Kafka said: deprived of knowing you.
“For instance, you could have refrained from saying anything at all about yourself, but then you would have deprived me of the good fortune of knowing you and the even greater fortune of being able to put myself to the test.” -Franz Kafka (1920)
The first time I came across this letter was the first time I discovered that I wanted to be pined after. In letter format—of course. Unfortunately left to discover later, that no one will ever come close to reaching the Kafka-level of pining…so what’s the point?
After my close to tenth time repeating this sentence in my head. Letting every word linger on the tongue. I immediately underlined it and marked this page only! I think this is one of my favorite things Kafka has ever written.
I think it's touching when someone craves to know you, deeply. How your day was spent or what you were thinking of, someone wants to know all of that. But mainly the achy feeling of this sentence comes from Kafka saying, “…depriving me…”
The melancholy of holding back your character from someone who wants to see it all. All you want is a lens into her world, her character, and her mind. You want nothing but to know her fully.
Which goes back to,“To be seen is to be loved.” All he wants is to see her, and with that will come a real love. To take that away from this loving man causes him nothing but a loss of fortune. Worst of all, when he gets put to the test of proving if he truly knows her, he’d fail. To not know her, is the worst thing of all.
