"The Man with the Pumpkin Head" by Robert Walser
Once there was a man and on his shoulders he had, instead of a head, a
hollow pumpkin. This was no great help to him. Yet he still wanted to be
Number One. That's the sort of person he was. For a tongue he had an
oak leaf hanging from his mouth, and his teeth were cut out with a
knife. Instead of eyes, he had two round holes. Back of the holes, two
candle stumps flickered. Those were his eyes. They didn't help him see
far. And yet he said his eyes were better than anyone's, the braggart.
On his pumpkin head he wore a tall hat; used to take it off when anyone
spoke to him, he was so polite. Once this man went for a walk. But the
wind blew so hard that his eyes went out. He wanted to cry with his
candle ends, because he couldn't find his way home. So now he sat there,
held his pumpkin head between his hands, and wanted to die. But dying
didn't come to him so easily. First there had to come a June bug, which
ate the oak leaf from his mouth; there had to come a bird, which pecked a
hole in his pumpkin head; there had to come a child, who took away the
two candle stumps. Then he could die. The bug is still eating the leaf,
the bird is pecking still, and the child is playing with the candle
stumps.
-Robert Walser, from Selected Stories
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment