CONVERSATIONS WITH KAFKA
169
"What are riches? For someone an old shirt is riches. Others
are poor on ten millions. Wealth is something completely relative
and unsatisfying. Fundamentally it is only a special situation. Wealth
implies dependence on things which one possesses and which have
to be safeguarded from dwindling away by new possessions and a
further dependence. It is merely materialized insecurity. But-all
that belongs to my parents, not me."
My first walk with Franz Kafka ended in the following way.
Our circuit of the Ring had brought us back to the Kinsky
Palais, when out of the warehouse, with the business sign HERMANN
KAFKA, emerged a tall, broad man in a dark overcoat and a shining
hat. He remained standing about five steps away from us and waited.
As
we came three paces nearer, the man said, very loudly:
"Franz. Go home. The air is damp."
Kafka said, in a strangely gentle voice:
"My father. He is anxious about me. Love often wears the face
of violence. Come and see me."
I bowed. Franz Kafka departed, without shaking hands.
I had called on Franz Kafka in his office at the very moment
when a proof copy of his story,
In the Penal Colony,
arrived by post.
Kafka opened the gray wrapper, without knowing what it con–
tained. But when he opened the green-and-black bound volume and
recognized his work, he was obviously embarrassed.
He opened the drawer of his desk, looked at me, closed the
drawer, and handed me the book.
"You will certainly want to see the book."
I answered with a smile, opened the volume, gave a hurried
look
at the printing and paper and gave him the book back, as I
realized his nervousness.
"It is beautifully done," I said.
"A
really representative Drugul
Press production. You should be very satisfied, Herr Doktor."
"That I really am not," said Franz Kafka, and pushed the book
carelessly into a drawer, which he closed. "Publication of some
scribble of mine always upsets me."
"Then why do you allow it to be printed?"
"That's just it! Max Brod, Felix Weltsch, all my friends always
take possession of something I have written and then take me by
