Proverbs 7
Diary - 53

Commentary - 121

A sign of 20th century literature, the author Franz Kafka, who created the most unique literary world of all time and is like an "axe breaking the frozen sea within," has compiled his diaries and proverbs into a book titled "Franz Kafka Proverbs? Diary_In the Fight Between You and the World" published by Minumsa in the Sossal Munko format.
It includes excerpts from Kafka's diaries written from 1909 to 1922, as well as excerpts from the collection of proverbs, Reflections on Sin, Anguish, Hope and the True Path, published by Max Brod in 1920, including 'On the State of False Death'.
Kafka's diaries contain autobiographical reflections, his own views on writing, as well as drafts of novels and short stories.
Kafka recorded aphorisms containing his thoughts, worldview, and religious views in an eight-section notebook between 1917 and the spring of 1918. 『Franz Kafka Proverbs? Diary_In the Fight Between You and the World』 does not include all of them, but rather excerpts that are key to understanding Kafka.
Through Kafka's proverbs and diary entries included in this book, readers can not only get a full picture of Kafka's true self, but also learn about a side of him that is different from the commonly known impression of him.
In particular, when we look at the diary, the bizarre and absurd, unpredictable image felt in Kafka's works disappears, and the image of a serious, romantic, lyrical and passionate lover appears.


Kafka's Proverbs

Words that frequently appear in Kafka's proverbs are world, life, human, and road.
Judging from the fact that the path Kafka speaks of has something in common with the Tao of Taoist thought, it seems that Kafka was interested in and read Confucius's Analects, Laozi's Tao Te Ching, and Zhuangzi's Nan Hua Jing.
Kafka's aphorisms and prose complement each other and form a single whole, so reading proverbs is helpful in understanding Kafka's prose.
In Kafka's writing style, resolution is difficult as long as life continues, and resolution becomes meaningless the moment life ends.
For Kafka, writing is a kind of séance.
As a Jew who considered emigrating to Palestine and even learned Hebrew, Kafka was also deeply interested in Eastern Jewish religion and culture, and this foundation had an invisible influence on his work.
According to Gustav Janouch, author of Conversations with Kafka, Kafka was a man struggling to find an authentic life.
After having numerous conversations with Kafka and keenly observing Kafka's quiet struggle for human existence, Janouch wrote:
“It is a force associated with anxiety and delicacy, and Kafka considered every little thing important.”

Kafka's Diary

Kafka began keeping a diary in earnest in 1910, and after meeting and befriending Felice Bauer in 1912, he wrote numerous letters and wrote his honest feelings in his diary.
Kafka's diary is an inner record that he never intended to show to others.
The diary honestly records discussions about book editing with Max Brod, handing over the diary to Milena, being scolded by her father with whom she had a love-hate relationship, and thoughts about tuberculosis.
Kafka confesses that his two engagements to Felice Bauer, and the subsequent break-up of them, led to a serious illness caused by insomnia and headaches, which ultimately led to the gushing of blood from overwork.
Kafka's intimate diary has the character of a romance novel, and its central axis is anxiety.
It centers around not only anxiety about illness, but also anxiety as a Jew who has lost his homeland, and the metaphysical anxiety of life.
Milena Jesenska, Kafka's lover, received his diary and the manuscript of his unfinished novel, The Disappeared, in 1921.
According to records, Kafka maintained a strictly austere lifestyle to make time for writing.
I finished work at the company from 8 AM to 2 PM, came home, and slept from 3 PM to 7:30 PM.
Then I took a walk for about an hour with friends or alone, and had dinner with my family.
After that, I started writing around 11 PM and wrote until 2 or 3 AM, or even later.

Kafka's life was all about literature.
For Kafka, who could not settle for reality and dreamed of freedom and liberation by going beyond the walls of reality, reality became literature and literature became reality.
According to the memoirs of Georg Langer, a Jewish writer and friend of Kafka, when Kafka asked Langer to burn his unpublished writings, Langer asked him why he would write and publish them if that was the case.
Then Kafka replied:
“I don’t know either.
Despite all that, something compels me to remember.” Kafka’s writings may have been flawed works that should have been burned, but the many writings he left behind are precious records that are essential for looking into the profound world of the writer Kafka today.