me casually. He had been having all sorts of curious thoughts about the events of the morning, he said. When he greeted us, he had not paused in his walk; we joined him. Our presence seemed not to disturb him. From here, I thought, you probably had the finest view of the entire country.
Prince Saurau said that he had evidently overestimated the difficulty of finding a new steward after the old one’s death. Just this morning, the very day his advertisement had appeared in the newspaper, three men had already presented themselves: a man of thirty-four, named Henzig, who at firstseemed to him too young; another of fifty, named Huber, who seemed to him too old, and a man of forty-two, named Zehetmayer, who knew nothing at all about forest management, a poor madman, who came originally from farm stock in the Puschach Valley and was a former schoolteacher. Zehetmayer had appeared shortly after eight o’clock to apply for the post of steward at Hochgobernitz. He was a man equipped with numerous talents, but all of them ultimately disastrous for him. And considering his age of forty-two he was in a shameful physical state (heart, lungs, and so on). The prince had quickly made it clear that this post of steward would be far beyond his strength, and that it would be helpful neither to the prince nor himself if he hired him. “Not even on probation,” the prince had said. “No, I won’t hire you even on probation!” The two others had turned up immediately afterward, Henzig at ten, Huber at eleven. “I dealt with them in the office,” the prince said. “There was no need of my convincing Zehetmayer that it was pointless for him to enter my service, that this post as steward entailed the very highest demands and the most difficult conditions. But in general, I said—and it was ridiculous to have to say it—in general, I said, I had the impression that the man was overestimating his strength. You overestimate your strength by far! I said, and Zehetmayer, naturally enough, because he isn’t stupid, Zehetmayer did not say a word in protest to what I said to him, and I said nothing but remonstrances. Of course, every objection I had to make against him,” the prince said, “had the greatest impact. Indeed I felt that at once: This is a man I can speak to with complete honesty. Although he is weak, although his whole constitution is weak, the weakest imaginable, I need not handle him withkid gloves; I can tell him straight out everything I think, and I thought (at first) nothing good about the man, for I instantly saw through him, yes in the very moment he entered the room, like a tragedy that suddenly steps straight into my room. It was as if I saw a life-size and then a more than life-size stereotype of a primordial human tragedy whose name is Zehetmayer, Augustine Zehetmayer.” The prince said: “This whole man in his comfortable but cheap clothes is nothing but the stereotyped image of all human poverty and inadequacy. What I said and what
he
said, everything I did and everything I thought and what
he
did, pretended to do, what I pretended to do and what
he
thought, it was all this stereotype, this stereotyped idea of the inadequacy, poverty, frailty, inferiority, deathly weariness of human existence, and I instantly had the impression that a sick man had entered my house, that I was dealing with a sick man, with someone in need of help. Whatever I said was spoken to a sick man, Doctor, and what I heard, Doctor, came from the lips of a sick man, from an extremely submissive, morbid brain which is filled with the most fantastic but embarrassingly derailed notions that in themselves reveal him for what he is.… The man had no idea of what he wanted, and I made him aware of this in the most forceful way; I said that what he was doing was morbid, that his whole life was a morbid life, his existence a morbid existence, and consequently everything he was doing was irrational, if not utterly senseless. Irrational for him to
Prince Saurau said that he had evidently overestimated the difficulty of finding a new steward after the old one’s death. Just this morning, the very day his advertisement had appeared in the newspaper, three men had already presented themselves: a man of thirty-four, named Henzig, who at firstseemed to him too young; another of fifty, named Huber, who seemed to him too old, and a man of forty-two, named Zehetmayer, who knew nothing at all about forest management, a poor madman, who came originally from farm stock in the Puschach Valley and was a former schoolteacher. Zehetmayer had appeared shortly after eight o’clock to apply for the post of steward at Hochgobernitz. He was a man equipped with numerous talents, but all of them ultimately disastrous for him. And considering his age of forty-two he was in a shameful physical state (heart, lungs, and so on). The prince had quickly made it clear that this post of steward would be far beyond his strength, and that it would be helpful neither to the prince nor himself if he hired him. “Not even on probation,” the prince had said. “No, I won’t hire you even on probation!” The two others had turned up immediately afterward, Henzig at ten, Huber at eleven. “I dealt with them in the office,” the prince said. “There was no need of my convincing Zehetmayer that it was pointless for him to enter my service, that this post as steward entailed the very highest demands and the most difficult conditions. But in general, I said—and it was ridiculous to have to say it—in general, I said, I had the impression that the man was overestimating his strength. You overestimate your strength by far! I said, and Zehetmayer, naturally enough, because he isn’t stupid, Zehetmayer did not say a word in protest to what I said to him, and I said nothing but remonstrances. Of course, every objection I had to make against him,” the prince said, “had the greatest impact. Indeed I felt that at once: This is a man I can speak to with complete honesty. Although he is weak, although his whole constitution is weak, the weakest imaginable, I need not handle him withkid gloves; I can tell him straight out everything I think, and I thought (at first) nothing good about the man, for I instantly saw through him, yes in the very moment he entered the room, like a tragedy that suddenly steps straight into my room. It was as if I saw a life-size and then a more than life-size stereotype of a primordial human tragedy whose name is Zehetmayer, Augustine Zehetmayer.” The prince said: “This whole man in his comfortable but cheap clothes is nothing but the stereotyped image of all human poverty and inadequacy. What I said and what
he
said, everything I did and everything I thought and what
he
did, pretended to do, what I pretended to do and what
he
thought, it was all this stereotype, this stereotyped idea of the inadequacy, poverty, frailty, inferiority, deathly weariness of human existence, and I instantly had the impression that a sick man had entered my house, that I was dealing with a sick man, with someone in need of help. Whatever I said was spoken to a sick man, Doctor, and what I heard, Doctor, came from the lips of a sick man, from an extremely submissive, morbid brain which is filled with the most fantastic but embarrassingly derailed notions that in themselves reveal him for what he is.… The man had no idea of what he wanted, and I made him aware of this in the most forceful way; I said that what he was doing was morbid, that his whole life was a morbid life, his existence a morbid existence, and consequently everything he was doing was irrational, if not utterly senseless. Irrational for him to
Similar Books
