Poseidon und andere kurze Prosa.

by Franz Kafka

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""Poseidon" (German: "Poseidon") is a fragment of a story by Franz Kafka, published in the German collection, Beschreibung eines Kampfes, by Max Brod, in 1936. The story was included in the collection translated into English in 1958 by Tania and James Stern. Poseidon is sitting at the desk and makes calculations on the waters he has to manage. For his work, he could rely on staff, but rather prefers to work on his own. He does not like his work but sees no alternative. Poseidon laments that show more people imagine him constantly chauffeuring the waters with his trident. Instead, he sits in the depths of the oceans, doing continuous calculations and hardly ever seeing the sea. Only on his occasional trips to Jupiter, from which he often returns angrily, saying "I am Poseidon, the sea god, but the people around me demand that I conform to their earthly needs," he sees the sea during a hasty ascent to the Olympus. He is afraid that he will have to wait until the end of the world for a quiet moment and a tour of the sea." -- «Wenn man doch ein Indianer wäre, gleich bereit, und auf dem rennenden Pferde, schief in der Luft, immer wieder kurz erzitterte über dem zitternden Boden, bis man die Sporen ließt, denn es gab keine Sporen, bis man die Zügel wegwarf, denn es gab keine Zügel, und kaum das Land vor sich als glatt gemähte Heide sah, schon ohne Pferdehals und Pferdekopf.» -- show less

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Franz Kafka

1,502+ Works 103,672 Members

Franz Kafka -- July 3, 1883 - June 3, 1924 Franz Kafka was born to middle-class Jewish parents in Prague, Czechoslovakia on July 3, 1883. He received a law degree at the University of Prague. After performing an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts, he obtained a position in the workman's compensation show more division of the Austrian government. Always neurotic, insecure, and filled with a sense of inadequacy, his writing is a search for personal fulfillment and understanding. He wrote very slowly and deliberately, publishing very little in his lifetime. At his death he asked a close friend to burn his remaining manuscripts, but the friend refused the request. Instead the friend arranged for publication Kafka's longer stories, which have since brought him worldwide fame and have influenced many contemporary writers. His works include The Metamorphosis, The Castle, The Trial, and Amerika. Kafka was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) in August 1917. As his disease progressed, his throat became affected by the TB and he could not eat regularly because it was painful. He died from starvation in a sanatorium in Kierling, near Vienna, after admitting himself for treatment there on April 10, 1924. He died on June 3 at the age of 40. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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