The Trial

(Der Proze)

Franz KafkaTranslated from the

German by David

Wyllie

First published as Der Proze in1925.

This web edition published byeBooks@Adelaide.

Last updated Wednesday,December 17, 2014 at 14:17.

English translation copyright David Wyllie

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Table of Contents Next

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Last updated Monday, December 22, 2014 at10:52

The Trial, by Franz Kafka

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter

1. Arrest Conversation withMrs. Grubach Then MissBrstner

2. First Cross-examination3. In the empty Courtroom The

Student The Offices4. Miss Brstners Friend

5. The whip-man6. K.s uncle Leni7. Lawyer Manufacturer

Painter8. Block, the businessman

Dismissing the lawyer9. In the Cathedral

10. End

Front Table of Contents Next

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at 10:52

The Trial, by Franz Kafka

SCHAPTER ONE

ARREST CONVERSATIONWITH MRS. GRUBACH THEN MISS BRSTNER

omeone must have beentelling lies about Josef K., heknew he had done nothing

wrong but, one morning, he wasarrested. Every day at eight in the

morning he was brought hisbreakfast by Mrs. Grubachs cook Mrs. Grubach was his landlady but today she didnt come. That hadnever happened before. K. waited alittle while, looked from his pillowat the old woman who livedopposite and who was watching himwith an inquisitiveness quiteunusual for her, and finally, bothhungry and disconcerted, rang thebell. There was immediately aknock at the door and a manentered. He had never seen the man

in this house before. He was slimbut firmly built, his clothes wereblack and close-fitting, with manyfolds and pockets, buckles andbuttons and a belt, all of which gavethe impression of being verypractical but without making it veryclear what they were actually for.Who are you? asked K., sittinghalf upright in his bed. The man,however, ignored the question as ifhis arrival simply had to beaccepted, and merely replied, Yourang? Anna should have brought

me my breakfast, said K. He triedto work out who the man actuallywas, first in silence, just throughobservation and by thinking aboutit, but the man didnt stay still to belooked at for very long. Instead hewent over to the door, opened itslightly, and said to someone whowas clearly standing immediatelybehind it, He wants Anna to bringhim his breakfast. There was alittle laughter in the neighbouringroom, it was not clear from thesound of it whether there were

several people laughing. Thestrange man could not have learnedanything from it that he hadntknown already, but now he said toK., as if making his report It is notpossible. It would be the first timethats happened, said K., as hejumped out of bed and quicklypulled on his trousers. I want tosee who that is in the next room,and why it is that Mrs. Grubach haslet me be disturbed in this way. Itimmediately occurred to him thathe neednt have said this out loud,

and that he must to some extenthave acknowledged their authorityby doing so, but that didnt seemimportant to him at the time. That,at least, is how the stranger took it,as he said, Dont you think youdbetter stay where you are? I wantneither to stay here nor to bespoken to by you until youveintroduced yourself. I meant it foryour own good, said the strangerand opened the door, this timewithout being asked. The nextroom, which K. entered more slowly

than he had intended, looked atfirst glance exactly the same as ithad the previous evening. It wasMrs. Grubachs living room, over-filled with furniture, tablecloths,porcelain and photographs. Perhapsthere was a little more space inthere than usual today, but if so itwas not immediately obvious,especially as the main differencewas the presence of a man sitting bythe open window with a book fromwhich he now looked up. Youshould have stayed in your room!

Didnt Franz tell you? And what isit you want, then? said K., lookingback and forth between this newacquaintance and the one namedFranz, who had remained in thedoorway. Through the open windowhe noticed the old woman again,who had come close to the windowopposite so that she could continueto see everything. She was showingan inquisitiveness that really madeit seem like she was going senile. Iwant to see Mrs. Grubach . . ., saidK., making a movement as if tearing

himself away from the two men even though they were standingwell away from him and wantedto go. No, said the man at thewindow, who threw his book downon a coffee table and stood up. Youcant go away when youre underarrest. Thats how it seems, saidK. And why am I under arrest? hethen asked. Thats something werenot allowed to tell you. Go into yourroom and wait there. Proceedingsare underway and youll learn abouteverything all in good time. Its not

really part of my job to be friendlytowards you like this, but I hope no-one, apart from Franz, will hearabout it, and hes been morefriendly towards you than he shouldhave been, under the rules, himself.If you carry on having as muchgood luck as you have been withyour arresting officers then you canreckon on things going well withyou. K. wanted to sit down, butthen he saw that, apart from thechair by the window, there wasnowhere anywhere in the room

where he could sit. Youll get thechance to see for yourself how trueall this is, said Franz and both menthen walked up to K. They weresignificantly bigger than him,especially the second man, whofrequently slapped him on theshoulder. The two of them felt K.snightshirt, and said he would nowhave to wear one that was of muchlower quality, but that they wouldkeep the nightshirt along with hisother underclothes and return themto him if his case turned out well.

Its better for you if you give us thethings than if you leave them in thestoreroom, they said. Things havea tendency to go missing in thestoreroom, and after a certainamount of time they sell things off,whether the case involved has cometo an end or not. And cases like thiscan last a long time, especially theones that have been coming uplately. Theyd give you the moneythey got for them, but it wouldnt bevery much as its not what theyreoffered for them when they sell

them that counts, its how muchthey get slipped on the side, andthings like that lose their valueanyway when they get passed onfrom hand to hand, year after year.K. paid hardly any attention to whatthey were saying, he did not placemuch value on what he may havestill possessed or on who decidedwhat happened to them. It wasmuch more important to him to geta clear understanding of hisposition, but he could not thinkclearly while these people were

here, the second policemans belly and they could only be policemen looked friendly enough, stickingout towards him, but when K.looked up and saw his dry, boneyface it did not seem to fit with thebody. His strong nose twisted toone side as if ignoring K. andsharing an understanding with theother policeman. What sort ofpeople were these? What were theytalking about? What office did theybelong to? K. was living in a freecountry, after all, everywhere was at

peace, all laws were decent andwere upheld, who was it who daredaccost him in his own home? Hewas always inclined to take life aslightly as he could, to cross bridgeswhen he came to them, pay no heedfor the future, even wheneverything seemed under threat.But here that did not seem the rightthing to do. He could have taken itall as a joke, a big joke set up by hiscolleagues at the bank for someunknown reason, or also perhapsbecause today was his thirtieth

birthday, it was all possible ofcourse, maybe all he had to do waslaugh in the policemens face insome way and they would laughwith him, maybe they weretradesmen from the corner of thestreet, they looked like they mightbe but he was nonethelessdetermined, ever since he firstcaught sight of the one called Franz,not to lose any slight advantage hemight have had over these people.There was a very slight risk thatpeople would later say he couldnt

understand a joke, but althoughhe wasnt normally in the habit oflearning from experience hemight also have had a fewunimportant occasions in mindwhen, unlike his more cautiousfriends, he had acted with nothought at all for what might followand had been made to suffer for it.He didnt want that to happenagain, not this time at least; if theywere play-acting he would act alongwith them.

He still had time. Allow me,

he said, and hurried between thetwo policemen through into hisroom. He seems sensible enough,he heard them say behind him.Once in his room, he quickly pulledopen the drawer of his writing desk,everything in it was very tidy but inhis agitation he was unable to findthe identification documents hewas looking for straight away. Hefinally found his bicycle permit andwas about to go back to thepolicemen with it when it seemedto him too petty, so he carried on

searching until he found his birthcertificate. Just as he got back inthe adjoining room the door on theother side opened and Mrs.Grubach was about to enter. Heonly saw her for an instant, for assoon as she recognised K. she wasclearly embarrassed, asked forforgiveness and disappeared,closing the door behind her verycarefully. Do come in, K. couldhave said just then. But now hestood in the middle of the roomwith his papers in his hand and still

looking at the door which did notopen again. He stayed like that untilhe was startled out of it by theshout of the policeman who sat atthe little table at the open windowand, as K. now saw, was eating hisbreakfast. Why didnt she comein? he asked. Shes not allowedto, said the big policeman. Youreunder arrest, arent you. But howcan I be under arrest? And howcome its like this? Now yourestarting again, said the policeman,dipping a piece of buttered bread in

the honeypot. We dont answerquestions like that. You will haveto answer them, said K. Here aremy identification papers, now showme yours and I certainly want to seethe arrest warrant. Oh, my God!said the policeman. In a positionlike yours, and you think you canstart giving orders, do you? It wontdo you any good to get us on thewrong side, even if you think it will were probably more on your sidethat anyone else you know! Thatstrue, you know, youd better believe

it, said Franz, holding a cup ofcoffee in his hand which he did notlift to his mouth but looked at K. ina way that was probably meant tobe full of meaning but could notactually be understood. K. foundhimself, without intending it, in amute dialogue with Franz, but thenslapped his hand down on hispapers and said, Here are myidentity documents. And what doyou want us to do about it? repliedthe big policeman, loudly. The wayyoure carrying on, its worse than a

child. What is it you want? Do youwant to get this great, bloody trial ofyours over with quickly by talkingabout ID and arrest warrants withus? Were just coppers, thats all weare. Junior officers like us hardlyknow one end of an ID card fromanother, all weve got to do with youis keep an eye on you for ten hoursa day and get paid for it. Thats allwe are. Mind you, what we can do ismake sure that the high officials wework for find out just what sort ofperson it is theyre going to arrest,

and why he should be arrested,before they issue the warrant.Theres no mistake there. Ourauthorities as far as I know, and Ionly know the lowest grades, dontgo out looking for guilt among thepublic; its the guilt that drawsthem out, like it says in the law, andthey have to send us police officersout. Thats the law. Where dyouthink thered be any mistakethere? I dont know this law, saidK. So much the worse for you,then, said the policeman. Its

probably exists only in your heads,said K., he wanted, in some way, toinsinuate his way into the thoughtsof the policemen, to re-shape thosethoughts to his benefit or to makehimself at home there. But thepoliceman just said dismissively,Youll find out when it affects you.Franz joined in, and said, Look atthis, Willem, he admits he doesntknow the law and at the same timeinsists hes innocent. Youre quiteright, but we cant get him tounderstand a thing, said the other.

K. stopped talking with them; do I,he thought to himself, do I reallyhave to carry on getting tangled upwith the chattering of basefunctionaries like this? and theyadmit themselves that they are ofthe lowest position. Theyre talkingabout things of which they donthave the slightest understanding,anyway. Its only because of theirstupidity that theyre able to be sosure of themselves. I just need fewwords with someone of the samesocial standing as myself and

everything will be incomparablyclearer, much clearer than a longconversation with these two canmake it. He walked up and downthe free space in the room a coupleof times, across the street he couldsee the old woman who, now, hadpulled an old man, much older thanherself, up to the window and hadher arms around him. K. had to putan end to this display, Take me toyour superior, he said. As soon ashe wants to see you. Not before,said the policeman, the one called

Willem. And now my advice toyou, he added, is to go into yourroom, stay calm, and wait and seewhats to be done with you. If youtake our advice, you wont tireyourself out thinking about thingsto no purpose, you need to pullyourself together as theres a lotthats going to required of you.Youve not behaved towards us theway we deserve after being so goodto you, you forget that we, whateverwe are, were still free men andyoure not, and thats quite an

advantage. But in spite of all thatwere still willing, if youve got themoney, to go and get you somebreakfast from the caf over theroad.

Without giving any answer tothis offer, K. stood still for sometime. Perhaps, if he opened the doorof the next room or even the frontdoor, the two of them would notdare to stand in his way, perhapsthat would be the simplest way tosettle the whole thing, by bringing itto a head. But maybe they would

grab him, and if he were throwndown on the ground he would loseall the advantage he, in a certainrespect, had over them. So hedecided on the more certainsolution, the way things would go inthe natural course of events, andwent back in his room withoutanother word either from him orfrom the policemen.

He threw himself down on hisbed, and from the dressing table hetook the nice apple that he had putthere the previous evening for his

breakfast. Now it was all thebreakfast he had and anyway, as heconfirmed as soon as he took hisfirst, big bite of it, it was far betterthan a breakfast he could have hadthrough the good will of thepolicemen from the dirty caf. Hefelt well and confident, he hadfailed to go into work at the bankthis morning but that could easilybe excused because of the relativelyhigh position he held there. Shouldhe really send in his explanation?He wondered about it. If nobody

believed him, and in this case thatwould be understandable, he couldbring Mrs. Grubach in as a witness,or even the old pair from across thestreet, who probably even now wereon their way over to the windowopposite. It puzzled K., at least itpuzzled him looking at it from thepolicemens point of view, that theyhad made him go into the room andleft him alone there, where he hadten different ways of killinghimself. At the same time, though,he asked himself, this time looking

at it from his own point of view,what reason he could have to do so.Because those two were sittingthere in the next room and hadtaken his breakfast, perhaps? Itwould have been so pointless to killhimself that, even if he had wantedto, the pointlessness would havemade him unable. Maybe, if thepolicemen had not been soobviously limited in their mentalabilities, it could have beensupposed that they had come to thesame conclusion and saw no danger

in leaving him alone because of it.They could watch now, if theywanted, and see how he went overto the cupboard in the wall wherehe kept a bottle of good schnapps,how he first emptied a glass of it inplace of his breakfast and how hethen took a second glassful in orderto give himself courage, the last onejust as a precaution for the unlikelychance it would be needed.

Then he was so startled by ashout to him from the other roomthat he struck his teeth against the

glass. The supervisor wants to seeyou! a voice said. It was only theshout that startled him, this curt,abrupt, military shout, that hewould not have expected from thepoliceman called Franz. In itself, hefound the order very welcome. Atlast! he called back, locked thecupboard and, without delay,hurried into the next room. The twopolicemen were standing there andchased him back into his bedroomas if that were a matter of course.What dyou think youre doing?

they cried. Think youre going tosee the supervisor dressed in justyour shirt, do you? Hed see to ityou got a right thumping, and usand all! Let go of me for Godssake! called K., who had alreadybeen pushed back as far as hiswardrobe, if you accost me whenIm still in bed you cant expect tofind me in my evening dress. Thatwont help you, said the policemen,who always became very quiet,almost sad, when K. began to shout,and in that way confused him or, to

some extent, brought him to hissenses. Ridiculous formalities! hegrumbled, as he lifted his coat fromthe chair and kept it in both hishands for a little while, as if holdingit out for the policemensinspection. They shook their heads.Its got to be a black coat, theysaid. At that, K. threw the coat tothe floor and said withoutknowing even himself what hemeant by it Well its not going tobe the main trial, after all. Thepolicemen laughed, but continued

to insist, Its got to be a black coat.Well thats alright by me if itmakes things go any faster, said K.He opened the wardrobe himself,spent a long time searching throughall the clothes, and chose his bestblack suit which had a short jacketthat had greatly surprised thosewho knew him, then he also pulledout a fresh shirt and began,carefully, to get dressed. He secretlytold himself that he had succeededin speeding things up by letting thepolicemen forget to make him have

a bath. He watched them to see ifthey might remember after all, butof course it never occurred to them,although Willem did not forget tosend Franz up to the supervisorwith the message saying that K. wasgetting dressed.

Once he was properly dressed,K. had to pass by Willem as he wentthrough the next room into the onebeyond, the door of which wasalready wide open. K. knew verywell that this room had recentlybeen let to a typist called Miss

Brstner. She was in the habit ofgoing out to work very early andcoming back home very late, and K.had never exchanged more than afew words of greeting with her.Now, her bedside table had beenpulled into the middle of the roomto be used as a desk for theseproceedings, and the supervisor satbehind it. He had his legs crossed,and had thrown one arm over thebackrest of the chair.

In one corner of the room therewere three young people looking at

the photographs belonging to MissBrstner that had been put into apiece of fabric on the wall. Hung upon the handle of the open windowwas a white blouse. At the windowacross the street, there was the oldpair again, although now theirnumber had increased, as behindthem, and far taller than they were,stood a man with an open shirt thatshowed his chest and a reddishgoatee beard which he squeezedand twisted with his fingers. JosefK.? asked the supervisor, perhaps

merely to attract K.s attention ashe looked round the room. K.nodded. I daresay you were quitesurprised by all thats been takingplace this morning, said thesupervisor as, with both hands, hepushed away the few items on thebedside table the candle and boxof matches, a book and a pincushion which lay there as if theywere things he would need for hisown business. Certainly, said K.,and he began to feel relaxed nowthat, at last, he stood in front of

someone with some sense,someone with whom he would beable to talk about his situation.Certainly Im surprised, but Imnot in any way very surprised.Youre not very surprised? askedthe supervisor, as he positioned thecandle in the middle of the tableand the other things in a grouparound it. Perhaps you dont quiteunderstand me, K. hurriedlypointed out. What I mean is . . . here K. broke off what he wassaying and looked round for

somewhere to sit. I may sit down,maynt I? he asked. Thats notusual, the supervisor answered.What I mean is . . ., said K.without delaying a second time,that, yes, I am very surprised butwhen youve been in the world forthirty years already and had tomake your own way througheverything yourself, which has beenmy lot, then you become hardenedto surprises and dont take them toohard. Especially not whatshappened today. Why especially

not whats happened today? Iwouldnt want to say that I see all ofthis as a joke, you seem to havegone to too much trouble makingall these arrangements for that.Everyone in the house must betaking part in it as well as all of you,that would be going beyond whatcould be a joke. So I dont want tosay that this is a joke. Quiteright, said the supervisor, lookingto see how many matches were leftin the box. But on the other hand,K. went on, looking round at

everyone there and even wishing hecould get the attention of the threewho were looking at thephotographs, on the other handthis really cant be all thatimportant. That follows from thefact that Ive been indicted, butcant think of the slightest offencefor which I could be indicted. Buteven that is all beside the point, themain question is: Who is issuingthe indictment? What office isconducting this affair? Are youofficials? None of you is wearing a

uniform, unless what you arewearing here he turned towardsFranz is meant to be a uniform,its actually more of a travellingsuit. I require a clear answer to allthese questions, and Im quite surethat once things have been madeclear we can take our leave of eachother on the best of terms. Thesupervisor slammed the box ofmatches down on the table. Youremaking a big mistake, he said.These gentlemen and I have gotnothing to do with your business, in

fact we know almost nothing aboutyou. We could be wearing uniformsas proper and exact as you like andyour situation wouldnt be any theworse for it. As to whether youreon a charge, I cant give you anysort of clear answer to that, I donteven know whether you are or not.Youre under arrest, youre quiteright about that, but I dont knowany more than that. Maybe theseofficers have been chit-chattingwith you, well if they have thats allit is, chit-chat. I cant give you an

answer to your questions, but I cangive you a bit of advice: Youd betterthink less about us and whatsgoing to happen to you, and think abit more about yourself. And stopmaking all this fuss about yoursense of innocence; you dont makesuch a bad impression, but with allthis fuss youre damaging it. Andyou ought to do a bit less talking,too. Almost everything youve saidso far has been things we couldhave taken from your behaviour,even if youd said no more than a

few words. And what you have saidhas not exactly been in yourfavour.

K. stared at the supervisor. Wasthis man, probably younger than hewas, lecturing him like aschoolmaster? Was he beingpunished for his honesty with atelling off? And was he to learnnothing about the reasons for hisarrest or those who were arrestinghim? He became somewhat crossand began to walk up and down.No-one stopped him doing this and

he pushed his sleeves back, felt hischest, straightened his hair, wentover to the three men, said, Itmakes no sense, at which thesethree turned round to face him andcame towards him with seriousexpressions. He finally came againto a halt in front of the supervisorsdesk. State Attorney Hasterer is agood friend of mine, he said, can Itelephone him? Certainly, saidthe supervisor, but I dont knowwhat the point of that will be, Isuppose you must have some

private matter you want to discusswith him. What the point is?shouted K., more disconcerted thatcross. Who do you think you are?You want to see some point in itwhile youre carrying out somethingas pointless as it could be? Itsenough to make you cry! Thesegentlemen first accost me, and nowthey sit or stand about in here andlet me be hauled up in front of you.What point there would be, intelephoning a state attorney whenIm ostensibly under arrest? Very

well, I wont make the telephonecall. You can call him if you wantto, said the supervisor, stretchinghis hand out towards the outerroom where the telephone was,please, go on, do make your phonecall. No, I dont want to anymore, said K., and went over to thewindow. Across the street, thepeople were still there at thewindow, and it was only now that K.had gone up to his window thatthey seemed to become uneasyabout quietly watching what was

going on. The old couple wanted toget up but the man behind themcalmed them down. Weve gotsome kind of audience over there,called K. to the supervisor, quiteloudly, as he pointed out with hisforefinger. Go away, he thencalled across to them. And the threeof them did immediately retreat afew steps, the old pair even foundthemselves behind the man whothen concealed them with thebreadth of his body and seemed,going by the movements of his

mouth, to be saying somethingincomprehensible into the distance.They did not disappear entirely,though, but seemed to be waitingfor the moment when they couldcome back to the window withoutbeing noticed. Intrusive,thoughtless people! said K. as heturned back into the room. Thesupervisor may have agreed withhim, at least K. thought that waswhat he saw from the corner of hiseye. But it was just as possible thathe had not even been listening as

he had his hand pressed firmlydown on the table and seemed to becomparing the length of his fingers.The two policemen were sitting on achest covered with a colouredblanket, rubbing their knees. Thethree young people had put theirhands on their hips and werelooking round aimlessly. Everythingwas still, like in some office thathas been forgotten about. Now,gentlemen, called out K., and for amoment it seemed as if he wascarrying all of them on his

shoulders, it looks like yourbusiness with me is over with. Inmy opinion, its best now to stopwondering about whether youreproceeding correctly or incorrectly,and to bring the matter to apeaceful close with a mutualhandshake. If you are of the sameopinion, then please . . . and hewalked up to the supervisors deskand held out his hand to him. Thesupervisor raised his eyes, bit his lipand looked at K.s outstretchedhand; K still believed the supervisor

would do as he suggested. Butinstead, he stood up, picked up ahard round hat that was laying onMiss Brstners bed and put itcarefully onto his head, using bothhands as if trying on a new hat.Everything seems so simple to you,doesnt it, he said to K. as he didso, so you think we should bringthe matter to a peaceful close, doyou. No, no, that wont do. Mindyou, on the other hand I certainlywouldnt want you to think theresno hope for you. No, why should

you think that? Youre simply underarrest, nothing more than that.Thats what I had to tell you, thatswhat Ive done and now Ive seenhow youve taken it. Thats enoughfor one day and we can take ourleave of each other, for the timebeing at least. I expect youll wantto go in to the bank now, wontyou. In to the bank? asked K., Ithought I was under arrest. K. saidthis with a certain amount ofdefiance as, although his handshakehad not been accepted, he was

feeling more independent of allthese people, especially since thesupervisor had stood up. He wasplaying with them. If they left, hehad decided he would run afterthem and offer to let them arresthim. Thats why he even repeated,How can I go in to the bank whenIm under arrest? I see youvemisunderstood me, said thesupervisor who was already at thedoor. Its true that youre underarrest, but that shouldnt stop youfrom carrying out your job. And

there shouldnt be anything to stopyou carrying on with your usuallife. In that case its not too bad,being under arrest, said K., andwent up close to the supervisor. Inever meant it should be anythingelse, he replied. It hardly seems tohave been necessary to notify me ofthe arrest in that case, said K., andwent even closer. The others hadalso come closer. All of them hadgathered together into a narrowspace by the door. That was myduty, said the supervisor. A silly

duty, said K., unyielding. Maybeso, replied the supervisor, onlydont lets waste our time talking onlike this. I had assumed youd bewanting to go to the bank. As yourepaying close attention to every wordIll add this: Im not forcing you togo to the bank, Id just assumed youwanted to. And to make thingseasier for you, and to let you get tothe bank with as little fuss aspossible Ive put these threegentlemen, colleagues of yours, atyour disposal. Whats that?

exclaimed K., and looked at thethree in astonishment. He couldonly remember seeing them in theirgroup by the photographs, but thesecharacterless, anaemic youngpeople were indeed officials fromhis bank, not colleagues of his, thatwas putting it too high and itshowed a gap in the omniscience ofthe supervisor, but they werenonetheless junior members ofstaff at the bank. How could K. havefailed to see that? How occupied hemust have been with the supervisor

and the policemen not to haverecognised these three!Rabensteiner, with his stiffdemeanour and swinging hands,Kullich, with his blonde hair anddeep-set eyes, and Kaminer, withhis involuntary grin caused bychronic muscle spasms. Goodmorning, said K. after a while,extending his hand to thegentlemen as they bowed correctlyto him. I didnt recognise you atall. So, well go into work now, shallwe? The gentlemen laughed and

nodded enthusiastically, as if thatwas what they had been waiting forall the time, except that K. had lefthis hat in his room so they alldashed, one after another, into theroom to fetch it, which caused acertain amount of embarrassment.K. stood where he was and watchedthem through the open doubledoorway, the last to go, of course,was the apathetic Rabensteiner whohad broken into no more than anelegant trot. Kaminer got to the hatand K., as he often had to do at the

bank, forcibly reminded himselfthat the grin was not deliberate,that he in fact wasnt able to grindeliberately. At that moment Mrs.Grubach opened the door from thehallway into the living room whereall the people were. She did notseem to feel guilty about anythingat all, and K., as often before,looked down at the belt of herapron which, for no reason, cut sodeeply into her hefty body. Oncedownstairs, K., with his watch in hishand, decided to take a taxi he

had already been delayed by half anhour and there was no need tomake the delay any longer. Kaminerran to the corner to summon it, andthe two others were makingobvious efforts to keep K. divertedwhen Kullich pointed to thedoorway of the house on the otherside of the street where the largeman with the blonde goatee beardappeared and, a little embarrassedat first at letting himself be seen inhis full height, stepped back to thewall and leant against it. The old

couple were probably still on thestairs. K. was cross with Kullich forpointing out this man whom he hadalready seen himself, in fact whomhe had been expecting. Dont lookat him! he snapped, withoutnoticing how odd it was to speak tofree men in this way. But there wasno explanation needed anyway asjust then the taxi arrived, they satinside and set off. Inside the taxi, K.remembered that he had notnoticed the supervisor and thepolicemen leaving the supervisor

had stopped him noticing the threebank staff and now the three bankstaff had stopped him noticing thesupervisor. This showed that K. wasnot very attentive, and he resolvedto watch himself more carefully inthis respect. Nonetheless, he gave itno thought as he twisted himselfround and leant over onto the rearshelf of the car to catch sight of thesupervisor and the policemen if hecould. But he turned back roundstraight away and leant comfortablyinto the corner of the taxi without

even having made the effort to seeanyone. Although it did not seemlike it, now was just the time whenhe needed some encouragement,but the gentlemen seemed tired justthen, Rabensteiner looked out ofthe car to the right, Kullich to theleft and only Kaminer was therewith his grin at K.s service. Itwould have been inhumane tomake fun of that.

That spring, whenever possible,K. usually spent his evenings afterwork he usually stayed in the

office until nine oclock with ashort walk, either by himself or inthe company of some of the bankofficials, and then he would go intoa pub where he would sit at theregulars table with mostly oldermen until eleven. There were,however, also exceptions to thishabit, times, for instance, when K.was invited by the banks manager(whom he greatly respected for hisindustry and trustworthiness) to gowith him for a ride in his car or toeat dinner with him at his large

house. K. would also go, once aweek, to see a girl called Elsa whoworked as a waitress in a wine barthrough the night until late in themorning. During the daytime sheonly received visitors while still inbed.

That evening, though, theday had passed quickly with a lot ofhard work and many respectful andfriendly birthday greetings K.wanted to go straight home. Eachtime he had any small break fromthe days work he considered,

without knowing exactly what hehad in mind, that Mrs. Grubachsflat seemed to have been put intogreat disarray by the events of thatmorning, and that it was up to himto put it back into order. Once orderhad been restored, every trace ofthose events would have beenerased and everything would takeits previous course once more. Inparticular, there was nothing to fearfrom the three bank officials, theyhad immersed themselves back intotheir paperwork and there was no

alteration to be seen in them. K.had called each of them, separatelyor all together, into his office thatday for no other reason than toobserve them; he was alwayssatisfied and had always been ableto let them go again.

At half past nine that evening,when he arrived back in front of thebuilding where he lived, he met ayoung lad in the doorway who wasstanding there, his legs apart andsmoking a pipe. Who are you?immediately asked K., bringing his

face close to the lads, as it was hardto see in the half light of thelanding. Im the landlords son,sir, answered the lad, taking thepipe from his mouth and steppingto one side. The landlords son?asked K., and impatiently knockedon the ground with his stick. Didyou want anything, sir? Would youlike me to fetch my father? No,no, said K., there was somethingforgiving in his voice, as if the boyhad harmed him in some way andhe was excusing him. Its alright,

he said then, and went on, butbefore going up the stairs he turnedround once more.

He could have gone directly tohis room, but as he wanted to speakwith Mrs. Grubach he went straightto her door and knocked. She wassat at the table with a knittedstocking and a pile of old stockingsin front of her. K. apologised, a littleembarrassed at coming so late, butMrs. Grubach was very friendly anddid not want to hear any apology,she was always ready to speak to

him, he knew very well that he washer best and her favourite tenant. K.looked round the room, it lookedexactly as it usually did, thebreakfast dishes, which had been onthe table by the window thatmorning, had already been clearedaway. A womans hands will domany things when no-oneslooking, he thought, he mighthimself have smashed all the disheson the spot but certainly would nothave been able to carry it all out. Helooked at Mrs. Grubach with some

gratitude. Why are you working solate? he asked. They were nowboth sitting at the table, and K. nowand then sank his hands into thepile of stockings. Theres a lot ofwork to do, she said, during theday I belong to the tenants; if Im tosort out my own things there areonly the evenings left to me. I fearI may have caused you someexceptional work today. How doyou mean, Mr. K.? she asked,becoming more interested andleaving her work in her lap. I mean

the men who were here thismorning. Oh, I see, she said, andwent peacefully back to what shewas doing, that was no trouble, notespecially. K. looked on in silenceas she took up the knitted stockingonce more. She seems surprised atmy mentioning it, he thought, sheseems to think its improper for meto mention it. All the moreimportant for me to do so. An oldwoman is the only person I canspeak about it with. But it musthave caused some work for you, he

said then, but it wont happenagain. No, it cant happen again,she agreed, and smiled at K. in away that was almost pained. Doyou mean that seriously? asked K.Yes, she said, more gently, butthe important thing is you mustnttake it too hard. There are so manyawful things happening in theworld! As youre being so honestwith me, Mr. K., I can admit to youthat I listened to a little of what wasgoing on from behind the door, andthat those two policemen told me

one or two things as well. Its all todo with your happiness, and thatssomething thats quite close to myheart, perhaps more than it shouldbe as I am, after all, only yourlandlady. Anyway, so I heard one ortwo things but I cant really say thatits about anything very serious. No.You have been arrested, but its notin the same way as when they arresta thief. If youre arrested in thesame way as a thief, then its bad,but an arrest like this . . . . It seemsto me that its something very

complicated forgive me if Imsaying something stupid something very complicated that Idont understand, but somethingthat you dont really need tounderstand anyway.

Theres nothing stupid aboutwhat youve said, Mrs. Grubach, orat least I partly agree with you,only, the way I judge the wholething is harsher than yours, andthink its not only not somethingcomplicated but simply a fuss aboutnothing. I was just caught

unawares, thats what happened. IfI had got up as soon as I was awakewithout letting myself get confusedbecause Anna wasnt there, if Id gotup and paid no regard to anyonewho might have been in my wayand come straight to you, if Id donesomething like having my breakfastin the kitchen as an exception,asked you to bring my clothes frommy room, in short, if I had behavedsensibly then nothing more wouldhave happened, everything that waswaiting to happen would have been

stifled. People are so oftenunprepared. In the bank, forexample, I am well prepared,nothing of this sort could possiblyhappen to me there, I have my ownassistant there, there aretelephones for internal and externalcalls in front of me on the desk, Icontinually receive visits frompeople, representatives, officials,but besides that, and mostimportantly, Im always occupiedwith my work, thats to say Imalways alert, it would even be a

pleasure for me to find myself facedwith something of that sort. Butnow its over with, and I didntreally even want to talk about it anymore, only I wanted to hear whatyou, as a sensible woman, thoughtabout it all, and Im very glad tohear that were in agreement. Butnow you must give me your hand,an agreement of this sort needs tobe confirmed with a handshake.

Will she shake hands with me?The supervisor didnt shake hands,he thought, and looked at the

woman differently from before,examining her. She stood up, as hehad also stood up, and was a littleself-conscious, she hadnt been ableto understand everything that K.said. As a result of this selfconsciousness she said somethingthat she certainly did not intendand certainly was not appropriate.Dont take it so hard, Mr. K., shesaid, with tears in her voice andalso, of course, forgetting thehandshake. I didnt know I wastaking it hard, said K., feeling

suddenly tired and seeing that ifthis woman did agree with him itwas of very little value.

Before going out the door heasked, Is Miss Brstner home?No, said Mrs. Grubach, smiling asshe gave this simple piece ofinformation, saying somethingsensible at last. Shes at thetheatre. Did you want to see her?Should I give her a message? I, er,I just wanted to have a few wordswith her. Im afraid I dont knowwhen shes coming in; she usually

gets back late when shes been tothe theatre. It really doesntmatter, said K. his head hanging ashe turned to the door to leave, Ijust wanted to give her my apologyfor taking over her room today.Theres no need for that, Mr. K.,youre too conscientious, the younglady doesnt know anything aboutit, she hasnt been home since earlythis morning and everythings beentidied up again, you can see foryourself. And she opened the doorto Miss Brstners room. Thank

you, Ill take your word for it, saidK, but went nonetheless over to theopen door. The moon shone quietlyinto the unlit room. As far as couldbe seen, everything was indeed inits place, not even the blouse washanging on the window handle. Thepillows on the bed lookedremarkably plump as they lay halfin the moonlight. Miss Brstneroften comes home late, said K.,looking at Mrs. Grubach as if thatwere her responsibility. Thats howyoung people are! said Mrs.

Grubach to excuse herself. Ofcourse, of course, said K., but itcan be taken too far. Yes, it canbe, said Mrs. Grubach, youre soright, Mr. K. Perhaps it is in thiscase. I certainly wouldnt want tosay anything nasty about MissBrstner, she is a good, sweet girl,friendly, tidy, punctual, works hard,I appreciate all that very much, butone thing is true, she ought to havemore pride, be a bit lessforthcoming. Twice this monthalready, in the street over the way,

Ive seen her with a differentgentleman. I really dont like sayingthis, youre the only one Ive saidthis to, Mr. K., I swear to God, butIm going to have no choice but tohave a few words with MissBrstner about it myself. And itsnot the only thing about her thatIm worried about. Mrs. Grubach,you are on quite the wrong track,said K., so angry that he was hardlyable to hide it, and you havemoreover misunderstood what Iwas saying about Miss Brstner,

that is not what I meant. In fact Iwarn you quite directly not to sayanything to her, you are quitemistaken, I know Miss Brstnervery well and there is no truth at allin what you say. And whats more,perhaps Im going to far, I dontwant to get in your way, say to herwhatever you see fit. Good night.Mr. K., said Mrs. Grubach as ifasking him for something andhurrying to his door which he hadalready opened, I dont want tospeak to Miss Brstner at all, not

yet, of course Ill continue to keepan eye on her but youre the onlyone Ive told what I know. And it is,after all something that everyonewho lets rooms has to do if shes tokeep the house decent, thats all Imtrying to do. Decent! called out K.through the crack in the door, ifyou want to keep the house decentyoull first have to give me notice.Then he slammed the door shut,there was a gentle knocking towhich he paid no more attention.

He did not feel at all like going

to bed, so he decided to stay up, andthis would also give him the chanceto find out when Miss Brstnerwould arrive home. Perhaps itwould also still be possible, even ifa little inappropriate, to have a fewwords with her. As he lay there bythe window, pressing his hands tohis tired eyes, he even thought for amoment that he might punish Mrs.Grubach by persuading MissBrstner to give in her notice at thesame time as he would. But heimmediately realised that that

would be shockingly excessive, andthere would even be the suspicionthat he was moving house becauseof the incidents of that morning.Nothing would have been morenonsensical and, above all, morepointless and contemptible.

When he had become tired oflooking out onto the empty streethe slightly opened the door to theliving room so that he could seeanyone who entered the flat fromwhere he was and lay down on thecouch. He lay there, quietly

smoking a cigar, until about elevenoclock. He wasnt able to hold outlonger than that, and went a littleway into the hallway as if in thatway he could make Miss Brstnerarrive sooner. He had no particulardesire for her, he could not evenremember what she looked like, butnow he wanted to speak to her andit irritated him that her late arrivalhome meant this day would be fullof unease and disorder right to itsvery end. It was also her fault thathe had not had any dinner that

evening and that he had beenunable to visit Elsa as he hadintended. He could still make up forboth of those things, though, if hewent to the wine bar where Elsaworked. He wanted to do so evenlater, after the discussion with MissBrstner.

It was already gone half pasteleven when someone could beheard in the stairway. K., who hadbeen lost in his thoughts in thehallway, walking up and downloudly as if it were his own room,

fled behind his door. Miss Brstnerhad arrived. Shivering, she pulled asilk shawl over her slendershoulders as she locked the door.The next moment she wouldcertainly go into her room, where K.ought not to intrude in the middleof the night; that meant he wouldhave to speak to her now, but,unfortunately, he had not put theelectric light on in his room so thatwhen he stepped out of the dark itwould give the impression of beingan attack and would certainly, at the

very least, have been quitealarming. There was no time tolose, and in his helplessness hewhispered through the crack of thedoor, Miss Brstner. It soundedlike he was pleading with her, notcalling to her. Is there someonethere? asked Miss Brstner,looking round with her eyes wideopen. Its me, said K. and cameout. Oh, Mr. K.! said MissBrstner with a smile. GoodEvening, and offered him herhand. I wanted to have a word with

you, if you would allow me?Now? asked Miss Brstner, doesit have to be now? It is a little odd,isnt it? Ive been waiting for yousince nine oclock. Well, I was atthe theatre, I didnt know anythingabout you waiting for me. Thereason I need to speak to you onlycame up today I see, well I dontsee why not, I suppose, apart frombeing so tired I could drop. Comeinto my room for a few minutesthen. We certainly cant talk outhere, wed wake everyone up and I

think that would be moreunpleasant for us than for them.Wait here till Ive put the light on inmy room, and then turn the lightdown out here. K. did as he wastold, and then even waited untilMiss Brstner came out of herroom and quietly invited him, oncemore, to come in. Sit down, shesaid, indicating the ottoman, whileshe herself remained standing bythe bedpost despite the tirednessshe had spoken of; she did not eventake off her hat, which was small

but decorated with an abundance offlowers. What is it you wanted,then? Im really quite curious. Shegently crossed her legs. I expectyoull say, K. began, that thematter really isnt all that urgentand we dont need to talk about itright now, but . . . I never listen tointroductions, said Miss Brstner.That makes my job so mucheasier, said K. This morning, tosome extent through my fault, yourroom was made a little untidy, thishappened because of people I did

not know and against my will but,as I said, because of my fault; Iwanted to apologise for it. Myroom? asked Miss Brstner, andinstead of looking round the roomscrutinised K. It is true, said K.,and now, for the first time, theylooked each other in the eyes,theres no point in saying exactlyhow this came about. But thatsthe interesting thing about it, saidMiss Brstner. No, said K. Wellthen, said Miss Brstner, I dontwant to force my way into any

secrets, if you insist that its of nointerest I wont insist. Im quitehappy to forgive you for it, as youask, especially as I cant seeanything at all thats been leftuntidy. With her hand laid flat onher lower hip, she made a touraround the room. At the mat wherethe photographs were she stopped.Look at this! she cried. Myphotographs really have been put inthe wrong places. Oh, thatshorrible. Someone really has beenin my room without permission. K.

nodded, and quietly cursed Kaminerwho worked at his bank and whowas always active doing things thathad neither use nor purpose. It isodd, said Miss Brstner, that Imforced to forbid you to dosomething that you ought to haveforbidden yourself to do, namely tocome into my room when Im nothere. But I did explain to you,said K., and went over to join her bythe photographs, that it wasnt mewho interfered with yourphotographs; but as you dont

believe me Ill have to admit thatthe investigating committeebrought along three bankemployees with them, one of themmust have touched yourphotographs and as soon as I getthe chance Ill ask to have himdismissed from the bank. Yes, therewas an investigating committeehere, added K., as the young ladywas looking at him enquiringly.Because of you? she asked. Yes,answered K. No! the lady criedwith a laugh. Yes, they were, said

K., you believe that Im innocentthen, do you? Well now, innocent. . . said the lady, I dont want tostart making any pronouncementsthat might have seriousconsequences, I dont really knowyou after all, it means theyredealing with a serious criminal ifthey send an investigatingcommittee straight out to get him.But youre not in custody now atleast I take it youve not escapedfrom prison considering that youseem quite calm so you cant

have committed any crime of thatsort. Yes, said K., but it might bethat the investigating committeecould see that Im innocent, or notso guilty as had been supposed.Yes, thats certainly a possibility,said Miss Brstner, who seemedvery interested. Listen, said K.,you dont have much experience inlegal matters. No, thats true, Idont, said Miss Brstner, and Iveoften regretted it, as Id like toknow everything and Im veryinterested in legal matters. Theres

something peculiarly attractiveabout the law, isnt there? But Illcertainly be perfecting myknowledge in this area, as nextmonth I start work in a legal office.Thats very good, said K., thatmeans youll be able to give mesome help with my trial. Thatcould well be, said Miss Brstner,why not? I like to make use ofwhat I know. I mean it quiteseriously, said K., or at least, halfseriously, as you do. This affair istoo petty to call in a lawyer, but I

could make good use of someonewho could give me advice. Yes,but if Im to give you advice Illhave to know what its all about,said Miss Brstner. Thats exactlythe problem, said K., I dont knowthat myself. So you have beenmaking fun of me, then, said MissBrstner exceedingly disappointed,you really ought not to trysomething like that on at this timeof night. And she stepped awayfrom the photographs where theyhad stood so long together. Miss

Brstner, no, said K., Im notmaking fun of you. Please believeme! Ive already told you everythingI know. More than I know, in fact,as it actually wasnt even aninvestigating committee, thats justwhat I called them because I dontknow what else to call them. Therewas no cross questioning at all, Iwas merely arrested, but by acommittee. Miss Brstner sat onthe ottoman and laughed again.What was it like then? she asked.It was terrible said K., although

his mind was no longer on thesubject, he had become totallyabsorbed by Miss Brstners gazewho was supporting her chin onone hand the elbow rested on thecushion of the ottoman andslowly stroking her hip with theother. Thats too vague, said MissBrstner. Whats too vague?asked K. Then he rememberedhimself and asked, Would you likeme to show you what it was like?He wanted to move in some waybut did not want to leave. Im

already tired, said Miss Brstner.You arrived back so late, said K.Now youve started telling me off.Well I suppose I deserve it as Ishouldnt have let you in here in thefirst place, and it turns out therewasnt even any point. Oh, therewas a point, youll see now howimportant a point it was, said K.May I move this table away fromyour bedside and put it here?What do you think youre doing?said Miss Brstner. Of course youcant! In that case I cant show

you, said K., quite upset, as if MissBrstner had committed someincomprehensible offence againsthim. Alright then, if you need it toshow what you mean, just take thebedside table then, said MissBrstner, and after a short pauseadded in a weak voice, Im so tiredIm allowing more than I ought to.K. put the little table in the middleof the room and sat down behind it.You have to get a proper idea ofwhere the people were situated, it isvery interesting. Im the supervisor,

sitting over there on the chest aretwo policemen, standing next to thephotographs there are three youngpeople. Hanging on the handle ofthe window is a white blouse Ijust mention that by the way. Andnow it begins. Ah yes, Im forgettingmyself, the most important personof all, so Im standing here in frontof the table. the supervisor is sittingextremely comfortably with his legscrossed and his arm hanging overthe backrest here like somelayabout. And now it really does

begin. the supervisor calls out as ifhe had to wake me up, in fact heshouts at me, Im afraid, if Im tomake it clear to you, Ill have toshout as well, and its nothing morethan my name that he shouts out.Miss Brstner, laughing as shelistened to him, laid her forefingeron her mouth so that K. would notshout, but it was too late. K. was tooengrossed in his role and slowlycalled out, Josef K.!. It was not asloud as he had threatened, butnonetheless, once he had suddenly

called it out, the cry seemedgradually to spread itself all roundthe room.

There was a series of loud, curtand regular knocks at the door ofthe adjoining room. Miss Brstnerwent pale and laid her hand on herheart. K. was especially startled, asfor a moment he had been quiteunable to think of anything otherthan the events of that morning andthe girl for whom he wasperforming them. He had hardlypulled himself together when he

jumped over to Miss Brstner andtook her hand. Dont be afraid, hewhispered, Ill put everything right.But who can it be? Its only theliving room next door, nobodysleeps in there. Yes they do,whispered Miss Brstner into K.sear, a nephew of Mrs. Grubachs,an captain in the army, has beensleeping there since yesterday.Theres no other room free. Idforgotten about it too. Why did youhave to shout like that? Youvemade me quite upset. There is no

reason for it, said K., and, now asshe sank back onto the cushion,kissed her forehead. Go away, goaway, she said, hurriedly sittingback up, get out of here, go, what isit you want, hes listening at thedoor he can hear everything. Yourecausing me so much trouble! Iwont go, said K., until youvecalmed down a bit. Come over intothe other corner of the room, hewont be able to hear us there. Shelet him lead her there. Dontforget, he said, although this

might be unpleasant for you yourenot in any real danger. You knowhow much esteem Mrs. Grubachhas for me, shes the one who willmake all the decisions in this,especially as the captain is hernephew, but she believes everythingI say without question. Whatsmore, she has borrowed a large sumof money from me and that makesher dependent on me. I will confirmwhatever you say to explain ourbeing here together, howeverinappropriate it might be, and I

guarantee to make sure that Mrs.Grubach will not only say shebelieves the explanation in publicbut will believe it truly andsincerely. You will have no need toconsider me in any way. If you wishto let it be known that I haveattacked you then Mrs. Grubachwill be informed of such and shewill believe it without even losingher trust in me, thats how muchrespect she has for me. MissBrstner looked at the floor in frontof her, quiet and a little sunk in on

herself. Why would Mrs. Grubachnot believe that Ive attacked you?added K. He looked at her hair infront of him, parted, bunched down,reddish and firmly held in place. Hethought she would look up at him,but without changing her mannershe said, Forgive me, but it was thesuddenness of the knocking thatstartled me so much, not so muchwhat the consequences of thecaptain being here might be. It wasall so quiet after youd shouted, andthen there was the knocking, thats

was made me so shocked, and I wassitting right by the door, theknocking was right next to me.Thank you for your suggestions, butI wont accept them. I can bear theresponsibility for anything thathappens in my room myself, and Ican do so with anyone. Imsurprised you dont realise just howinsulting your suggestions are andwhat they imply about me, althoughI certainly acknowledge your goodintentions. But now, please go,leave me alone, I need you to go

now even more than I did earlier.The couple of minutes you askedfor have grown into half an hour,more than half an hour now. K.took hold of her hand, and then ofher wrist, Youre not cross withme, though? he said. She pulledher hand away and answered, No,no, Im never cross with anyone.He grasped her wrist once more,she tolerated it now and, in thatway, lead him to the door. He hadfully intended to leave. But when hereached the door he came to a halt

as if he hadnt expected to find adoor there, Miss Brstner made useof that moment to get herself free,open the door, slip out into thehallway and gently say to K. fromthere, Now, come along, please.Look, she pointed to the captainsdoor, from under which there was alight shining, hes put a light onand hes laughing at us. Alright,Im coming, said K., movedforward, took hold of her, kissedher on the mouth and then over herwhole face like a thirsty animal

lapping with its tongue when iteventually finds water. He finallykissed her on her neck and herthroat and left his lips pressed therefor a long time. He did not look upuntil there was a noise from thecaptains room. Ill go now, hesaid, he wanted to address MissBrstner by her Christian name, butdid not know it. She gave him atired nod, offered him her hand tokiss as she turned away as if she didnot know what she was doing, andwent back into her room with her

head bowed. A short while later, K.was lying in his bed. He very soonwent to sleep, but before he did hethought a little while about hisbehaviour, he was satisfied with itbut felt some surprise that he wasnot more satisfied; he was seriouslyworried about Miss Brstnerbecause of the captain.

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at 10:52

The Trial, by Franz Kafka

K.

CHAPTER TWO

FIRST CROSS-EXAMINATION

was informed bytelephone that therewould be a small hearing

concerning his case the followingSunday. He was made aware thatthese cross examinations wouldfollow one another regularly,perhaps not every week but quite

frequently. On the one hand it wasin everyones interest to bringproceedings quickly to theirconclusion, but on the other handevery aspect of the examinationshad to be carried out thoroughlywithout lasting too long because ofthe associated stress. For thesereasons, it had been decided to holda series of brief examinationsfollowing on one after another.Sunday had been chosen as the dayfor the hearings so that K. wouldnot be disturbed in his professional

work. It was assumed that he wouldbe in agreement with this, but if hewished for another date then, as faras possible, he would beaccommodated. Cross-examinationscould even be held in the night, forinstance, but K. would probably notbe fresh enough at that time.Anyway, as long as K. made noobjection, the hearing would be lefton Sundays. It was a matter ofcourse that he would have to appearwithout fail, there was probably noneed to point this out to him. He

would be given the number of thebuilding where he was to presenthimself, which was in a street in asuburb well away from the citycentre which K. had never been tobefore.

Once he had received thisnotice, K. hung up the receiverwithout giving an answer; he haddecided immediately to go therethat Sunday, it was certainlynecessary, proceedings had begunand he had to face up to it, and thisfirst examination would probably

also be the last. He was stillstanding in thought by thetelephone when he heard the voiceof the deputy director behind him he wanted to use the telephone butK. stood in his way. Bad news?asked the deputy director casually,not in order to find anything outbut just to get K. away from thedevice. No, no, said K., he steppedto one side but did not go awayentirely. The deputy director pickedup the receiver and, as he waited forhis connection, turned away from it

and said to K., One question, Mr.K.: Would you like to give me thepleasure of joining me on mysailing boat on Sunday morning?Theres quite a few people coming,youre bound to know some ofthem. One of them is Hasterer, thestate attorney. Would you like tocome along? Do come along! K.tried to pay attention to what thedeputy director was saying. It wasof no small importance for him, asthis invitation from the deputydirector, with whom he had never

got on very well, meant that he wastrying to improve his relations withhim. It showed how important K.had become in the bank and how itssecond most important officialseemed to value his friendship, orat least his impartiality. He wasonly speaking at the side of thetelephone receiver while he waitedfor his connection, but in giving thisinvitation the deputy director washumbling himself. But K. wouldhave to humiliate him a secondtime as a result, he said, Thank you

very much, but Im afraid I willhave no time on Sunday, I have aprevious obligation. Pity, said thedeputy director, and turned to thetelephone conversation that hadjust been connected. It was not ashort conversation, but K.,remained standing confused by theinstrument all the time it was goingon. It was only when the deputydirector hung up that he wasshocked into awareness and said, inorder to partially excuse hisstanding there for no reason, Ive

just received a telephone call,theres somewhere I need to go, butthey forgot to tell me what time.Ask them then, said the deputydirector. Its not that important,said K., although in that way hisearlier excuse, already weakenough, was made even weaker. Ashe went, the deputy directorcontinued to speak about otherthings. K. forced himself to answer,but his thoughts were mainly aboutthat Sunday, how it would be bestto get there for nine oclock in the

morning as that was the time thatcourts always start work onweekdays.

The weather was dull onSunday. K. was very tired, as he hadstayed out drinking until late in thenight celebrating with some of theregulars, and he had almostoverslept. He dressed hurriedly,without the time to think andassemble the various plans he hadworked out during the week. Withno breakfast, he rushed to thesuburb he had been told about.

Oddly enough, although he hadlittle time to look around him, hecame across the three bank officialsinvolved in his case, Rabensteiner,Kullich and Kaminer. The first twowere travelling in a tram that wentacross K.s route, but Kaminer saton the terrace of a caf and leantcuriously over the wall as K. cameover. All of them seemed to belooking at him, surprised at seeingtheir superior running; it was a kindof pride that made K. want to go onfoot, this was his affair and the idea

of any help from strangers, howeverslight, was repulsive to him, he alsowanted to avoid asking for anyoneshelp because that would initiatethem into the affair even if onlyslightly. And after all, he had nowish at all to humiliate himselfbefore the committee by being toopunctual. Anyway, now he wasrunning so that he would get thereby nine oclock if at all possible,even though he had noappointment for this time.

He had thought that he would

recognise the building from adistance by some kind of sign,without knowing exactly what thesign would look like, or from someparticular kind of activity outsidethe entrance. K. had been told thatthe building was in Juliusstrasse,but when he stood at the streetsentrance it consisted on each side ofalmost nothing but monotonous,grey constructions, tall blocks offlats occupied by poor people. Now,on a Sunday morning, most of thewindows were occupied, men in

their shirtsleeves leant outsmoking, or carefully and gentlyheld small children on the sills.Other windows were piled up withbedding, above which thedishevelled head of a woman wouldbriefly appear. People called out toeach other across the street, one ofthe calls provoked a loud laughabout K. himself. It was a longstreet, and spaced evenly along itwere small shops below street level,selling various kinds of foodstuffs,which you reached by going down a

few steps. Women went in and outof them or stood chatting on thesteps. A fruitmonger, taking hisgoods up to the windows, was justas inattentive as K. and nearlyknocked him down with his cart.Just then, a gramophone, which inbetter parts of town would havebeen seen as worn out, began toplay some murderous tune.

K. went further into the street,slowly, as if he had plenty of timenow, or as if the examiningmagistrate were looking at him

from one of the windows andtherefore knew that K. had foundhis way there. It was shortly afternine. The building was quite fardown the street, it covered so mucharea it was almost extraordinary,and the gateway in particular wastall and long. It was clearly intendedfor delivery wagons belonging tothe various warehouses all roundthe yard which were now locked upand carried the names of companiessome of which K. knew from hiswork at the bank. In contrast with

his usual habits, he remainedstanding a while at the entrance tothe yard taking in all these externaldetails. Near him, there was a bare-footed man sitting on a crate andreading a newspaper. There weretwo lads swinging on a hand cart. Infront of a pump stood a weak,young girl in a bedjacket who, asthe water flowed into her can,looked at K. There was a piece ofrope stretched between twowindows in a corner of the yard,with some washing hanging on it to

dry. A man stood below it callingout instructions to direct the workbeing done.

K. went over to the stairway toget to the room where the hearingwas to take place, but then stoodstill again as besides these steps hecould see three other stairwayentrances, and there also seemed tobe a small passageway at the end ofthe yard leading into a second yard.It irritated him that he had not beengiven more precise directions to theroom, it meant they were either

being especially neglectful with himor especially indifferent, and hedecided to make that clear to themvery loudly and veryunambiguously. In the end hedecided to climb up the stairs, histhoughts playing on something thathe remembered the policeman,Willem, saying to him; that thecourt is attracted by the guilt, fromwhich it followed that thecourtroom must be on the stairwaythat K. selected by chance.

As he went up he disturbed a

large group of children playing onthe stairs who looked at him as hestepped through their rows. Nexttime I come here, he said tohimself, I must either bring sweetswith me to make them like me or astick to hit them with. Just beforehe reached the first landing he evenhad to wait a little while until a ballhad finished its movement, twosmall lads with sly faces like grown-up scoundrels held him by histrouser-legs until it had; if he wereto shake them off he would have to

hurt them, and he was afraid ofwhat noise they would make byshouting.

On the first floor, his searchbegan for real. He still felt unable toask for the investigating committee,and so he invented a joiner calledLanz that name occurred to himbecause the captain, Mrs. Grubachsnephew, was called Lanz so thathe could ask at every flat whetherLanz the joiner lived there and thusobtain a chance to look into therooms. It turned out, though, that

that was mostly possible withoutfurther ado, as almost all the doorswere left open and the children ranin and out. Most of them weresmall, one-windowed rooms wherethey also did the cooking. Manywomen held babies in one arm andworked at the stove with the other.Half grown girls, who seemed to bedressed in just their pinaforesworked hardest running to and fro.In every room, the beds were still inuse by people who were ill, or stillasleep, or people stretched out on

them in their clothes. K. knocked atthe flats where the doors wereclosed and asked whether Lanz thejoiner lived there. It was usually awoman who opened the door, heardthe enquiry and turned tosomebody in the room who wouldraise himself from the bed. Thegentlemans asking if a joiner calledLanz, lives here. A joiner, calledLanz? he would ask from the bed.Thats right, K. would say,although it was clear that theinvestigating committee was not to

be found there, and so his task wasat an end. There were many whothought it must be very importantfor K. to find Lanz the joiner andthought long about it, naming ajoiner who was not called Lanz orgiving a name that had some vaguesimilarity with Lanz, or they askedneighbours or accompanied K. to adoor a long way away where theythought someone of that sort mightlive in the back part of the buildingor where someone would be whocould advise K. better than they

could themselves. K. eventually hadto give up asking if he did not wantto be led all round from floor tofloor in this way. He regretted hisinitial plan, which had at firstseemed so practical to him. As hereached the fifth floor, he decidedto give up the search, took his leaveof a friendly, young worker whowanted to lead him on still furtherand went down the stairs. But thenthe thought of how much time hewas wasting made him cross, hewent back again and knocked at the

first door on the fifth floor. The firstthing he saw in the small room wasa large clock on the wall whichalready showed ten oclock. Isthere a joiner called Lanz who liveshere? he asked. Pardon? said ayoung woman with black, shiningeyes who was, at that moment,washing childrens underclothes ina bucket. She pointed her wet handtowards the open door of theadjoining room.

K. thought he had stepped intoa meeting. A medium sized, two

windowed room was filled with themost diverse crowd of people nobody paid any attention to theperson who had just entered. Closeunder its ceiling it was surroundedby a gallery which was also fullyoccupied and where the peoplecould only stand bent down withtheir heads and their backstouching the ceiling. K., who foundthe air too stuffy, stepped out againand said to the young woman, whohad probably misunderstood whathe had said, I asked for a joiner,

someone by the name of Lanz.Yes, said the woman, please goon in. K. would probably not havefollowed her if the woman had notgone up to him, taken hold of thedoor handle and said, Ill have toclose the door after you, no-one elsewill be allowed in. Very sensible,said K., but its too full already.But then he went back in anyway.He passed through between twomen who were talking beside thedoor one of them held bothhands far out in front of himself

making the movements of countingout money, the other looked himclosely in the eyes and someonetook him by the hand. It was asmall, red-faced youth. Come in,come in, he said. K. let himself beled by him, and it turned out thatthere was surprisingly in adensely packed crowd of peoplemoving to and fro a narrowpassage which may have been thedivision between two factions; thisidea was reinforced by the fact thatin the first few rows to the left and

the right of him there was hardlyany face looking in his direction, hesaw nothing but the backs of peopledirecting their speech and theirmovements only towards membersof their own side. Most of themwere dressed in black, in old, long,formal frock coats that hung downloosely around them. These clotheswere the only thing that puzzled K.,as he would otherwise have takenthe whole assembly for a localpolitical meeting.

At the other end of the hall

where K. had been led there was alittle table set at an angle on a verylow podium which was asovercrowded as everywhere else,and behind the table, near the edgeof the podium, sat a small, fat,wheezing man who was talking withsomeone behind him. This secondman was standing with his legscrossed and his elbows on thebackrest of the chair, provokingmuch laughter. From time to timehe threw his arm in the air as ifdoing a caricature of someone. The

youth who was leading K. had somedifficulty in reporting to the man.He had already tried twice to tellhim something, standing on tip-toe,but without getting the mansattention as he sat there above him.It was only when one of the peopleup on the podium drew hisattention to the youth that the manturned to him and leant down tohear what it was he quietly said.Then he pulled out his watch andquickly looked over at K. Youshould have been here one hour

and five minutes ago, he said. K.was going to give him a reply buthad no time to do so, as hardly hadthe man spoken than a generalmuttering arose all over the righthand side of the hall. You shouldhave been here one hour and fiveminutes ago, the man nowrepeated, raising his voice this time,and quickly looked round the hallbeneath him. The muttering alsobecame immediately louder and, asthe man said nothing more, diedaway only gradually. Now the hall

was much quieter than when K. hadentered. Only the people up in thegallery had not stopped passingremarks. As far as could bedistinguished, up in the half-darkness, dust and haze, theyseemed to be less well dressed thanthose below. Many of them hadbrought pillows that they had putbetween their heads and the ceilingso that they would not hurtthemselves pressed against it.

K. had decided he would domore watching than talking, so he

did not defend himself forsupposedly having come late, andsimply said, Well maybe I havearrived late, Im here now. Therefollowed loud applause, once morefrom the right hand side of the hall.Easy people to get on your side,thought K., and was bothered onlyby the quiet from the left hand sidewhich was directly behind him andfrom which there was applausefrom only a few individuals. Hewondered what he could say to getall of them to support him together

or, if that were not possible, to atleast get the support of the othersfor a while.

Yes, said the man, but Imnow no longer under any obligationto hear your case there was oncemore a muttering, but this time itwas misleading as the man wavedthe peoples objections aside withhis hand and continued I will,however, as an exception, continuewith it today. But you should neverarrive late like this again. And now,step forward! Someone jumped

down from the podium so thatthere would be a place free for K.,and K. stepped up onto it. He stoodpressed closely against the table,the press of the crowd behind himwas so great that he had to pressback against it if he did not want topush the judges desk down off thepodium and perhaps the judgealong with it.

The judge, however, paid noattention to that but sat verycomfortably on his chair and, aftersaying a few words to close his

discussion with the man behindhim, reached for a little note book,the only item on his desk. It waslike an old school exercise book andhad become quite misshapen frommuch thumbing. Now then, saidthe judge, thumbing through thebook. He turned to K. with the toneof someone who knows his factsand said, you are a house painter?No, said K., I am the chief clerkin a large bank. This reply wasfollowed by laughter among theright hand faction down in the hall,

it was so hearty that K. couldntstop himself joining in with it. Thepeople supported themselves withtheir hands on their knees andshook as if suffering a seriousattack of coughing. Even some ofthose in the gallery were laughing.The judge had become quite crossbut seemed to have no power overthose below him in the hall, he triedto reduce what harm had been donein the gallery and jumped upthreatening them, his eyebrows,until then hardly remarkable,

pushed themselves up and becamebig, black and bushy over his eyes.

The left hand side of the hallwas still quiet, though, the peoplestood there in rows with their faceslooking towards the podiumlistening to what was being saidthere, they observed the noise fromthe other side of the hall with thesame quietness and even allowedsome individuals from their ownranks, here and there, to go forwardinto the other faction. The people inthe left faction were not only fewer

in number than the right butprobably were no more importantthan them, although theirbehaviour was calmer and thatmade it seem like they were. WhenK. now began to speak he wasconvinced he was doing it in thesame way as them.

Your question, My Lord, as towhether I am a house painter infact even more than that, you didnot ask at all but merely imposed iton me is symptomatic of thewhole way these proceedings

against me are being carried out.Perhaps you will object that thereare no proceedings against me. Youwill be quite right, as there areproceedings only if I acknowledgethat there are. But, for the moment,I do acknowledge it, out of pity foryourselves to a large extent. Itsimpossible not to observe all thisbusiness without feeling pity. Idont say things are being donewithout due care but I would like tomake it clear that it is I who makethe acknowledgement.

K. stopped speaking and lookeddown into the hall. He had spokensharply, more sharply than he hadintended, but he had been quiteright. It should have been rewardedwith some applause here and therebut everything was quiet, they wereall clearly waiting for what wouldfollow, perhaps the quietness waslaying the ground for an outbreak ofactivity that would bring this wholeaffair to an end. It was somewhatdisturbing that just then the door atthe end of the hall opened, the

young washerwoman, who seemedto have finished her work, came inand, despite all her caution,attracted the attention of some ofthe people there. It was only thejudge who gave K. any directpleasure, as he seemed to have beenimmediately struck by K.s words.Until then, he had listened to himstanding, as K.s speech had takenhim by surprise while he wasdirecting his attention to thegallery. Now, in the pause, he satdown very slowly, as if he did not

want anyone to notice. He took outthe notebook again, probably sothat he could give the impression ofbeing calmer.

That wont help you, sir, continued K., even your little bookwill only confirm what I say. K.was satisfied to hear nothing buthis own quiet words in this roomfull of strangers, and he even daredcasually to pick up the examiningjudges notebook and, touching itonly with the tips of his fingers as ifit were something revolting, lifted it

in the air, holding it just by one ofthe middle pages so that the otherson each side of it, closely written,blotted and yellowing, flappeddown. Those are the official notesof the examining judge, he said,and let the notebook fall down ontothe desk. You can read in yourbook as much as you like, sir, Ireally dont have anything in thischarge book to be afraid of, eventhough I dont have access to it as Iwouldnt want it in my hand, I canonly touch it with two fingers. The

judge grabbed the notebook fromwhere it had fallen on the desk which could only have been a signof his deep humiliation, or at leastthat is how it must have beenperceived tried to tidy it up alittle, and held it once more in frontof himself in order to read from it.

The people in the front rowlooked up at him, showing suchtension on their faces that helooked back down at them for sometime. Every one of them was an oldman, some of them with white

beards. Could they perhaps be thecrucial group who could turn thewhole assembly one way or theother? They had sunk into a state ofmotionlessness while K. gave hisoration, and it had not beenpossible to raise them from thispassivity even when the judge wasbeing humiliated. What hashappened to me, continued K.,with less of the vigour he had hadearlier, he continually scanned thefaces in the first row, and this gavehis address a somewhat nervous

and distracted character, what hashappened to me is not just anisolated case. If it were it would notbe of much importance as its not ofmuch importance to me, but it is asymptom of proceedings which arecarried out against many. Its onbehalf of them that I stand herenow, not for myself alone.

Without having intended it, hehad raised his voice. Somewhere inthe hall, someone raised his handsand applauded him shouting,Bravo! Why not then? Bravo!

Again I say, Bravo! Some of themen in the first row groped aroundin their beards, none of themlooked round to see who wasshouting. Not even K. thought himof any importance but it did raisehis spirits; he no longer thought itat all necessary that all of those inthe hall should applaud him, it wasenough if the majority of thembegan to think about the matter andif only one of them, now and then,was persuaded.

Im not trying to be a

successful orator, said K. after thisthought, thats probably more thanIm capable of anyway. Im sure theexamining judge can speak farbetter than I can, it is part of his jobafter all. All that I want is a publicdiscussion of a public wrong.Listen: ten days ago I was placedunder arrest, the arrest itself issomething I laugh about but thatsbeside the point. They came for mein the morning when I was still inbed. Maybe the order had beengiven to arrest some house painter

that seems possible after whatthe judge has said someone whois as innocent as I am, but it was methey chose. There were two policethugs occupying the next room.They could not have taken betterprecautions if I had been adangerous robber. And thesepolicemen were unprincipled riff-raff, they talked at me till I was sickof it, they wanted bribes, theywanted to trick me into giving themmy clothes, they wanted money,supposedly so that they could bring

me my breakfast after they hadblatantly eaten my own breakfast infront of my eyes. And even that wasnot enough. I was led in front of thesupervisor in another room. Thiswas the room of a lady who I have alot of respect for, and I was forcedto look on while the supervisor andthe policemen made quite a mess ofthis room because of me, althoughnot through any fault of mine. Itwas not easy to stay calm, but Imanaged to do so and wascompletely calm when I asked the

supervisor why it was that I wasunder arrest. If he were here hewould have to confirm what I say. Ican see him now, sitting on thechair belonging to that lady Imentioned a picture of dull-witted arrogance. What do youthink he answered? What he toldme, gentlemen, was basicallynothing at all; perhaps he really didknow nothing, he had placed meunder arrest and was satisfied. Infact he had done more than thatand brought three junior employees

from the bank where I work intothe ladys room; they had madethemselves busy interfering withsome photographs that belonged tothe lady and causing a mess. Therewas, of course, another reason forbringing these employees; they, justlike my landlady and her maid, wereexpected to spread the news of myarrest and damage my publicreputation and in particular toremove me from my position at thebank. Well they didnt succeed inany of that, not in the slightest,

even my landlady, who is quite asimple person and I will give youhere her name in full respect, hername is Mrs. Grubach even Mrs.Grubach was understanding enoughto see that an arrest like this has nomore significance than an attackcarried out on the street by someyouths who are not kept underproper control. I repeat, this wholeaffair has caused me nothing butunpleasantness and temporaryirritation, but could it not also havehad some far worse consequences?

K. broke off here and looked atthe judge, who said nothing. As hedid so he thought he saw the judgeuse a movement of his eyes to givea sign to someone in the crowd. K.smiled and said, And now thejudge, right next to me, is giving asecret sign to someone among you.There seems to be someone amongyou who is taking directions fromabove. I dont know whether thesign is meant to produce booing orapplause, but Ill resist trying toguess what its meaning is too soon.

It really doesnt matter to me, and Igive his lordship the judge my fulland public permission to stop givingsecret signs to his paid subordinatedown there and give his orders inwords instead; let him just say Boonow!, and then the next time Clapnow!.

Whether it was embarrassmentor impatience, the judge rockedbackwards and forwards on his seat.The man behind him, whom he hadbeen talking with earlier, leantforward again, either to give him a

few general words ofencouragement or some specificpiece of advice. Below them in thehall the people talked to each otherquietly but animatedly. The twofactions had earlier seemed to holdviews strongly opposed to eachother but now they began tointermingle, a few individualspointed up at K., others pointed atthe judge. The air in the room wasfuggy and extremely oppressive,those who were standing furthestaway could hardly even be seen

through it. It must have beenespecially troublesome for thosevisitors who were in the gallery, asthey were forced to quietly ask theparticipants in the assembly whatexactly was happening, albeit withtimid glances at the judge. Thereplies they received were just asquiet, and given behind theprotection of a raised hand.

I have nearly finished what Ihave to say, said K., and as therewas no bell available he struck thedesk with his fist in a way that

startled the judge and his advisorand made them look up from eachother. None of this concerns me,and I am therefore able to make acalm assessment of it, and,assuming that this so-called court isof any real importance, it will bevery much to your advantage tolisten to what I have to say. If youwant to discuss what I say, pleasedont bother to write it down untillater on, I dont have any time towaste and Ill soon be leaving.

There was immediate silence,

which showed how well K. was incontrol of the crowd. There were noshouts among them as there hadbeen at the start, no-one evenapplauded, but if they werentalready persuaded they seemed veryclose to it.

K was pleased at the tensionamong all the people there as theylistened to him, a rustling rose fromthe si