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1 " Guilt is never to be doubted. "
― Franz Kafka , In the Penal Colony
2 " You've seen yourself how difficult the writing is to decipher with your eyes, but our man deciphers it with his wounds. "
3 " 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. "
4 " 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. "
5 " It's always questionable to intervene decisively in strange circumstances. "
6 " 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. "
7 " 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! "
8 " - كيف تتحمل الحياة في مثل هذا العالم، أنت يا صاحب القلب النبيل والنفس المرهفة، "
9 " 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. "
10 " 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? "
11 " Enlightenment comes to the most dull-witted. It begins around the eyes. From there it radiates. "
12 " أدرك بعد فوات الأوان أنه قذر على نحو مقزز، "
13 " 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، "
14 " 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. "