
I'm in a bad way, no doubt about it. Earlier, things were simple; all I had to do was advertise: "Young man seeks employment." Today the advertisement reads, "Unfortunately no longer young, but already somewhat elderly and weary man begs for clemency and shelter." Times are changing, and the little years vanish like April snow. I'm a poor, no longer young, man, with just enough skill left to compose prose pieces like the following:
"Trot, trot, trot. What's with me? Have I gone a bit nuts? What's going to become of me? An errand boy, perhaps? I'm definitely keeping such a necessity in mind. One, two, three and four, five and six. Between sleeping and waking I heard it, as if it intended to go on for all eternity. Oh, I gave such a shriek, and was more conscious than ever of the sum of my insignificance. No, man isn't great; he's helpless and weak. Good enough."
I sent "Trot, trot, trot" to between twenty-one and thirty-eight newspapers in the hope it might be found appropriate, but in twenty-one to thirty-eight cases this hope proved false, and the thriller failed to find favor.
Thirty to forty supermen refused to accept the unquestionably outstanding piece. Instead, they emphatically turned it down and sent it flying right back to me.
One of these dictators wrote: "
Mon dieu, what are you thinking of?" Another opined: "Ah, why don't you let Venetian Night have this magic trick of yours — they're sure to be delighted. But as for us, we must ask that you be so good as to spare us your trot-trot-trotteries and your five-or-sixeries."
I sent "Trot, trot, trot" to the newspaper cited, which politely declined it with the words: "Ah, please be so kind as to believe that this enchanting piece is poorly suited to us."
"What one man doesn't like may still please another," I reasoned, and sent the piece off to Cuba, which showed not the slightest interest. I think the best thing for me would be to sit in a corner and be silent.
Robert Walser, a caminho do
bunker