Excursion into the Mountains
by Franz Kafka
Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir
‘I don’t know,’ I cried without being heard, ‘I do not know, If nobody comes, then nobody comes. I’ve done nobody any harm, nobody’s done me any harm, but nobody will help me. A pack of nobodies. Yet that isn’t all true. Only, that nobody helps me – a pack of nobodies would be rather fine, on the other hand. I’d love to go on an excursion – why not? – with a pack of nobodies. Into the mountains, of course, where else? How these nobodies jostle each other, all these lifted arms linked together, these numberless feet treading so close! Of course they are all in dress suits. We go so gaily, the wind blows through us and the gaps in our company. Our throats swell and are free in the mountains! It’s a wonder that we don’t burst into song.’
I think it’s about a lonely man who invited people to a celebration of some sort,most likely knowing that no one will show up.He then gets into a wordplay calling them nobodies,and as his thoughts go on he thinks about how it would kinda be nice to have some “nobodies” to hang around with and have fun in the mountains.
He can imagine vividly the things he would do with his friends,if he had them.
Is my understanding somehow correct or did the meaning fly over my head?
by Silver-Elk-8140