Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka

Author:Franz Kafka [Kafka, Franz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101578797
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2008-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

In the Penal Colony

‘It is a strange piece of equipment,’ said the officer to the travelling researcher, and with a certain air of admiration he surveyed the equipment with which he must certainly be familiar. The traveller seemed to have taken up the commandant’s invitation merely out of politeness, when he asked him if he would like to be present at the execution of a soldier, who had been condemned for insubordination and insulting an officer. Interest in the execution seemed not to be that great in the penal colony either. The only other persons present in the deep, sandy little valley, ringed by bare slopes, apart from the officer and the traveller, were the condemned man himself, a stupid-looking, dishevelled, slack-mouthed fellow, and a soldier who was holding the heavy chain to which smaller chains had been made fast that secured the condemned man by the wrists and ankles and neck, and that were connected one to another by further chains. The condemned man looked so doggishly submissive, it really seemed as if one might allow him to roam the slopes freely, and only needed to whistle when it was time for the execution, and he would come.

The traveller had little use for the machine, and with an almost ostentatious indifference paraded back and forth behind the condemned man, while the officer saw to the last preparations, now crawling underneath the machine (whose foundations were sunk deep in the ground), now climbing a ladder to inspect some of its upper parts. These jobs seemed as though they might have been left to a mechanic, but the officer performed them with great enthusiasm, whether he was a particular devotee of the machine, or whether for some other reasons, these tasks couldn’t be entrusted to any other person. ‘Everything’s ready now!’ he finally called, and climbed down from the ladder. He was quite shattered, was breathing hard through his open mouth, and had stuffed a couple of ladies’ cambric handkerchiefs down the collar of his uniform. ‘Those uniforms are much too heavy for the tropics,’ said the traveller, instead of asking, as the officer might have expected, about the machine. ‘True,’ said the officer, and washed his greasy, oily hands in a bucket of water standing by for the purpose, ‘but to us they signify home, and we don’t want to lose touch with home. – As for the machine,’ he went on to add, drying his hands on a rag, and simultaneously pointing to the machine, ‘up to this point, I’ve had to take a hand myself, but from here on in the machine works automatically.’ The traveller nodded and followed the officer, who, to insure himself against any possible eventualities, then conceded: ‘Of course, there are occasional malfunctions; I hope we shan’t experience any today, but we have to allow for the possibility. After all, the machine has to operate for twelve hours non-stop. At least, if there are any malfunctions, they are usually very minor, and can be taken care of immediately.

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