've seen yourself how difficult the writing is to decipher with your eyes, but our man deciphers it with his wounds.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“Many questions were troubling the explorer, but at the sight of the prisoner he asked only: "Does he know his sentence?" "No," said the officer, eager to go on with his exposition, but the explorer interrupted him: "He doesn't know the sentence that has been passed on him?" "No," said the officer again, pausing a moment as if to let the explorer elaborate his question, and then said: "There would be no point in telling him. He'll learn it on his body.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“Guilt is never to be doubted.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“Enlightenment comes to even the dimmest. It begins around the eyes, and it spreads outward from there- a sight that might tempt one to lie down under the harrow oneself.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“It's always questionable to intervene decisively in strange circumstances.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“Cascar una nuez no es realmente un arte, y en consecuencia nadie se atrevería a congregar un auditorio para entretenerle cascando nueces. Pero si lo hace y logra su propósito, entonces ya no se trata meramente de cascar nueces. O tal vez se trate meramente de cascar nueces, pero entonces descubrimos que nos hemos despreocupado totalmente de dicho arte porque lo dominábamos demasiado, y este nuevo cascador de nueces nos muestra por primera vez la esencia real del arte, al punto de que podría convenirle, para un mayor efecto, ser un poco menos hábil en cascar nueces que la mayoría de nosotros.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“Enlightenment comes to the most dull-witted. It begins around the eyes. From there it radiates.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“Well, anyway- then came the sixth hour! It was not possible to grant every request to watch from close-up. In his wisdom, the commandant decreed that children should be given first priority. By virtue of my office, of courser, I was always nearby; often I was squatting there with a small child in either arm. How we drank in the transfigured look on the sufferer's face, how we bathed our cheeks in the warmth of that justice- achieved at long last and fading quickly. What times those were, my comrade!”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“At this point, almost against his will, he looked at the face of the corpse. It was as it had been in his life. He could discover no sign of the promised transfiguration. What all the others had found in the machine, the Officer had not. His lips were pressed firmly together, his eyes were open and looked as they had when he was alive, his gaze was calm and convinced. The tip of a large iron needle had gone through his forehead.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“أدرك بعد فوات الأوان أنه قذر على نحو مقزز،”
― Franz Kafka, ‫في مستوطنة العقاب‬

“- كيف تتحمل الحياة في مثل هذا العالم، أنت يا صاحب القلب النبيل والنفس المرهفة،”
― Franz Kafka, ‫في مستوطنة العقاب‬

“How could a man not be sickened when the felt in his mouth had been gnawed and drooled on by more than a hundred men as they lay dying?”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“But the condemned man looked so submissively doglike that it seemed as if he might have been allowed to run free on the slopes and would only need to be whistled for when the execution was due to begin.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“فإن من واجبه أن ينهض مع دقات كل ساعة، ويؤدي التحية أمام النقيب، ليس ذلك بالواجب الثقيل، وهو ضروري للغاية كذلك، حيث إن على الجندي أن يكون حارساً كذلك، إلى جانب كونه خادماً، ويتعين أن يكون يقظاً في أدائه لواجباته. في الليلة الماضية أراد النقيب أن يرى ما إذا كان يؤدي واجبه، فتح الباب، فيما كانت الساعة ترسل دقتها الثانية، فألفى هذا الرجل متكوماً يغط في النوم، أمسك بسوط للركوب، لطمه على وجهه، وبدلاً من أن يهب واقفاً معتذراً أمسك الرجل بقدمي سيده، هزه، وصاح: «ألق بهذا السوط ولا أكلتك حيا!»، ذلك هو دليل الإدانة،”
― Franz Kafka, ‫في مستوطنة العقاب‬

“Der Grundsatz, nach dem ich entscheide, ist: Die Schuld ist immer zweifellos.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“He wanted to push against the feet while the other two men grabbed the head at the opposite end so that the officer could be eased off the needles. But the two men could not make up their minds to come over; the prisoner even turned away. The traveler had to go over and violently shove them toward the officer’s head. In so doing, he reluctantly saw the face of the corpse. It was as it had been in life; no sign of the promised redemption was perceptible; the officer has not found what all the others had found in the machine. His lips were squeezed tight, his eyes were open, with the same expression as in life, his gaze was calm and convinced, the point of the large iron spike had passed through his forehead.”
― Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

“Der Reisende hatte verschiedenes fragen wollen, fragte aber im Anblick des Mannes nur: "Kennt er sein Urteil?" "Nein", sagte der Offizier und wollte gleich in seinen Erklärungen fortfahren, aber der Reisende unterbrach ihn: "Er kennt sein eigenes Urteil nicht?" "Nein," sagte der Offizier wieder, stockte dann einen Augenblick, als verlange er vom Reisenden eine nähere Begründung seiner Frage, und sagte dann: "Es wäre nutzlos, es ihm zu verkünden. Er erfährt es ja auf seinem Leib.”
― Franz Kafka, In der Strafkolonie: Erzählung (1919) (Juristische Zeitgeschichte / Abteilung 6, 44)

“And thus it happens that the reader, the closer he comes to the novel's end, the more he wishes he were back in the summer with which it begins, and finally, instead of following the hero onto the cliffs of suicide, joyfully turns back to that summer, content to stay there forever.”
― Franz Kafka, The Penal Colony

“There has never been a time in which I have been convinced from within myself that I am alive. You see, I have only such a fugitive awareness of things around me that I always feel they were once real and are now fleeting away. I have a constant longing, my dear sir, to catch a glimpse of things as they may have been before they show themselves to me. I feel that then they were calm and beautiful. It must be so, for I often hear people talking about them as though they were.”
― Franz Kafka, The Penal Colony