Forschungen eines Hundes

The hardest bones, containing the richest marrow, can be conquered only by a united crushing of all the teeth of all dogs. That of course is only a figure of speech and exaggerated; if all teeth were but ready they would not need even to bite, the bones would crack themselves and the marrow would be freely accessible to the feeblest of dogs. If I remain faithful to this metaphor, then the goal of my aims, my questions, my inquiries, appears monstrous, it is true. For I want to compel all dogs thus to assemble together, I want the bones to crack open under the pressure of their collective preparedness, and then I want to dismiss them to the ordinary life they love, while all by myself, quite alone, I lap up the marrow. That sounds monstrous, almost as if I wanted to feed on the marrow, not merely of bone, but of the whole canine race itself. But it is only a metaphor. The marrow that I am discussing here is no food; on the contrary, it is a poison.

Agreement is the best weapon of defense―and the matter would be buried.

If you have food in your jaws you have solved all questions for the time being.

Today one may pluck out one's very heart and not find it.

Every dog has, as I do, the urge to question. And I, like all dogs, have the compulsion to be silent.

I will probably die in silence, surrounded by silence

I had long been running through the darkness, this way and that, guided by nothing but a vague yearning

Ciertamente, perros, pero no para morir aquí, sino para llegar allá, a la verdad, para salir de este mundo de mentiras, donde no se encuentra a nadie de quien obtener la verdad, tampoco de mi, ciudadano innato de la mentira

How can you hold their silence against others, and keep silent yourself?

Gustavo Solivellas dice: "I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy" (Franz Kafka)