The Jewish Son by Daniel Guebel

Author:Daniel Guebel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: literary fiction;fiction;novels;religious books;jewish;fiction books;religion;literature;realistic fiction books;books fiction;jewish books;jewish fiction;jewish novels;jewish fiction novels;philosophy;20th century;classic;german;roman;short stories;dutch;psychology;music;cheating;translation;book club books;eastern europe;drama;writing;coming of age;love;art;american literature;family;essays;historical;21st century;wwii;war;families;modern;death;ww2;collection;realistic fiction;school;feminism
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2023-03-14T18:58:07+00:00

BEYOND THE LAW

Translator’s Note

Daniel Guebel begins The Jewish Son by writing: “An anecdote can explain everything, if you don’t forget what escapes it.” Further on, he says: “An anecdote can explain everything, if you add back what escapes it.” The transition from “don’t forget” to “add back,” from the passive to the active voice, suggests (even if it does not encapsulate) the journey to becoming a writer.

FIRST PETITIONER

You, who come from honey and sand, from patios and carob trees, from fields and open skies, still believe in the Law. You ask to pass through the door. The guardian says: “Later.” If you were to come in, says the guardian, you would find only another guardian, then another, more powerful. And thus to infinity. So you do not enter. You stay at the door, patient, without crossing the threshold. Time passes. You look at the guardian with his fur coat, big nose, and black beard, and wait for permission. You stay seated for many years, and answer his questions, despite the obvious indifference. Not yet, not yet, not yet. You pass him some bills he accepts only to please you, also evident. You become obsessed with this guardian, start to think he is all that matters. Your vision blurs and narrows to a tunnel. You find yourself speaking to the flea on his coat. Is the darkness outside or in your mind? Yet there is a glow behind the door, a promise. An initial radiance. Your experiences condense into a hard kernel; everything becomes the guardian standing before this radiance. He is your father, your son, your daughter, your mother. You curl into a ball, smaller each day, and the guard shouts, and you do not understand, and he shouts louder. No one else had permission, only you could have entered. But you did not go at the right time. And now the door is closed forever.

(In this philosophical tradition, if you come to a definite conclusion, you have made a mistake. Another reading is always possible. Don’t forget you are present for somebody else, the one behind the threshold, who does not enter. And the radiance of your shining body seeps under the door, and the other, curled into a ball, falls in love with your dying light.)

SECOND PETITIONER

You see light on the other side of the door, and want to reach it, become that freedom. Maybe there was a time when you yourself were light, but now you are a longing shard. Waiting for light, filling out paperwork to reach it or become it, in rejection of absence. Transparent, ethereal, a passage between worlds. Music, or clear rules. You seek to become the Law, even as the Law diverts your path and determines the process of your search. Even so, you know the way beyond the law must start from inside it.

Hannah and Richard Stokes’s translation of Kafka’s letter to his father is titled Dearest Father. In their introduction, they quote what Kafka said to his love, Milena, to

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