Kafka: Love Letters to Dora Mendelsohn

Author: (Austrian) Kafka
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Love Letters to Milena Dear Madam Milena, I have written you a short note from Prague and later from Melan, yet I have received no reply to date. These notes were not urgent replies. When people are relatively well-off in life, they are often reluctant to write letters. Therefore, if your silence merely indicates this tendency, I would be satisfied. However, there are other possibilities (hence my writing this letter), such as something in my note having hurt you (if so, I would truly hate my clumsy hand, which always goes against my will); or (that would be even worse) the time when you wrote peacefully has passed, and now you are in a bad period. For the first possibility, I don’t know what to say—I am clumsier in this regard than in any other; for the second possibility, I don’t want to make any guesses—how could I guess?—I only want to ask: Why don’t you leave Vienna for a while and come out for a walk? You are not as desperate as others. A few days in Bohemia might not fail to restore your strength? If for some reason unknown to me you are unwilling to go to Bohemia, then go somewhere else instead. Perhaps Melan would be a good choice. Do you know this place? I look forward to either possibility. Either you continue to remain silent, which means: “Don’t worry, I’m doing fine.” Or you write a few lines. Kafka Sincerely in Melan-Untermes, Ottoburg Apartment
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