"THE CASTLE" "Can I stay the night here?" "There are no rooms free." "You can get a pallet from the attic." "You can't spend the night here." "Why not?" "Because the village belongs to the castle." "Nobody may pass the night without permission." "Is there a castle here?" "You'll have to leave the village." "The castle invited me to come here, as a land surveyor." "Hello." "This is the first assistant overseer." "Check with the central bureau." "Find out whether or not there's a land surveyor expected tonight." "I'll hold on." "There's been a mistake." "They say you're here as a guest." "You're a guest of the castle." "What are you waiting for?" "For a sleigh." "Do you want one?" "Have you got one?" "Where do you want to go?" "The castle." "Look, he's drunk." " Who the hell is he?" " He's the new land surveyor." "How did you know that?" "I heard it at the castle." "And who told you at the castle?" " We don't like questions." " You get out." "It'll be better, believe me." "They're the assistants." " What assistants?" " Your assistants." " My assistants?" " Your assistants." "Where are your measuring instruments?" " We haven't got any." " We haven't got any." "That's Arthur and Jeremiah." "Is that Arthur?" "No, that's Jeremiah." "Can you get me a sleigh to get up to the castle?" "Certainly." "Don't say certainly, you know it's impossible." "He's quite right, it's impossible." "No stranger can get into the castle without permission." "And where can I get it?" "Maybe the castle administration." "Hello, get me the castle administration." " Arthur." " And Jeremiah." "The land surveyor wants to know if he can come with us to the castle." "No." "He says no." "Hello?" "Hello?" "This is the assistant of the land surveyor." "Which land surveyor?" "Which assistant?" "Joseph." "The assistants are called Arthur and Jeremiah." "What do you want?" "I want to come to the castle." "Mr Land Surveyor!" "We have a message for you from the castle." "Sir, you have been accepted, as you already know, in the official service of the castle." "Consider your immediate superior the village mayor, who will give you all the necessary particulars." "We wish that your stay here is content." "My name is Barnabas." "The council said if there is an answer I should bring it." "Please convey to..." "I can't read the name." "Klamm." "Convey to Mr Klamm my thanks for his recognition, I shall follow his wishes most faithfully, but I ask him if he'd be good enough to receive me personally." "May I repeat the message?" "I'm new to this work and it's important to do everything right." " Convey to..." " No, you don't need to say all that," "I said convey to Mr Klamm my thanks for his recognition." "...I can't read the signature so you don't need to say all that, I said convey to Mr Klamm my thanks for his recognition, I will follow his wishes most faithfully but I ask him if he'd be good enough to receive me personally..." "Aren't you going to the castle now?" "No, I'll go to the castle tomorrow." "Who'd you bring this time?" " The new land surveyor." " Oh, the land surveyor?" "That's my sister Olga, Amalia, my other sister, and my parents." "Sit down." "Olga had to go to the manor house." "What's the manor house?" "That big house over there." "The gentlemen from the castle eat there when they have business here." "The land surveyor's not allowed in this part of the building." "I'd like to spend the night here." "That's impossible, this house is reserved exclusively for gentlemen from the castle." "Surely it's possible to let me sleep in a corner somewhere." "I should be delighted to accommodate you, but the regulations are very severe," "It sounds ridiculous but it's true." "I have useful connections at the castle." "I know, I know..." "Are many gentlemen from the castle staying here tonight?" "Only one gentleman stays here tonight, Mr Klamm." " Mr Klamm?" " Yes." "Do you know Mr Klamm?" "Why do you laugh?" "I'm not laughing." "You want to see him?" "He's asleep." "Yes." "Do you know him well?" "Yes." "Quite well." "Then you've been to the castle?" "It's enough for me to serve beer in the manor house." "Frieda!" "Has the land surveyor gone?" "Yes." "How do we know he's still not in here?" "He's not here." "Well, I hope you're right." "For your sake and mine." "That's all." "Klamm wants you to go into the barn at once." "The pigs that he makes me put up with." "How many times have I asked Klamm to leave them at the castle." "Who were those people?" "His servants." "I have to talk to you." "You don't know me." "I know you." "You're the land surveyor." "Can I stay here tonight?" "Yes." "Frieda!" "Frieda!" "I'm with the land surveyor!" "He won't call me again." "Come on." "Where?" "We've waited for you all night." "The whole village will know about this tomorrow." "You can still have the room but get rid of the girl." "Tomorrow you find someplace else to stay in the village." "I've found someplace." "Where?" "With Barnabas." "With Barnabas?" "And his two sisters." "You hear that?" "You're in good company." "We've had nothing but trouble since we let him stay here." "Go on, go to Barnabas." "The castle doesn't seem to please you." "Strangers don't like it, I've never met one who has." "Have you ever been in the castle?" "No." "But you must know Mr Klamm." "The children are listening, go away, young man." "Ah, our new land surveyor." "Sorry..." "I've had rather a severe attack of gout." "Come in, sit down." "Sit down, land surveyor." "Now tell me, what can I do for you?" "Talk all you like." "Whatever I can do, I will." "The castle has confirmed my position as land surveyor." "I've received this letter signed by Mr Klamm, administrator of the 10th department." "The letter refers me to you, Mr Mayor." "I understand that you will acquaint me with my duties." "I've gotten that information." "The castle has confirmed your position as land surveyor." "However, we have no need for a land surveyor." "There simply wouldn't be any work for one." "Our little village boundaries are marked off and carefully recorded." "So why would we need a land surveyor?" "I hope there's some misunderstanding." "There isn't." "It's exactly as I have said." "Surely I haven't made this endless journey just to be sent back again." "That's for another to decide." "In a large governmental office such as ours occasionally department A will make one decision, and department B another, and failing to inform each each other, the consequence is a slight miscalculation." "It generally only involves very trivial decisions, however." "Your particular case, for example." "It's very like another case we had." "Sit down, land surveyor." "And close the door." "I had only been mayor for a few months at the time when a request was issued for a land surveyor." "I don't think you were the one requested, however." "I think the request concerned a different surveyor." "This was quite a few years ago." "Quite a few years." "Go find that file, I want to look at it." "What you see are only our recent files." "My wife will show you the rest of them out back." "Unfortunately, so much has been lost over the years." "As you see, a great deal of work has been done." "Filed away over the years, and that isn't nearly all of it." "It's too much to cope with, I'm afraid." "Look further down." "Further down." "Couldn't I help your wife?" "The files are strictly forbidden to unauthorised personnel." "Who's there?" "It's cold out here." "Help Mizzi find the document." "I thought that was forbidden." "For you, yes." "They have castle authorisation." "Look for the document with the words 'land surveyor' on it." "In any case, I can tell the story without seeing the file." "I sent a reply to the original request." "I draughted it myself that morning." "I specifically remember saying that the land surveyor wasn't needed." "Only it never reached its destination, call it 'department A'." "Somehow it was misrouted and went to 'department B'." "Department A, meanwhile, waited for an answer." "In addition, department B hadn't received the entire correspondence either." "The covering letter had been lost so they sent it back here." "Years passed in department A and the surveyor request was forgotten, but there was an original letter that was held and later filed away, as is usually the case with interdepartmental correspondence." "My original reply reached department B late in the day." "This kind of correspondence is processed immediately, but when a letter goes astray, as in this case, a thorough search is undertaken." "This may go on for years, as one can readily understand." "You find this dull?" "No, it's interesting." "I don't tell this story for your amusement, land surveyor." "What are you doing?" "I should like to continue." "The very precision of our administrative apparatus also presupposes an extreme sensitivity." "When a concern such as this has gone on for a very long time, sometimes a resolution presents itself in an unforeseen and unexpected manner almost arbitrarily." "It's as though the administrative apparatus were moving, actually functioning without the assistance of any officials, the problem is taken out of the hands of the authorities and the final decision is made by the machinery itself." "I don't know whether your case was decided in such a manner, if it were, it's possible that following such ingenious workings, the machinery might relapse." "The call to you may have been sent out, in which case to appear would have been in vain." "After years of checking and re-checking, officials would have discovered the error and closed the file." "Now, after years, suddenly you arrive, land surveyor." "It starts again." "You enter the village and suddenly it starts again." "It'll take years in the files to check everything, it's already resolved." "You cannot get my approval, not after every file's been closed." "But I've been accepted as a land surveyor." "You mean because the castle sent you a letter?" "Mizzi!" "I haven't found the file you wanted." "Pity." "But it doesn't matter." "You've heard the story now." "We don't have to see the file." "Get me the paper." "Mizzi's also of my opinion." "It's a private communication, it's not meant to be official." "I should think you'd have recognised that at once, there's no seal." "However, I'll enquire at the castle." "Should there be a further decision, I'll send for you." "My leg's beginning to hurt again." "Change the compress, Mizzi." "Your visit wasn't very successful, I hear." "No." "I'll speak to the mayor's wife." "Everything depends on her, haven't you found that out yet?" "No." " Did she express an opinion?" " No." "Frankly, I didn't have the impression she could." "You misunderstand everything." " In any case..." " The schoolmaster wants you to come right away." "It's urgent." "One, and two, and three, and one..." "Run in place, knees up." "The schoolmaster sent for me." "You're our new land surveyor." "Stay here." "Come in." "You weren't very polite to the mayor." "I've draughted a memorandum concerning your talk to the mayor." "According to his information." "The memorandum is quite unofficial but important in order to complete the record." "It will not go into your file." "But it doesn't add to your stature." "However, acting on the mayor's personal instructions I've been asked to inform you of the following," "Since he cannot expedite the final decision which, naturally, rests in the hands of the castle, he has nevertheless reached a temporary but very generous solution:" "A position as janitor of this school." "I'm against it." "However, such is his wish." "I have explained to the mayor we have little need for a janitor." "Less, as a matter of fact, than we have for a land surveyor." "I won't take the job." "He'll only offer the post one time." "There you are." "He offered me the job of janitor." "You must take it." "They're going to turn you out of your room today." "He says he will be the janitor." "He was the one offered the post, he must accept it himself." "If you don't take this post the castle offered you then we'll never find anywhere to go." "We'll take the job, won't we?" "Yes." "I will not really be surprised if he loses this post." "He expects too much for a land surveyor." "Are you looking for anything special?" "How's Frieda?" "Is she coming back soon?" "I can see why she gave up this job." "She didn't tell me how quiet it would be." "Maybe she was afraid I wouldn't take her place." "As long as it's only temporary, I don't mind too much." "What are you doing?" "Frieda's forgotten her tablecloth." "A green one, knitted one." "She said it was in here." "She might have left it down in our room." "Come with me." "The land surveyor's here." "Frieda forgot her tablecloth." "Yes, the green one." "But I saw her put it in her bag." "Sit down." "I want to show you something." "You can barely recognise Frieda." "She was still quite modest at the time." "She wasn't Klamm's mistress, she means." "And she's learned to tell the best lies." "No-one can catch her at it." "You go see Klamm and ask him." "Where should I ask him?" "His coach is outside." "Come with me." "I need statements to complete the official files." "I'm undersecretary to Mr Klamm." "It's him I'm waiting for." "Unharness the horses." "The land surveyor has intended to establish himself in the village." "His first step was the calculated liaison he has formed with one Frieda, a barmaid at the manor inn." "His intention is obviously to use this relationship with the administrator's mistress, in order to gain entrance to the administrator himself." "What is it?" "If I make a statement now will that get to Klamm as well?" "You have a great deal to learn." "The only way you can get to Klamm is through the secretary's protocol." "Will Klamm read what one states here?" "Perhaps." "But Mr Klamm cannot read everything." "Not today, he just left" "In the name of Klamm and of the castle I demand that you answer my questions." "You will not be admitted into Klamm's presence until I have officially recommended it." "You shouldn't have done that." "You should have made the statements they wanted." "You may have permission to sleep in here but you're expected to be out before school begins." "Someone broke into the woodshed." "I did." "The classroom needed to be heated." "Who broke into the woodshed?" "He did." "They only tell you what you expect to hear." "So, you lied." "Stop it, it's true." "So it was our new janitor, who was willing to look on while others took the blame." "Get your things and leave." "You are no longer employed." "Get inside!" "I was assigned this post by the mayor." "Get out." "What do you want?" "I'd like to be a man like you." "You want to be a janitor too?" "No, not a janitor." "I know you, don't I?" "You were in my home yesterday, you spoke with my mother." "And then my father threw you out of the house." "But why?" "Father gets angry when anyone mentions the castle to him." "Mother got sick after you left." "Perhaps I could help her if she's sick." "I've succeeded sometimes when doctors have failed." "We're not allowed to let anyone in the house since you were there yesterday." "Father says it's forbidden." "Then I must talk to your mother without letting your father know." "Why hasn't the snow been cleared?" "Well, I'm fired." "Now look, fired or not fired, the snow must still be swept." "Fired or not fired, that's what I want to know first." "You didn't accept your notice, as I recall." "And that's enough?" "Don't you know?" "You think only of yourself, everything you do." "You'd deceive the boy's mother before you even talk to her, just because she was once in the castle." "You heard she's sick but you'll sneak over again to deceive her." "You act as if it's your life." "Straighten up that line!" "Right flank!" "Forward march!" "Keep in line!" "Take your positions." "Faster, this is a drill." "Get those hoses uncoiled." "One, two, one, two..." "The buckets!" "Pull that hose up here!" "Frieda!" "There's nothing for you here any more." "Frieda's not back." "Sit down." "We want to ask you something." "What are you, actually?" "A land surveyor." "What's that?" "A land surveyor has to register the actual borders it's good to see so many of you enjoying yourselves tonight which were marked off years ago because this is a special night for our fire department records them the castle administration has been very generous as they always are they have donated a new piece of equipment, the finest hand pump in the area and I know everyone in the village thanks them." "Who cares what you are?" "It's probably all a lie anyway." "Frieda?" "Barnabas?" " Is Barnabas home?" " No." "You can wait here." "Or won't Frieda allow you?" "Or your landlady?" "There seems to be great hostility between you." "Hostility?" "It's not that at all." "It's just that most people make a point of avoiding our family." "We're lepers in the village." "The castle pretends we don't exist." "My sister once refused a castle official who made a definite offer to her." "And for that the castle punished you?" "The castle didn't even make a comment." "People just avoided us." "The people here and at the castle." "My father couldn't get any more work, he was a shoemaker." "The villagers took back the shoes they'd left to be mended" "All our debts were paid." "Everything went without the slightest incident." "The castle story's been told." "There are people here who live on those stories." "I didn't think you'd be one of them." "Goodnight." "Have you never tried to talk to the castle about it?" "We tried everything." "My father tried pleading with mayor, the secretary, the lawyers, the clerks." "Everything was useless without Amalia." "But she wouldn't help." "Finally I made certain connections with the castle." "But perhaps that was the worst thing I could have done." "You saw me, didn't you?" "You saw everything at the manor inn." "Twice a week I have to give the labourers that service." "And I take money for it too." "Otherwise they'd all starve." "It's only recently that Barnabas has earned a little as well." " As a messenger?" " No." "As a shoe boy." "For doing occasional shoe repairs in the village." "For carrying messages he earns nothing at all." "But he has you to thank for his work." "Why me?" "The letter to you is the first work he's had from the castle." "In years." "And for us it's the first sign of grace." "It was Jeremiah, for you." "He wanted to know if you were here." "Don't you want to wait for Barnabas?" "Ah, come in." "I spent the whole day at the castle for you." "You spoke to Klamm, then?" "No, I wasn't able to." "But it wasn't my fault." "I have some good news though." "Just as I was leaving the castle I saw a man walking towards me along the corridor." "It was Erlanger." "He's the undersecretary you see to get to Klamm." "He said, Do you know the land surveyor, by any chance?" "I said, yes, I did." "Fine, he said, tell the land surveyor I'm anxious to meet tonight," "I should be staying the entire night at the manor inn and pleased be advised that as Mr Klamm's..." "Did I get it right?" "What do you want?" "The secretary, Erlanger, sent for me." "He's busy, you'll have to wait outside." "I thought you'd already left." "First to be admitted is Gerstaker and the land surveyor, in here." "The secretary will ring for you as soon as he's awake." "He might sleep for hours, then return to the castle." "And it will be just as well." "When he's got very little time left to work he's very angry for letting the night get away." "Then he tries to do all the work at once and nobody gets a chance to talk to him anyway." " You're here for a permit?" " Yes." "Frieda." "Are you living here now?" "I am." "I've got a room here." "Could we go inside?" "I can't stand any more." "I'll get a chair." "This whole thing is your doing." "I think I've got a fever." "Ah, land surveyor." "Don't stand in the hall." "Come in and visit the invalid." "Say whatever you want to Frieda." "I'm sure I've said the same things." "That garden behind the school was so damp." "I've caught a cold." "You sacrifice your health for something that isn't worth it." "Don't let me disturb you." "When two people separate, I know they have things to say to each other." "Who's there?" "Please excuse me." "Secretary Erlanger has sent for me." "That's not me." "I mixed up the doors." "That's a pity." "Not that the secretary summoned you, but that you mixed up the doors." "I can't get back to sleep after I wake up." "Well, you mustn't take it too much to heart." "Just a minute." "I'm Brugel, undersecretary to Friedrich." " My name is..." " Doesn't matter." "You're the new land surveyor." "Where did you plan to go now?" "It's a little after four." "Whoever you were going to see will be sleeping now." "And at five the night hearings are over." "They all go back to the castle." "You might catch one in the hall." "Why don't you sit down." "Unfortunately I can't offer you a chair." "I imagine you're wondering why I have no chairs or tables." "I was given the choice of having a narrow bed and a furnished room, or this large bed and nothing else." "I chose the bed, as you can see." "In a bedroom the important thing is the bed." "You're very quiet, land surveyor." "Are you tired?" "And how's the land surveying?" "I'm not being employed as a land surveyor." "Astonishing, a land surveyor without any land surveying work." "I shall follow this matter up." "Things like this can never be so, to leave an expert unused is wasteful." "I know how you feel, it's very frustrating." "I can see you're distressed." "You seem to have had some disappointments." "Don't let disappointments intimidate you." "When one is newly arrived here the obstacles do appear to be insurmountable, and perhaps the appearance corresponds to reality, there are sometimes opportunities however," "opportunities in which by means of a word, a glance, a sign of trust, more can be achieved than by means of lifelong exhaustive efforts," "but then again of course these opportunities are in accordance with the general situation insofar as they have never been made use of, but, then again, why are they never made use of?" "It's a constant complaint among the secretaries of this section." "But the hearings require them to be here, to work nights, not that the night hearings are too strenuous, nor is it that they would rather spend the night sleeping, they cannot differentiate between ordinary time and working time," "nor do we consider the participants involved." "Where the applicants are concerned, the night hearings cause no hardships, indeed, they are welcome by them." "Why then the undersecretaries dislike of these night hearings?" "It is because at night it is difficult if not impossible to preserve the official character of these hearings." "One tends involuntarily to judge these things from a personal point of view at night." "The applicants' allegations take on more weight than is due them, the judgements become adulterated by irrelevant considerations such as the applicants' anxieties, the necessary barrier between the applicants and the officials weakens, indeed, the night interrogations are not actually prescribed in the regulations," "the excess amount of work requiring the castle officials' attention, the regulation which states that the interrogation of applicants is to take place, only after more important duties are concluded, requires these night hearings." "There is, in spite of precautionary measures, a way in which it is possible for the applicant to exploit the nocturnal weaknesses of the secretaries," "coming unannounced in the middle of the night," "Fortunately this is rare, and in fact almost never occurs." "You're wondering why, aren't you?" "Why is it that since this tactic is so obvious it seldom is used?" "Since you are new here you are not yet familiar with the local conditions." "But even you must have been struck by the precision of your condition, the precision of the organisation, and inversely, the organisation is a result of the precision, anyone with a petition to present, anyone who is to be interrogated on any matter," "in other words, everyone." "Before he has even considered the question of appearing unannounced, he has received a summons to officially appear at the night hearings," "thus he can no longer come unannounced." "At best he can appear at the wrong hour." "If this happens, his attention is drawn to the exact hour and date printed on the summons, he is instructed to return at the proper time, he is dismissed, the competence of the authorities conducting the hearing is re-established." "Our letters consider the possibility that in an extraordinary circumstance, a petitioner does nevertheless confront a secretary in the middle of the night," "I daresay you have not considered this possibility because as pointed out it rarely occurs, but once the petitioner is in the room it becomes necessary to re-evaluate, both the petitioner's situation and the situation of the secretary," "who has actually ceased to function in his prescribed official capacity." "To put it more precisely, the petitioner has reversed roles with the secretary, and has now gained the offensive, at least insofar as he has disrupted the official organisation." "Actually, he may not even be aware of the position of strength in which he now finds himself, thus the advantage returns to the official." "Discipline is the reason the world corrects itself, and maintains a proper balance." "A very excellent arrangement, although a desperate one." "You don't seem to be able to shake yourself out of your sleep." "You don't need to apologise for being so sleepy, why should you?" "Is the land surveyor with you?" "Yes." "Then he's to come over at once." "That's Erlinger." "Go on, go to him." "He's annoyed enough already that you're not there." "Go on, if you stay a moment longer I'll be in trouble again, and I would very much like to avoid that." "Go after him, isn't that what you wanted?" "You should have come long ago." "The matter is as follows: a certain Frieda is employed in the bar," "I have been apprised of the name of the woman but I know nothing else, nor do I care to." "It does not interest me." "In the past the girl Frieda has served beer to Mr Klamm." "However, yesterday a new barmaid appeared." "Quite obviously this whole affair is unimportant to Mr Klamm." "But the more arduous a man's function, and Mr Klamm's tasks are formidable indeed, the less energy remains to shield oneself from the outer world." "Consequently the smallest change in routine becomes seriously disturbing," "It is of course out of the question that the new barmaid would disturb Mr Klamm." "He is much too involved in important matters to let such disruption occur." "Therefore the girl Freida must return to the bar." "Her presence there is required to regain stability." "Considering your personal relationship with the girl it becomes your task to see to it that she returns." "It must be done without hesitation." "Personal feelings cannot enter into it." "Balance must be restored." "Stop!" "STOP!" "STOP!"