The Zürau Aphorisms
Die Zürauer Aphorismen
A hundred-odd short sentences written in Zürau during his illness, each on a separate slip of paper — Kafka's most compressed and philosophical writing on guilt, hope and the way.
- Published
- 1931
- Written
- 1917
- pages
- 128
- Persian translator
- —
In 1917, after being diagnosed with tuberculosis, Kafka went to his sister Ottla's farm in Zürau. In that period of silence and illness he wrote short sentences on small slips of paper — later known as “The Zürau Aphorisms” or “Reflections on Sin, Hope, Suffering and the True Way.” They are neither stories nor essays; they are more like stones someone carries in a pocket so as not to forget their weight.
Max Brod and Hans Joachim Schoeps first published them in 1931 in the collection “The Great Wall of China.” The modern numbering comes from that edition. Some sentences begin with a simple image and end in a moral verdict; others are so compressed that each reading produces a new meaning.
This is not a book to read in one sitting. One sentence a day is enough. Kafka is not a philosopher here; he is someone wrestling with language as precisely as he wrestled with bureaucracy.
Kafka wrote these sentences in 1917–18 during his stay in Zürau, each on a separate slip of paper. Max Brod and Hans Joachim Schoeps first published them in 1931 in “The Great Wall of China.”
Themes
From the text
“The true way is along a rope that is not spanned high in the air, but only just above the ground. It seems intended more to cause stumbling than to be walked upon.”
“Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.”
“A cage went in search of a bird.”
“Man cannot live without a permanent trust in something indestructible in himself, though both the indestructible element and the trust in it may remain permanently hidden from him.”
“If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.”
“To believe in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. That would not be faith.”
“In the struggle between yourself and the world, second the world.”
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Reader quotations
Add a quotationMan cannot live without a permanent trust in something indestructible in himself.
The Zürau Aphorisms
No. 50
The true way is along a rope that is not stretched high in the air, but just above the ground. It seems designed more to make one stumble than to be walked.
The Zürau Aphorisms
No. 1
There are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring: impatience and laziness.
The Zürau Aphorisms
No. 3