Home VHS: Kafka Animated - A Message from the Emperor

The emperor - it is said - sent to you, the one apart, the wretched subject...

...the tiny shadow that fled far, far from the imperial sun, precisely to you...

...he sent a message from his deathbed. He bade the messenger kneel...

... by his bed, and whispered the message in his ear.

And before the entire spectatorship of his death...

...all obstructing walls have been torn down and the great figures...

...of the empire stand in a ring upon the broad, soaring exterior stairways.

Before all these he dispatched the messenger.

The messenger set out at once; a strong, an indefatigable man...

...thrusting forward now this arm, now the other, he cleared a path...

Every time he meets resistance he points to his breast, which bears...

... the sign of the sun, and he moves forward easily, like no other.

But the crowds are so vast; their dwellings know no bounds.

How uselessly he toils; he is still forcing his way through the chambers...

... of the innermost palace; never will he overcome them.

And were he to succeed at this, nothing would be gained:

He would have to fight his way down the steps.

And were he to succeed at this, nothing would be gained:

He would have to cross the courtyard and the second enclosing outer palace...

And again stairways and courtyards, and again a palace, and so on...

...through thousands of years...

And if he were to burst out at last through the outermost gate...

...but it can never, never happen...

...before him still lies the royal capital, the middle of the world...

Nobody reaches through here, least of all with a message from one who is dead.

And yet still, when evening comes...

...you sit at your window and dream of the Emperor's message.