Josef K. was dreaming.

It was a beautiful day and K. felt like going for a walk. But hardly had he taken a couple of steps when he was already at the cemetery. The paths there were very winding, ingeniously made, and unpractical, but he glided along one of them as if on a rushing stream with unshaken poise and balance. From a long way off his eye was caught by a freshly heaped grave mound which he wanted to pause beside. This grave mound exerted almost a fascination over him and he felt he could not reach it fast enough. But he often nearly lost sight of it, for his view was obscured by banners which veered and flapped against each other with great force; one could not see the standard-bearers, but there seemed to be a very joyous celebration going on.

While he was still peering into the distance, he suddenly saw the grave mound quite near his path, indeed he was almost leaving it behind him. He made a hasty spring onto the grass. But since the path went rushing on under his shifting foot, he tottered and fell on his knees just in front of the grave mound. Two men were standing behind the grave and were holding a gravestone between them in the air; scarcely had K. arrived when they thrust the stone into the earth and it stood as if cemented there. Out of some bushes there came at once a third man, whom K. recognized immediately as an artist. He was clad only in trousers and a badly buttoned shirt; on his head was a velvet cap; in his hand he held an ordinary pencil with which he was already drawing figures in the air as he approached.

With this pencil he now addressed himself to the top end of the gravestone; the stone was very tall, he did not have to bend down, though he had to bend forward, since the grave mound, on which he shrank from setting foot, came between him and the stone. So he stood on tiptoe and steadied himself with his left hand on the stone’s flat surface. With an astonishing turn of skill he managed to produce golden letters from his ordinary pencil; he wrote: HERE LIES — Every letter was clear and beautifully made, deeply incised and of the purest gold. When he had inscribed these two words he looked at K. over his shoulder; K., who was very eager to know how the inscription would go, paid hardly any attention to the man but was intent only on the stone. And in fact the man turned again to continue writing, but he could not go on, something was hindering him, he let the pencil sink and once more turned toward K. This time K. looked back at him and noted that he was deeply embarrassed and yet unable to explain himself. All his earlier vivacity had vanished. That made K. feel embarrassed too; they exchanged helpless glances; there was some dreadful misunderstanding between them which neither could resolve. An untimely little bell now began to ring from the cemetery chapel, but the artist made a sign with uplifted hand and the bell stopped. In a little while it began again; this time quite softly and without any insistence, breaking off again at once; as if it were only testing its own tone. K. felt miserable because of the artist’s predicament, he began to cry and sobbed for a long time into his cupped hands. The artist waited until K. had calmed down and then decided, since there was no help for it, just to go on with the inscription. The first small stroke that he made was a relief to K., but the artist obviously achieved it only with the greatest reluctance; the work, too, was no longer beautifully finished, above all there seemed to be a lack of gold leaf, pale and uncertain the stroke straggled down, only it turned into a very big letter. It was a J, it was almost finished, and at that moment the artist stamped angrily on the grave mound with one foot so that the soil all around flew up in the air. At long last K. understood him; it was too late to start apologizing now; with all his fingers he dug into the earth which offered almost no resistance; everything seemed prepared beforehand; a thin crust of earth had been constructed only for the look of the thing; immediately beneath it a great hole opened out, with steep sides, into which K. sank, wafted onto his back by a gentle current. And while he was already being received into impenetrable depths, his head still straining upwards on his neck, his own name raced across the stone above him in great flourishes.

Enchanted by the sight, he woke up.

Josef K. sognava:

Era una bella giornata e K. voleva andare a passeggio. Ma ecco, fatti due passi, era già al cimitero. Là c’erano viottole di tracciato molto artificioso, tortuose e scomode; ma sopra una di quelle lui scivolava, come fosse su di un’acqua precipitosa, in un impossibile portamento librato. Già da lontano gli veniva allo sguardo un tumulo di terra dove avrebbe voluto sostare. In quel tumulo c’era qualcosa che lo attraeva; ed era tutto teso nel desiderio di raggiungerlo. Ma a volte lo vedeva appena, il tumulo; certi stendardi glielo nascondevano, attorti e scagliati a gran forza l’uno contro l’altro. I portabandiera non si vedevano ma era come laggiù ci fosse una festa vivace.

Mentre ancora il suo sguardo era affiso a quella parte, si vide improvvisamente accanto, sulla viottola, quel medesimo tumulo, anzi già quasi alle sue spalle. Saltò svelto fra l’erba. Poi che nell’attimo del balzo la viottola continuava la sua rapida corsa, il piede gli mancò e cadde in ginocchio, proprio davanti al tumulo. Due uomini stavano dietro la tomba e fra loro levavano alta una pietra tombale. K. era appena comparso che costoro piantarono in terra la lapide. Come murata, quella vi rimase. Da un cespuglio uscì fuori tutt’a un tratto, un terzo uomo. K. capì subito che doveva essere un artista. Aveva addosso solo un paio di calzoni e una camicia male abbottonata; portava in capo una berretta di velluto. In mano teneva una comune matita; e con quella, mentre veniva avanti, tracciava figure nell’aria.

Pose la punta di quella matita sulla parte superiore della lapide. La lastra era molto alta, colui non aveva nessun bisogno di curvarsi ma piuttosto di protendersi in avanti perché il tumulo, che egli non voleva calpestare, lo separava dalla pietra. Stava quindi in punta di piedi e con la sinistra si reggeva contro la superficie della lapide.

Maneggiando quella comune matita, la sua abilità riusciva a tracciare lettere d’oro. Scrisse Qui giace. Nitida e bella risaltava ogni lettera, incisa a fondo in oro perfetto. Quando ebbe scritte quelle due parole si volse verso K. che con acuta ansia seguiva come l’iscrizione proseguisse; e quindi, fissando la pietra, poco si curava dell’uomo. L’uomo riprendeva a scrivere infatti; ma non ce la faceva, doveva esserci qualche impedimento. Abbassata la matita, tornava a volgersi verso K. Ora anche K. guardava l’artista e si avvedeva che assai perplesso era, senza tuttavia poterne dire la cagione. Tutta la sua vivacità di poco prima era scomparsa. Al che anche K. cominciò a sentirsi assai perplesso. Si scambiarono sguardi smarriti; doveva esserci un brutto malinteso che nessuno dei due aveva potere di risolvere. Ecco che, per di più, a ora indebita cominciava a suonare la piccola campana della cappella dei defunti. L’artista agitava la mano e, ecco, quella taceva. Dopo un poco riprendeva, ma questa volta pianissimo e subito dopo interrompendosi spontaneamente; era come se avesse voluto solo saggiare il proprio timbro. K. era disperato per il disagio dell’artista; cominciava a piangere e singhiozzare, col volto fra le mani. L’artista attese che K. si fosse calmato; poi, non riuscendo a trovare altra soluzione, decise di continuare a scrivere. Per K. fu un sollievo, quel primo piccolo tratto; ma l’artista non riusciva a concluderlo se non con estrema riluttanza; la scrittura non era più bella come prima, pareva soprattutto scarsa d’oro, si profilava smorta e malcerta mentre, al contrario, il carattere diventava enorme. Era già quasi finita quando l’artista, furioso, picchiò col piede sul tumulo tanto che tutt’intorno ne schizzò via il terriccio. Finalmente K. capì che cosa quello volesse; ma non c’era più tempo per farlo desistere. Quello affondava le dita nella terra; che pareva quasi non opporgli resistenza. Era come se tutto fosse stato preordinato. Era stato disposto un sottile strato di terra, ma solo per figura. Subito sotto si apriva una grande fossa, dalle pareti a picco dove, rivolto sul dorso da una blanda corrente, K. andò a fondo. Ma mentre già, riverso sulla nuca il capo, laggiù lo accoglieva la profondità impenetrabile, lassù in fregi possenti il suo nome si avventava sulla lapide.

Estasiato a quella vista si svegliò.