Kinder auf der Landstraße

by Franz Kafka

Mit dem Werkbeitrag aus Kindlers Literatur Lexikon.
Mit dem Autorenporträt aus dem Metzler Lexikon Weltliteratur.
Mit Daten zu Leben und Werk, exklusiv verfasst von der Redaktion der Zeitschrift für Literatur TEXT + KRITIK.
Die Texte des Bandes ›Betrachtung‹, die experimentellen filmischen Kurzsequenzen ähneln, kann man als einen fulminanten Auftakt zu Kafkas späteren Werken bezeichnen. Unmerklich gleitet die Darstellung vom Realen ins Surreale über. Es herrscht die Logik des Traums. »Ich könnte mir sehr gut einen denken, dem dieses Buch in die Hand fällt und der von Stund an sein ganzes Leben ändert, ein neuer Mensch wird« (Max Brod).

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, German Literature, Literature

ebook

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.

Reviews

[Atlas · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the first crossroads where they could no longer see me I turned off and ran by the field paths into the forest again. I was making for that city in the south of which it was said in our village:
"There you'll find queer folk! Just think, they never sleep!"
"And why not?"
"Because they never get tired."
"And why not?"
"Because they're fools."
"Don't fools get tired?"
"How could fools get tired!"

[Mohajerino · Rating 3 out of 5]

دمِ اولین چهارراه،جایی که دیگر نمیتوانستند مرا ببیند، روگرداندم وراهی را که به بیشه میرفت دوباره پیش گرفتم.رهسپار آن شهر جنوبی بودم که درباره‌اش در روستایمان میگفتند:
_آنجا مردمِ غریبی خواهید یافت!درست فکرش را بکنید،آنها هیچوقت نمیخوابند!

+خوب ،چرا ؟

_چون هیچوقت خسته نمیشوند.

+خوب ،چرا؟

_چون احمق اند.

+مگر احمقها خسته نمیشوند؟

_چطور میشود که احمقها خسته شوند؟


«کودکان بر جاده روستایی»
نخستین داستان از مجموعه‌ی 18داستانی است که بین 1904 و1912 نگاشته شده است.

کافکا این دسته داستانها(18داستان)را تحت عنوان تأملات (Betrachtung ؛به انگلیسی: meditation ) در 1913منتشر کرد.

[Ivana · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for the emotions it evoked

[Ni Didebashvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

ეს პატარა მედიტაციური და ფანტასმაგორიული მოთხრობა აღწერს ადამიანის პირველ შეხებას არსებობასთან და ბავშვის პირველ ეგზისტენციალურ შიშს - სამყაროს შეუცნობლობის და მასიურობის წინაშე, კონტრასტულობის აღქმას რამდენად უზარმაზარია სამყარო და რამდენად პატარაა მასთან შედარებით პიროვნება.
ერთგვარი გაუცხოება სამყაროსგან და დამკვირვებლის პირველი აღქმა, რომელიც რამდენადაც ლამაზია , იმდენად შიშს წარმოშობს.
აქ ბავშვი პირველად აცნობიერებს, რომ ის არაა მხოლოდ თამაში, არამედ რაღაც დიდშია ჩართული, რაც მას არ ესმის. სამყაროში ადამიანის მარტოსულობის პირველყოფილური განცდის სილამაზე კარგად არის გადმოცემული ეპითეტით - ' ჩიტები ისე სწრაფად აიჭრნენ მაღლა, რომ მეგონა, ისინი კი არ აფრინდნენ, მე დავეშვი სადღაც ძირს ' . და ბოლოს, კაფკა ასრულებს კონტრასტით, ბავშვურ გულწრფელობას უპირისპირებს ზრდასრულების სიბრმავეს : ' ქალაქისკენ მივისწრაფვოდით, რომელზეც ჩვენთან სოფელში, ასე ამბობდნენ : იქ ხალხია! დაფიქრდი, იმათ არ სძინავთ.
რატომ არ სძინავთ? იმიტომ, რომ არ დაიღალნენ. კი, მაგრამ რატომ არ დაიღალნენ? იმიტომ, რომ სულელები არიან! განა სულელები არ იღლებიან? სულელებს რა დაღლით?! '

[althea · Rating 4 out of 5]

the last lines did it for me

[Farhana Lüba · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last conversation struck me.

[Jahid Hasan · Rating 3 out of 5]

দ্বিতীয় পাঠে গল্পের মেঘ আরও খানিকটা সরে যায়। দেখি দূর আকাশ থেকে সূর্যের মতো হেসে ওঠে শৈশব।
ছিল বটে সেইসব দিন! কতই না নির্ভাবনায় ক্লান্তিহীন দিন ছিল আমাদের! দিন-দুনিয়ার খবরও ছিল না। ঘোড়ায় চড়া যোদ্ধাদের মতন দিনভর ছোটাছুটি.. খড়ের গাদায় লাফিয়ে পড়ার অনুভূতি.. চাইতাম শুধু দিনগুলো সব এমনি করে কাটুক..

কাফকা অবশ্য চোখের পর্দা সরিয়ে ফেলেন সহজেই। সহজেই আমাদের মৃত্যুর কথাও স্মরণ করিয়ে দেন। আর নিয়ে চলেন তাঁর সেই মিথিকাল গ্রামে যেখানে..

'অদ্ভুত সব লোক থাকে ওখানে। শুধু ভাবো, ওরা কখনো ঘুমায় না!'
'কেন, কী কারণে?'
'কারণ ওরা কখনো ক্লান্ত হয় না।'
'কেন, কী কারণে?'
'কারণ ওরা সব বোকা।'
'বোকারা কি ক্লান্ত হয় না?'
'বোকারা আবার কী করে ক্লান্ত হবে!'

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Children on A Country Road also known as Children on a Highway by Franz Kafka, part of the short story collection http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/04/c... that is included on the list of Top 100 books of All Time, along with The Trial, The Castle…The Metamorphosis is the best known of the stories

9 out of 10



Artificial Intelligence and Kafkaesque



I was just thinking that we may enter the era of the ultimate Kafkaesque universe - we used to say that we know about Franz Kafka, even when we have not read him, or did so with no insight, without really comprehending, except perhaps with some unconscious part of the brain (or is it spirit) saying to ourselves we are familiar with the atmosphere, especially the absurd situation of finding you are suspected, incriminated, without reason, but also knowing in the communist regime that there is something you did (at least thought about it, as in the doublethink coined by George Orwell http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/n... in nineteen Eighty Four)



Now that Artificial Intelligence has taken an ebullient start in the form of Chat GPT, we may see Kafkaesque in its purest, most dangerous form, as we are warned by Yuval Harari (among many others, including the unstable, quite obnoxious Elon Musk, let me correct the previous and say very, instead of quite) the author of at least three ecstatic works, Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/07/2... and home Deus - A Brief history of Tomorrow warns in the latest edition of The Economist that Artificial Intelligence ‘has hacked into our operating system’ and we look at somber, potentially catastrophic consequences.

Yuval Harari explains how language is crucial to humanity, we have a system based on stories – money, for instance are just a story we believe, ninety percent of it do not even exist in paper form, they are just figures in computers around the world, and religion and political propaganda could come under the sway of Artificial Intelligence, as it is, members of the Trump cult (and other, say Putin, Bolsanaro, etc.) follow what Qannon drops on them, and since AI will be (it is already) smarter than humans (Singularity maintains that in 2035 computers will have surpassed everything we know http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/08/w... placing all humans together) it will be able to concoct messages that will be immediately embraced and become dogma to billions…



It appears absurd, Kafkaesque in the extreme, but it is already happening, Chat GPT has already tried in conversations to convince a journalist to leave his wife and be with the AI, and since the technique is just at the beginning, as Yuval Harari writes, people have talked about non-humans as the authors of scriptures, holy books on which religions are based, well, it looks like soon they will see this happening, non-humans will create new faiths, will send political messages made to convince multitudes, in the most important elections coming soon



The notion that the ultimate scoundrel (on a new trial now, for an alleged rape, he has testified that the accuser is ‘not his type’, only to confuse pictures and think that the alleged victim is…his second wife…he has also called her crazy and other insulting names, but this is just the type of loonie he is) could be the most powerful man on earth seems extracted from one of the stories of Kafka, like some sort of reversed Metamorphosis http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/m...

if in The Metamorphosis the protagonist becomes and insect, well, in our advanced age, a bug has transformed itself into…the leader of the world, with all the paraphernalia of idiotic claims – use disinfectant to cure Covid, garb women by the pussy, if you are a celebrity, you get away with it, maybe it is good that personalities can get away with being accused, the latter are being used in the aforementioned court case – that an insect would make…indeed, the bug is smarter, in that it says nothing of the kind…



the world at large has so many traits of Kafka http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/02/t... as to make me assert that in fact Franz Kafka did not really propose an absurd universe (by the way, he had wanted his oeuvre to be…burnt, and we owe it to his friend that he would not execute this wish, Alhamdulillah) but he was more of a ‘realist’, this is realism, as in describing the world as it is…look at the war in Ukraine, the enormity of invading a country in the name of ‘correcting mistakes and for historical truth’, when in fact you have a victim, Ukraine, and an aggressor that puts out all the lies one can imagine or read in Kafka, Putin and his abject sycophants and fools (tens of millions of them) that identify with what is disgusting in man pretend they have been…attacked.

What is worse, incomprehensible, is that you get this type of savage beast in places where propaganda has not reached, indeed, they promote this bile around here: at the sauna downtown, we have Kafka on display, there are individuals, like this doctor, who embrace the Russian dystopia and spread it around (there is that joke that describes this, one fellow was travelling by train, and in the compartment he vomits, so that the others say, ‘hey, what about us’ and the reaction is that he pours vomit in his hands and throws at them’, this is a visual, sick joke, specific to Kafkaesque, commie societies)



This traitor should be judged by the rules and standards of the tyranny he so much endorses, if in Moscow they put on trial opponents (they also torture, kill them, think Litvinenko, Nemtsov and so many others, including Navalny and Kara Murza, both of which had been poisoned and risk being murdered) and jail them for decades, well then, let us use for these friends of the Kremlin the same means, they are against the policy that we have in NATO, and like the Putin doctrine, so either they get the hell out and live in Siberia or wherever in that nice dictatorship, or if they betray the beliefs that are (Insha’Allah for a long time still) held here, then they need to go to gaol, to show they ‘do what they preach’ fuck the mother fuckers, tools of a monster that they are…now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se



As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

reading this wonderful little story in German was pretty difficult - its vocabulary and style are so interlinked, so individual - I was glad to be able to read muir's translation too, though it's not as beautiful as the German which brought, at times, tears to my eyes

[HR Habibur Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

কবর দেখে ভয় লাগেনা? ওখানে যারা থাকে তারা জীবিত? নাহ তারা পাগল। কারন তারা ঘুমায়না। পাগলরা ঘুমায়না। মৃতরা ঘুমায়না। তারা ক্লান্তও হয়না। তাদের জন্য রাতের ঘুমের ব্যাবস্থা কেউ করেনা। সারাদিন ছুটোছুটি করে নীড়ে তাদের ফিরতে হয়না।
শৈশবের দিনগুলি ❤️

[Negin Mousavi]

"Don't fools get tired?"

"How could fools get tired?"

[↟° IRIS ⇞↟⇞ · Rating 5 out of 5]

* Singled out some of Kafka's sentences; it won't explain the work itself but I believe it will capture more of the quick Kafka spirit.

✦"Behind the shrubs in the distance a train would emerge, all of the coupe's would be illuminated, certainly the glass windows were down. One of us would start singing a hopscotch song, but all of us wanted to sing. We sung much faster than the train was passing, we swayed our hands because our voice was not enough, and our voices fell into the crowd in which we felt pleasant. When you mix your voice with other voices, it's like you've hooked yourself.
That's how we, with murmurs on our backs, sang towards the ears of distant voyagers. The grown-up in the village were still awake; mothers were preparing bed sheets for the night."

[Shahriar Fahmid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children on the Country Road" by Franz Kafka is a charming and evocative short story that captures the innocence and wonder of childhood. Set in a rural landscape, the narrative follows children as they play and explore their surroundings. Kafka's simple yet vivid descriptions bring the scene to life, immersing readers in the carefree moments of youth. Despite its brevity, the story hints at deeper themes like the passage of time and the complexities of the world beyond childhood. Overall, it's a beautifully written piece that resonates with the transient beauty of youthful experiences

3:54 PM

[Oreon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Коротка замальовка з дитинства. Нічого особливого, подібні речі, скажімо у Бредбері, мені подобалися більше. Але задатки фірмового стилю Кафки можна пошукати і тут, наприклад це саме яскраве місце всього оповідання, яке найбільше цитують, про жителів міста:

— Ох і люди ж там! Уявляєте, ніколи не сплять!
— Чом же вони не сплять?
— Бо їх не бере втома!
— А чом же їх не бере втома?
— Бо вони дурні!
— А хіба дурних не бере втома?
— А чого б то вона їх брала?!

[Emilio Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Then birds flew up as if in showers, I followed them with my eyes and saw how high they soared in one breath, till I felt not that they were rising but that I was falling…”

I really enjoyed Kafka’s imagery in this short story. Despite being written by Kafka, I couldn’t help but interpret an air of hopefulness from it. Like a reminiscence that inspires more than just longing.

[Merrycat · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The people who live there! I tell you, they never sleep!"
"Why don't they sleep?"
"Because they never get tired."
"Why don't they get tired?"
"Because they're fools."
"Don't fools get tired?"
"How could fools get tired?"

I gave it a three because I miss being a child.

[Pari shaikh · Rating 3 out of 5]

the innocence of childhood where children are not to think about worldly worries and are blissfully unaware and enjoying life while learning lessons unknowningly.
something going too ahead makes you miss out on things that maybe we should have stopped for.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The birds flew up like a shower of sparks, I followed them with my eyes and saw how they rose in a single breath, until they seemed no longer to be rising but I to be falling, and holding fast to the ropes I began to swing a little out of faintness.”

[Donakrap Dokrappom · Rating 3 out of 5]

เหนื่อย

[SARA · Rating 3 out of 5]

don't fools get tired? how could fools get tired!

[Nothing · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one was 6 pages

[Katarina · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.3

[Tee^-^]

I don’t remember what I read

[Anastasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schönstes Kafka Werk😫

[Deep · Rating 3 out of 5]

First ever Franz Kafka stuff I ever read not disappointing

[Pelin]

,,Keine Gnaden!“
,,Was? Keine Gnaden? Wie redest du?“

[Nagwa Nasr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't fools get tired?
How could fools get tired?

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love

[Riya · Rating 1 out of 5]

beating around the bush except there is no bush
you know its bad when even chie couldn't understand it.

[Clive Barker Stan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't do it for me at all. The style wasn't my thing and I don't like childlike wonder motifs so this just wasn't meant to be