By Franz Kafka
Translation: Mark Gutglueck
It looks as if much had been neglected in our country’s system of defense. We have not
concerned ourselves with it until now and have gone about our daily work; but things that have
been happening recently begin to trouble us.
I have a cobbler’s workshop in the square that lies before the Emperor’s palace. Scarcely have I
taken my shutters down, at the first glimmer of dawn, when I see armed soldiers already posted
in the mouth of every street opening on the square. But these soldiers are not ours, they are
obviously nomads from the North. In some way that is incomprehensible to me they have
pushed right into the capital, although it is a long way from the frontier. At any rate, here they
are; it seems that every morning there are more of them.
As is their nature, they camp under the open sky, for they abominate dwelling houses. They
busy themselves sharpening swords, whittling arrows, and practicing horsemanship. This
peaceful square, which was always kept so scrupulously clean, they have made literally into a
stable. We do try every now and then to run out of our shops and clear away at least the worst
of the filth, but this happens less and less often, for the labor is in vain and brings us besides
into danger of falling under the hoofs of the wild horses or of being crippled with lashes from the
whips.
Speech with the nomads is impossible. They do not know our language, indeed they hardly
have a language of their own. They communicate with each other much as jackdaws do. A
screeching as of jackdaws is always in our ears. Our way of living and our institutions they
neither understand nor care to understand. And so they are unwilling to make sense even out of
our sign language. You can gesture at them till you dislocate your jaws and your wrists and still
they will not have understood you and will never understand. They often make grimaces; then
the whites of their eyes turn up and foam gathers on their lips, but they do not mean anything by
that, not even a threat; they do it because it is their nature to do it. Whatever they need, they
take. You cannot call it taking by force. They grab at something and you simply stand aside and
leave them to it.
From my stock, too, they have taken many good articles. But I cannot complain when I see how
the butcher, for instance, suffers across the street. As soon as he brings in any meat the
nomads snatch it all from him and gobble it up. Even their horses devour flesh; often enough a
horseman and his horse are lying side by side, both of them gnawing at the same joint, one at
either end. The butcher is nervous and does not dare to stop his deliveries of meat. We
understand that, however, and subscribe money to keep him going. If the nomads got no meat,
who knows what they might think of doing; who knows anyhow what they may think of, even
though they get meat every day.
Not long ago the butcher thought he might at least spare himself the trouble of slaughtering, and
so one morning he brought along a live ox. But he will never dare to do that again. I lay for a
whole hour flat on the floor at the back of my workshop with my head muffled in all the clothes
and rugs and pillows I had simply to keep from hearing the bellowing of that ox, which the
nomads were leaping on from all sides, tearing morsels out of its living flesh with their teeth. It
had been quiet for a long time before I risked coming out; they were lying overcome around the
remains of the carcass like drunkards around a wine cask.
This was the occasion when I fancied I actually saw the Emperor himself at a window of the
palace; usually he never enters these outer rooms but spends all his time in the innermost
garden; yet on this occasion he was standing, or so at least it seemed to me, at one of the
windows, watching with bent head the goings-on before his residence.
“What is going to happen?” we all ask ourselves. “How long can we endure this burden and
torment? The Emperor’s palace has drawn the nomads here but does not know how to drive
them away again. The gate stays shut; the guards, who used to be always marching out and in
with ceremony, keep close behind barred windows. It is left to us artisans and tradesmen to
save our country; but we are not equal to such a task; nor have we ever claimed to be capable
of it. This is a misunderstanding of some kind; and it will be the ruin of us.