Prague in the Winter, Early 1900s

Franz Kafka is not know for his poetry, though he did write two poems in a 1903 letter to a school friend named Oskar Pollak. They were found by Christina Hennemann and quoted in a website called The High Window. Below is one of the two poems, entitled “Cold and Hard”:

Cold and Hard

Today is cold and hard.
The clouds freeze.
The winds are tugging ropes.
The people freeze.
The footsteps sound metallic
On ore-bearing stones,
And the eyes look –
Wide white lakes.

In the old town stand
Small bright Christmas cottages,
Their colourful windows look out
Onto the snow-covered square.
In the moonlight a silent man
Walks into the snow,
His big shadow is blown
along the cottages by the wind.

People who cross dark bridges,
past saints
with dim little lights.

Clouds that drift across the grey sky
past churches
with twilight towers.
One who leans against the ashlar parapet
and looks into the evening water,
hands on old stones.

It’s not Kafka’s best work, but it is interesting to see him work in a different literary medium.