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--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/data/metamorphosis.txt	Mon Jan 16 22:39:22 2017 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,1949 @@
+I
+
+
+One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found
+himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.  He lay on
+his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could
+see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff
+sections.  The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready
+to slide off any moment.  His many legs, pitifully thin compared
+with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he
+looked.
+
+"What's happened to me?" he thought.  It wasn't a dream.  His room,
+a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully
+between its four familiar walls.  A collection of textile samples
+lay spread out on the table - Samsa was a travelling salesman - and
+above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an
+illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame.  It showed
+a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright,
+raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm
+towards the viewer.
+
+Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather.
+Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel
+quite sad.  "How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all
+this nonsense", he thought, but that was something he was unable to
+do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present
+state couldn't get into that position.  However hard he threw
+himself onto his right, he always rolled back to where he was.  He
+must have tried it a hundred times, shut his eyes so that he
+wouldn't have to look at the floundering legs, and only stopped when
+he began to feel a mild, dull pain there that he had never felt
+before.
+
+"Oh, God", he thought, "what a strenuous career it is that I've
+chosen! Travelling day in and day out.  Doing business like this
+takes much more effort than doing your own business at home, and on
+top of that there's the curse of travelling, worries about making
+train connections, bad and irregular food, contact with different
+people all the time so that you can never get to know anyone or
+become friendly with them.  It can all go to Hell!"  He felt a
+slight itch up on his belly; pushed himself slowly up on his back
+towards the headboard so that he could lift his head better; found
+where the itch was, and saw that it was covered with lots of little
+white spots which he didn't know what to make of; and when he tried
+to feel the place with one of his legs he drew it quickly back
+because as soon as he touched it he was overcome by a cold shudder.
+
+He slid back into his former position.  "Getting up early all the
+time", he thought, "it makes you stupid.  You've got to get enough
+sleep.  Other travelling salesmen live a life of luxury.  For
+instance, whenever I go back to the guest house during the morning
+to copy out the contract, these gentlemen are always still sitting
+there eating their breakfasts.  I ought to just try that with my
+boss; I'd get kicked out on the spot.  But who knows, maybe that
+would be the best thing for me.  If I didn't have my parents to
+think about I'd have given in my notice a long time ago, I'd have
+gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him
+everything I would, let him know just what I feel.  He'd fall right
+off his desk! And it's a funny sort of business to be sitting up
+there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there,
+especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is
+hard of hearing.  Well, there's still some hope; once I've got the
+money together to pay off my parents' debt to him - another five or
+six years I suppose - that's definitely what I'll do.  That's when
+I'll make the big change.  First of all though, I've got to get up,
+my train leaves at five."
+
+And he looked over at the alarm clock, ticking on the chest of
+drawers.  "God in Heaven!" he thought.  It was half past six and the
+hands were quietly moving forwards, it was even later than half
+past, more like quarter to seven.  Had the alarm clock not rung? He
+could see from the bed that it had been set for four o'clock as it
+should have been; it certainly must have rung.  Yes, but was it
+possible to quietly sleep through that furniture-rattling noise?
+True, he had not slept peacefully, but probably all the more deeply
+because of that.  What should he do now? The next train went at
+seven; if he were to catch that he would have to rush like mad and
+the collection of samples was still not packed, and he did not at
+all feel particularly fresh and lively.  And even if he did catch
+the train he would not avoid his boss's anger as the office
+assistant would have been there to see the five o'clock train go, he
+would have put in his report about Gregor's not being there a long
+time ago.  The office assistant was the boss's man, spineless, and
+with no understanding.  What about if he reported sick? But that
+would be extremely strained and suspicious as in fifteen years of
+service Gregor had never once yet been ill.  His boss would
+certainly come round with the doctor from the medical insurance
+company, accuse his parents of having a lazy son, and accept the
+doctor's recommendation not to make any claim as the doctor believed
+that no-one was ever ill but that many were workshy.  And what's
+more, would he have been entirely wrong in this case? Gregor did in
+fact, apart from excessive sleepiness after sleeping for so long,
+feel completely well and even felt much hungrier than usual.
+
+He was still hurriedly thinking all this through, unable to decide
+to get out of the bed, when the clock struck quarter to seven.
+There was a cautious knock at the door near his head.  "Gregor",
+somebody called - it was his mother - "it's quarter to seven.
+Didn't you want to go somewhere?"  That gentle voice! Gregor was
+shocked when he heard his own voice answering, it could hardly be
+recognised as the voice he had had before.  As if from deep inside
+him, there was a painful and uncontrollable squeaking mixed in with
+it, the words could be made out at first but then there was a sort
+of echo which made them unclear, leaving the hearer unsure whether
+he had heard properly or not.  Gregor had wanted to give a full
+answer and explain everything, but in the circumstances contented
+himself with saying: "Yes, mother, yes, thank-you, I'm getting up
+now."  The change in Gregor's voice probably could not be noticed
+outside through the wooden door, as his mother was satisfied with
+this explanation and shuffled away.  But this short conversation
+made the other members of the family aware that Gregor, against
+their expectations was still at home, and soon his father came
+knocking at one of the side doors, gently, but with his fist.
+"Gregor, Gregor", he called, "what's wrong?"  And after a short
+while he called again with a warning deepness in his voice: "Gregor!
+Gregor!"  At the other side door his sister came plaintively:
+"Gregor? Aren't you well? Do you need anything?"  Gregor answered to
+both sides: "I'm ready, now", making an effort to remove all the
+strangeness from his voice by enunciating very carefully and putting
+long pauses between each, individual word.  His father went back to
+his breakfast, but his sister whispered: "Gregor, open the door, I
+beg of you."  Gregor, however, had no thought of opening the door,
+and instead congratulated himself for his cautious habit, acquired
+from his travelling, of locking all doors at night even when he was
+at home.
+
+The first thing he wanted to do was to get up in peace without being
+disturbed, to get dressed, and most of all to have his breakfast.
+Only then would he consider what to do next, as he was well aware
+that he would not bring his thoughts to any sensible conclusions by
+lying in bed.  He remembered that he had often felt a slight pain in
+bed, perhaps caused by lying awkwardly, but that had always turned
+out to be pure imagination and he wondered how his imaginings would
+slowly resolve themselves today.  He did not have the slightest
+doubt that the change in his voice was nothing more than the first
+sign of a serious cold, which was an occupational hazard for
+travelling salesmen.
+
+It was a simple matter to throw off the covers; he only had to blow
+himself up a little and they fell off by themselves.  But it became
+difficult after that, especially as he was so exceptionally broad.
+He would have used his arms and his hands to push himself up; but
+instead of them he only had all those little legs continuously
+moving in different directions, and which he was moreover unable to
+control.  If he wanted to bend one of them, then that was the first
+one that would stretch itself out; and if he finally managed to do
+what he wanted with that leg, all the others seemed to be set free
+and would move about painfully.  "This is something that can't be
+done in bed", Gregor said to himself, "so don't keep trying to do
+it".
+
+The first thing he wanted to do was get the lower part of his body
+out of the bed, but he had never seen this lower part, and could not
+imagine what it looked like; it turned out to be too hard to move;
+it went so slowly; and finally, almost in a frenzy, when he
+carelessly shoved himself forwards with all the force he could
+gather, he chose the wrong direction, hit hard against the lower
+bedpost, and learned from the burning pain he felt that the lower
+part of his body might well, at present, be the most sensitive.
+
+So then he tried to get the top part of his body out of the bed
+first, carefully turning his head to the side.  This he managed
+quite easily, and despite its breadth and its weight, the bulk of
+his body eventually followed slowly in the direction of the head.
+But when he had at last got his head out of the bed and into the
+fresh air it occurred to him that if he let himself fall it would be
+a miracle if his head were not injured, so he became afraid to carry
+on pushing himself forward the same way.  And he could not knock
+himself out now at any price; better to stay in bed than lose
+consciousness.
+
+It took just as much effort to get back to where he had been
+earlier, but when he lay there sighing, and was once more watching
+his legs as they struggled against each other even harder than
+before, if that was possible, he could think of no way of bringing
+peace and order to this chaos.  He told himself once more that it
+was not possible for him to stay in bed and that the most sensible
+thing to do would be to get free of it in whatever way he could at
+whatever sacrifice.  At the same time, though, he did not forget to
+remind himself that calm consideration was much better than rushing
+to desperate conclusions.  At times like this he would direct his
+eyes to the window and look out as clearly as he could, but
+unfortunately, even the other side of the narrow street was
+enveloped in morning fog and the view had little confidence or cheer
+to offer him.  "Seven o'clock, already", he said to himself when the
+clock struck again, "seven o'clock, and there's still a fog like
+this."  And he lay there quietly a while longer, breathing lightly
+as if he perhaps expected the total stillness to bring things back
+to their real and natural state.
+
+But then he said to himself: "Before it strikes quarter past seven
+I'll definitely have to have got properly out of bed.  And by then
+somebody will have come round from work to ask what's happened to me
+as well, as they open up at work before seven o'clock."  And so he
+set himself to the task of swinging the entire length of his body
+out of the bed all at the same time.  If he succeeded in falling out
+of bed in this way and kept his head raised as he did so he could
+probably avoid injuring it.  His back seemed to be quite hard, and
+probably nothing would happen to it falling onto the carpet.  His
+main concern was for the loud noise he was bound to make, and which
+even through all the doors would probably raise concern if not
+alarm.  But it was something that had to be risked.
+
+When Gregor was already sticking half way out of the bed - the new
+method was more of a game than an effort, all he had to do was rock
+back and forth - it occurred to him how simple everything would be
+if somebody came to help him.  Two strong people - he had his father
+and the maid in mind - would have been more than enough; they would
+only have to push their arms under the dome of his back, peel him
+away from the bed, bend down with the load and then be patient and
+careful as he swang over onto the floor, where, hopefully, the
+little legs would find a use.  Should he really call for help
+though, even apart from the fact that all the doors were locked?
+Despite all the difficulty he was in, he could not suppress a smile
+at this thought.
+
+After a while he had already moved so far across that it would have
+been hard for him to keep his balance if he rocked too hard.  The
+time was now ten past seven and he would have to make a final
+decision very soon.  Then there was a ring at the door of the flat.
+"That'll be someone from work", he said to himself, and froze very
+still, although his little legs only became all the more lively as
+they danced around.  For a moment everything remained quiet.
+"They're not opening the door", Gregor said to himself, caught in
+some nonsensical hope.  But then of course, the maid's firm steps
+went to the door as ever and opened it.  Gregor only needed to hear
+the visitor's first words of greeting and he knew who it was - the
+chief clerk himself.  Why did Gregor have to be the only one
+condemned to work for a company where they immediately became highly
+suspicious at the slightest shortcoming? Were all employees, every
+one of them, louts, was there not one of them who was faithful and
+devoted who would go so mad with pangs of conscience that he
+couldn't get out of bed if he didn't spend at least a couple of
+hours in the morning on company business? Was it really not enough
+to let one of the trainees make enquiries - assuming enquiries were
+even necessary - did the chief clerk have to come himself, and did
+they have to show the whole, innocent family that this was so
+suspicious that only the chief clerk could be trusted to have the
+wisdom to investigate it? And more because these thoughts had made
+him upset than through any proper decision, he swang himself with
+all his force out of the bed.  There was a loud thump, but it wasn't
+really a loud noise.  His fall was softened a little by the carpet,
+and Gregor's back was also more elastic than he had thought, which
+made the sound muffled and not too noticeable.  He had not held his
+head carefully enough, though, and hit it as he fell; annoyed and in
+pain, he turned it and rubbed it against the carpet.
+
+"Something's fallen down in there", said the chief clerk in the room
+on the left.  Gregor tried to imagine whether something of the sort
+that had happened to him today could ever happen to the chief clerk
+too; you had to concede that it was possible.  But as if in gruff
+reply to this question, the chief clerk's firm footsteps in his
+highly polished boots could now be heard in the adjoining room.
+From the room on his right, Gregor's sister whispered to him to let
+him know: "Gregor, the chief clerk is here."  "Yes, I know", said
+Gregor to himself; but without daring to raise his voice loud enough
+for his sister to hear him.
+
+"Gregor", said his father now from the room to his left, "the chief
+clerk has come round and wants to know why you didn't leave on the
+early train.  We don't know what to say to him.  And anyway, he
+wants to speak to you personally.  So please open up this door.  I'm
+sure he'll be good enough to forgive the untidiness of your room."
+Then the chief clerk called "Good morning,  Mr. Samsa". "He isn't
+well", said his mother to the chief clerk, while his father
+continued to speak through the door.  "He isn't well, please believe
+me.  Why else would Gregor have missed a train! The lad only ever
+thinks about the business.  It nearly makes me cross the way he
+never goes out in the evenings; he's been in town for a week now but
+stayed home every evening.  He sits with us in the kitchen and just
+reads the paper or studies train timetables.  His idea of relaxation
+is working with his fretsaw.  He's made a little frame, for
+instance, it only took him two or three evenings, you'll be amazed
+how nice it is; it's hanging up in his room; you'll see it as soon
+as Gregor opens the door.  Anyway, I'm glad you're here; we wouldn't
+have been able to get Gregor to open the door by ourselves; he's so
+stubborn; and I'm sure he isn't well, he said this morning that he
+is, but he isn't."  "I'll be there in a moment", said Gregor slowly
+and thoughtfully, but without moving so that he would not miss any
+word of the conversation.  "Well I can't think of any other way of
+explaining it,  Mrs. Samsa", said the chief clerk, "I hope it's
+nothing serious.  But on the other hand, I must say that if we
+people in commerce ever become slightly unwell then, fortunately or
+unfortunately as you like, we simply have to overcome it because of
+business considerations."  "Can the chief clerk come in to see you
+now then?", asked his father impatiently, knocking at the door
+again.  "No", said Gregor.  In the room on his right there followed
+a painful silence; in the room on his left his sister began to cry.
+
+So why did his sister not go and join the others? She had probably
+only just got up and had not even begun to get dressed.  And why was
+she crying? Was it because he had not got up, and had not let the
+chief clerk in, because he was in danger of losing his job and if
+that happened his boss would once more pursue their parents with the
+same demands as before? There was no need to worry about things like
+that yet.  Gregor was still there and had not the slightest
+intention of abandoning his family.  For the time being he just lay
+there on the carpet, and no-one who knew the condition he was in
+would seriously have expected him to let the chief clerk in.  It was
+only a minor discourtesy, and a suitable excuse could easily be
+found for it later on, it was not something for which Gregor could
+be sacked on the spot.  And it seemed to Gregor much more sensible
+to leave him now in peace instead of disturbing him with talking at
+him and crying.  But the others didn't know what was happening, they
+were worried, that would excuse their behaviour.
+
+The chief clerk now raised his voice, "Mr. Samsa", he called to him,
+"what is wrong? You barricade yourself in your room, give us no more
+than yes or no for an answer, you are causing serious and
+unnecessary concern to your parents and you fail - and I mention
+this just by the way - you fail to carry out your business duties in
+a way that is quite unheard of.  I'm speaking here on behalf of your
+parents and of your employer, and really must request a clear and
+immediate explanation.  I am astonished, quite astonished.  I
+thought I knew you as a calm and sensible person, and now you
+suddenly seem to be showing off with peculiar whims.  This morning,
+your employer did suggest a possible reason for your failure to
+appear, it's true - it had to do with the money that was recently
+entrusted to you - but I came near to giving him my word of honour
+that that could not be the right explanation.  But now that I see
+your incomprehensible stubbornness I no longer feel any wish
+whatsoever to intercede on your behalf.  And nor is your position
+all that secure.  I had originally intended to say all this to you
+in private, but since you cause me to waste my time here for no good
+reason I don't see why your parents should not also learn of it.
+Your turnover has been very unsatisfactory of late; I grant you that
+it's not the time of year to do especially good business, we
+recognise that; but there simply is no time of year to do no
+business at all,  Mr. Samsa, we cannot allow there to be."
+
+"But Sir", called Gregor, beside himself and forgetting all else in
+the excitement, "I'll open up immediately, just a moment.  I'm
+slightly unwell, an attack of dizziness, I haven't been able to get
+up.  I'm still in bed now.  I'm quite fresh again now, though.  I'm
+just getting out of bed.  Just a moment.  Be patient! It's not quite
+as easy as I'd thought.  I'm quite alright now, though.  It's
+shocking, what can suddenly happen to a person! I was quite alright
+last night, my parents know about it, perhaps better than me, I had
+a small symptom of it last night already.  They must have noticed
+it.  I don't know why I didn't let you know at work! But you always
+think you can get over an illness without staying at home.  Please,
+don't make my parents suffer! There's no basis for any of the
+accusations you're making; nobody's ever said a word to me about any
+of these things.  Maybe you haven't read the latest contracts I sent
+in.  I'll set off with the eight o'clock train, as well, these few
+hours of rest have given me strength.  You don't need to wait, sir;
+I'll be in the office soon after you, and please be so good as to
+tell that to the boss and recommend me to him!"
+
+And while Gregor gushed out these words, hardly knowing what he was
+saying, he made his way over to the chest of drawers - this was
+easily done, probably because of the practise he had already had in
+bed - where he now tried to get himself upright.  He really did want
+to open the door, really did want to let them see him and to speak
+with the chief clerk; the others were being so insistent, and he was
+curious to learn what they would say when they caught sight of him.
+If they were shocked then it would no longer be Gregor's
+responsibility and he could rest.  If, however, they took everything
+calmly he would still have no reason to be upset, and if he hurried
+he really could be at the station for eight o'clock.  The first few
+times he tried to climb up on the smooth chest of drawers he just
+slid down again, but he finally gave himself one last swing and
+stood there upright; the lower part of his body was in serious pain
+but he no longer gave any attention to it.  Now he let himself fall
+against the back of a nearby chair and held tightly to the edges of
+it with his little legs.  By now he had also calmed down, and kept
+quiet so that he could listen to what the chief clerk was saying.
+
+"Did you understand a word of all that?" the chief clerk asked his
+parents, "surely he's not trying to make fools of us". "Oh, God!"
+called his mother, who was already in tears, "he could be seriously
+ill and we're making him suffer.  Grete! Grete!" she then cried.
+"Mother?" his sister called from the other side.  They communicated
+across Gregor's room.  "You'll have to go for the doctor straight
+away.  Gregor is ill.  Quick, get the doctor.  Did you hear the way
+Gregor spoke just now?"  "That was the voice of an animal", said the
+chief clerk, with a calmness that was in contrast with his mother's
+screams.  "Anna! Anna!" his father called into the kitchen through
+the entrance hall, clapping his hands, "get a locksmith here, now!"
+And the two girls, their skirts swishing, immediately ran out
+through the hall, wrenching open the front door of the flat as they
+went.  How had his sister managed to get dressed so quickly? There
+was no sound of the door banging shut again; they must have left it
+open;  people often do in homes where something awful has happened.
+
+Gregor, in contrast, had become much calmer.  So they couldn't
+understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enough to
+him, clearer than before - perhaps his ears had become used to the
+sound.  They had realised, though, that there was something wrong
+with him, and were ready to help.  The first response to his
+situation had been confident and wise, and that made him feel
+better.  He felt that he had been drawn back in among people, and
+from the doctor and the locksmith he expected great and surprising
+achievements - although he did not really distinguish one from the
+other.  Whatever was said next would be crucial, so, in order to
+make his voice as clear as possible, he coughed a little, but taking
+care to do this not too loudly as even this might well sound
+different from the way that a human coughs and he was no longer sure
+he could judge this for himself.  Meanwhile, it had become very
+quiet in the next room.  Perhaps his parents were sat at the table
+whispering with the chief clerk, or perhaps they were all pressed
+against the door and listening.
+
+Gregor slowly pushed his way over to the door with the chair.  Once
+there he let go of it and threw himself onto the door, holding
+himself upright against it using the adhesive on the tips of his
+legs.  He rested there a little while to recover from the effort
+involved and then set himself to the task of turning the key in the
+lock with his mouth.  He seemed, unfortunately, to have no proper
+teeth - how was he, then, to grasp the key? - but the lack of teeth
+was, of course, made up for with a very strong jaw; using the jaw,
+he really was able to start the key turning, ignoring the fact that
+he must have been causing some kind of damage as a brown fluid came
+from his mouth, flowed over the key and dripped onto the floor.
+"Listen", said the chief clerk in the next room, "he's turning the
+key."  Gregor was greatly encouraged by this; but they all should
+have been calling to him, his father and his mother too: "Well done,
+Gregor", they should have cried, "keep at it, keep hold of the
+lock!"  And with the idea that they were all excitedly following his
+efforts, he bit on the key with all his strength, paying no
+attention to the pain he was causing himself.  As the key turned
+round he turned around the lock with it, only holding himself
+upright with his mouth, and hung onto the key or pushed it down
+again with the whole weight of his body as needed.  The clear sound
+of the lock as it snapped back was Gregor's sign that he could break
+his concentration, and as he regained his breath he said to himself:
+"So, I didn't need the locksmith after all". Then he lay his head on
+the handle of the door to open it completely.
+
+Because he had to open the door in this way, it was already wide
+open before he could be seen.  He had first to slowly turn himself
+around one of the double doors, and he had to do it very carefully
+if he did not want to fall flat on his back before entering the
+room.  He was still occupied with this difficult movement, unable to
+pay attention to anything else, when he heard the chief clerk
+exclaim a loud "Oh!", which sounded like the soughing of the wind.
+Now he also saw him - he was the nearest to the door - his hand
+pressed against his open mouth and slowly retreating as if driven by
+a steady and invisible force.  Gregor's mother, her hair still
+dishevelled from bed despite the chief clerk's being there, looked
+at his father.  Then she unfolded her arms, took two steps forward
+towards Gregor and sank down onto the floor into her skirts that
+spread themselves out around her as her head disappeared down onto
+her breast.  His father looked hostile, and clenched his fists as if
+wanting to knock Gregor back into his room.  Then he looked
+uncertainly round the living room, covered his eyes with his hands
+and wept so that his powerful chest shook.
+
+So Gregor did not go into the room, but leant against the inside of
+the other door which was still held bolted in place.  In this way
+only half of his body could be seen, along with his head above it
+which he leant over to one side as he peered out at the others.
+Meanwhile the day had become much lighter; part of the endless,
+grey-black building on the other side of the street - which was a
+hospital - could be seen quite clearly with the austere and regular
+line of windows piercing its facade; the rain was still
+falling, now throwing down large, individual droplets which hit the
+ground one at a time.  The washing up from breakfast lay on the
+table; there was so much of it because, for Gregor's father,
+breakfast was the most important meal of the day and he would
+stretch it out for several hours as he sat reading a number of
+different newspapers.  On the wall exactly opposite there was
+photograph of Gregor when he was a lieutenant in the army, his sword
+in his hand and a carefree smile on his face as he called forth
+respect for his uniform and bearing.  The door to the entrance hall
+was open and as the front door of the flat was also open he could
+see onto the landing and the stairs where they began their way down
+below.
+
+"Now, then", said Gregor, well aware that he was the only one to
+have kept calm, "I'll get dressed straight away now, pack up my
+samples and set off.  Will you please just let me leave? You can
+see", he said to the chief clerk, "that I'm not stubborn and I
+like to do my job; being a commercial traveller is arduous but
+without travelling I couldn't earn my living.  So where are you
+going, in to the office? Yes? Will you report everything accurately,
+then? It's quite possible for someone to be temporarily unable to
+work, but that's just the right time to remember what's been
+achieved in the past and consider that later on, once the difficulty
+has been removed, he will certainly work with all the more diligence
+and concentration.  You're well aware that I'm seriously in debt to
+our employer as well as having to look after my parents and my
+sister, so that I'm trapped in a difficult situation, but I will
+work my way out of it again.  Please don't make things any harder
+for me than they are already, and don't take sides against me at the
+office.  I know that nobody likes the travellers.  They think we
+earn an enormous wage as well as having a soft time of it.  That's
+just prejudice but they have no particular reason to think better of
+it.  But you, sir, you have a better overview than the rest of the
+staff, in fact, if I can say this in confidence, a better overview
+than the boss himself - it's very easy for a businessman like him to
+make mistakes about his employees and judge them more harshly than
+he should.  And you're also well aware that we travellers spend
+almost the whole year away from the office, so that we can very
+easily fall victim to gossip and chance and groundless complaints,
+and it's almost impossible to defend yourself from that sort of
+thing, we don't usually even hear about them, or if at all it's when
+we arrive back home exhausted from a trip, and that's when we feel
+the harmful effects of what's been going on without even knowing
+what caused them.  Please, don't go away, at least first say
+something to show that you grant that I'm at least partly right!"
+
+But the chief clerk had turned away as soon as Gregor had started to
+speak, and, with protruding lips, only stared back at him over his
+trembling shoulders as he left.  He did not keep still for a moment
+while Gregor was speaking, but moved steadily towards the door
+without taking his eyes off him.  He moved very gradually, as if
+there had been some secret prohibition on leaving the room.  It was
+only when he had reached the entrance hall that he made a sudden
+movement, drew his foot from the living room, and rushed forward in
+a panic.  In the hall, he stretched his right hand far out towards
+the stairway as if out there, there were some supernatural force
+waiting to save him.
+
+Gregor realised that it was out of the question to let the chief
+clerk go away in this mood if his position in the firm was not to be
+put into extreme danger.  That was something his parents did not
+understand very well; over the years, they had become convinced that
+this job would provide for Gregor for his entire life, and besides,
+they had so much to worry about at present that they had lost sight
+of any thought for the future.  Gregor, though, did think about the
+future.  The chief clerk had to be held back, calmed down, convinced
+and finally won over; the future of Gregor and his family depended
+on it! If only his sister were here! She was clever; she was already
+in tears while Gregor was still lying peacefully on his back.  And
+the chief clerk was a lover of women, surely she could persuade him;
+she would close the front door in the entrance hall and talk him out
+of his shocked state.  But his sister was not there, Gregor would
+have to do the job himself.  And without considering that he still
+was not familiar with how well he could move about in his present
+state, or that his speech still might not - or probably would not -
+be understood, he let go of the door; pushed himself through the
+opening; tried to reach the chief clerk on the landing who,
+ridiculously, was holding on to the banister with both hands; but
+Gregor fell immediately over and, with a little scream as he sought
+something to hold onto, landed on his numerous little legs.  Hardly
+had that happened than, for the first time that day, he began to
+feel alright with his body; the little legs had the solid ground
+under them; to his pleasure, they did exactly as he told them; they
+were even making the effort to carry him where he wanted to go; and
+he was soon believing that all his sorrows would soon be finally at
+an end.  He held back the urge to move but swayed from side to side
+as he crouched there on the floor.  His mother was not far away in
+front of him and seemed, at first, quite engrossed in herself, but
+then she suddenly jumped up with her arms outstretched and her
+fingers spread shouting: "Help, for pity's sake, Help!"  The way she
+held her head suggested she wanted to see Gregor better, but the
+unthinking way she was hurrying backwards showed that she did not;
+she had forgotten that the table was behind her with all the
+breakfast things on it; when she reached the table she sat quickly
+down on it without knowing what she was doing; without even seeming
+to notice that the coffee pot had been knocked over and a gush of
+coffee was pouring down onto the carpet.
+
+"Mother, mother", said Gregor gently, looking up at her.  He had
+completely forgotten the chief clerk for the moment, but could not
+help himself snapping in the air with his jaws at the sight of the
+flow of coffee.  That set his mother screaming anew, she fled from
+the table and into the arms of his father as he rushed towards her.
+Gregor, though, had no time to spare for his parents now; the chief
+clerk had already reached the stairs; with his chin on the banister,
+he looked back for the last time.  Gregor made a run for him; he
+wanted to be sure of reaching him; the chief clerk must have
+expected something, as he leapt down several steps at once and
+disappeared; his shouts resounding all around the staircase.  The
+flight of the chief clerk seemed, unfortunately, to put Gregor's
+father into a panic as well.  Until then he had been relatively self
+controlled, but now, instead of running after the chief clerk
+himself, or at least not impeding Gregor as he ran after him,
+Gregor's father seized the chief clerk's stick in his right hand
+(the chief clerk had left it behind on a chair, along with his hat
+and overcoat), picked up a large newspaper from the table with his
+left, and used them to drive Gregor back into his room, stamping his
+foot at him as he went.  Gregor's appeals to his father were of no
+help, his appeals were simply not understood, however much he humbly
+turned his head his father merely stamped his foot all the harder.
+Across the room, despite the chilly weather, Gregor's mother had
+pulled open a window, leant far out of it and pressed her hands to
+her face.  A strong draught of air flew in from the street towards
+the stairway, the curtains flew up, the newspapers on the table
+fluttered and some of them were blown onto the floor.  Nothing would
+stop Gregor's father as he drove him back, making hissing noises at
+him like a wild man.  Gregor had never had any practice in moving
+backwards and was only able to go very slowly.  If Gregor had only
+been allowed to turn round he would have been back in his room
+straight away, but he was afraid that if he took the time to do that
+his father would become impatient, and there was the threat of a
+lethal blow to his back or head from the stick in his father's hand
+any moment.  Eventually, though, Gregor realised that he had no
+choice as he saw, to his disgust, that he was quite incapable of
+going backwards in a straight line; so he began, as quickly as
+possible and with frequent anxious glances at his father, to turn
+himself round.  It went very slowly, but perhaps his father was able
+to see his good intentions as he did nothing to hinder him, in fact
+now and then he used the tip of his stick to give directions from a
+distance as to which way to turn.  If only his father would stop
+that unbearable hissing! It was making Gregor quite confused.  When
+he had nearly finished turning round, still listening to that
+hissing, he made a mistake and turned himself back a little the way
+he had just come.  He was pleased when he finally had his head in
+front of the doorway, but then saw that it was too narrow, and his
+body was too broad to get through it without further difficulty.  In
+his present mood, it obviously did not occur to his father to open
+the other of the double doors so that Gregor would have enough space
+to get through.  He was merely fixed on the idea that Gregor should
+be got back into his room as quickly as possible.  Nor would he ever
+have allowed Gregor the time to get himself upright as preparation
+for getting through the doorway.  What he did, making more noise
+than ever, was to drive Gregor forwards all the harder as if there
+had been nothing in the way; it sounded to Gregor as if there was
+now more than one father behind him; it was not a pleasant
+experience, and Gregor pushed himself into the doorway without
+regard for what might happen.  One side of his body lifted itself,
+he lay at an angle in the doorway, one flank scraped on the white
+door and was painfully injured, leaving vile brown flecks on it,
+soon he was stuck fast and would not have been able to move at all
+by himself, the little legs along one side hung quivering in the air
+while those on the other side were pressed painfully against the
+ground.  Then his father gave him a hefty shove from behind which
+released him from where he was held and sent him flying, and heavily
+bleeding, deep into his room.  The door was slammed shut with the
+stick, then, finally, all was quiet.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+It was not until it was getting dark that evening that Gregor awoke
+from his deep and coma-like sleep.  He would have woken soon
+afterwards anyway even if he hadn't been disturbed, as he had had
+enough sleep and felt fully rested.  But he had the impression that
+some hurried steps and the sound of the door leading into the front
+room being carefully shut had woken him.  The light from the
+electric street lamps shone palely here and there onto the ceiling
+and tops of the furniture, but down below, where Gregor was, it was
+dark.  He pushed himself over to the door, feeling his way clumsily
+with his antennae - of which he was now beginning to learn the value
+- in order to see what had been happening there.  The whole of his
+left side seemed like one, painfully stretched scar,  and he limped
+badly on his two rows of legs.  One of the legs had been badly
+injured in the events of that morning - it was nearly a miracle that
+only one of them had been - and dragged along lifelessly.
+
+It was only when he had reached the door that he realised what it
+actually was that had drawn him over to it; it was the smell of
+something to eat.  By the door there was a dish filled with
+sweetened milk with little pieces of white bread floating in it.  He
+was so pleased he almost laughed, as he was even hungrier than he
+had been that morning, and immediately dipped his head into the
+milk, nearly covering his eyes with it.  But he soon drew his head
+back again in disappointment; not only did the pain in his tender
+left side make it difficult to eat the food - he was only able to
+eat if his whole body worked together as a snuffling whole - but the
+milk did not taste at all nice.  Milk like this was normally his
+favourite drink, and his sister had certainly left it there for him
+because of that, but he turned, almost against his own will, away
+from the dish and crawled back into the centre of the room.
+
+Through the crack in the door, Gregor could see that the gas had
+been lit in the living room.  His father at this time would normally
+be sat with his evening paper, reading it out in a loud voice to
+Gregor's mother, and sometimes to his sister, but there was now not
+a sound to be heard.  Gregor's sister would often write and tell him
+about this reading, but maybe his father had lost the habit in
+recent times.  It was so quiet all around too, even though there
+must have been somebody in the flat.  "What a quiet life it is the
+family lead", said Gregor to himself, and, gazing into the darkness,
+felt a great pride that he was able to provide a life like that in
+such a nice home for his sister and parents.  But what now, if all
+this peace and wealth and comfort should come to a horrible and
+frightening end? That was something that Gregor did not want to
+think about too much, so he started to move about, crawling up and
+down the room.
+
+Once during that long evening, the door on one side of the room was
+opened very slightly and hurriedly closed again; later on the door
+on the other side did the same; it seemed that someone needed to
+enter the room but thought better of it.  Gregor went and waited
+immediately by the door, resolved either to bring the timorous
+visitor into the room in some way or at least to find out who it
+was; but the door was opened no more that night and Gregor waited in
+vain.  The previous morning while the doors were locked everyone had
+wanted to get in there to him, but now, now that he had opened up
+one of the doors and the other had clearly been unlocked some time
+during the day, no-one came, and the keys were in the other sides.
+
+It was not until late at night that the gaslight in the living room
+was put out, and now it was easy to see that his parents and sister had
+stayed awake all that time, as they all could be distinctly heard as
+they went away together on tip-toe.  It was clear that no-one would
+come into Gregor's room any more until morning; that gave him plenty
+of time to think undisturbed about how he would have to re-arrange
+his life.  For some reason, the tall, empty room where he was forced
+to remain made him feel uneasy as he lay there flat on the floor,
+even though he had been living in it for five years.  Hardly aware
+of what he was doing other than a slight feeling of shame, he
+hurried under the couch.  It pressed down on his back a little, and
+he was no longer able to lift his head, but he nonetheless felt
+immediately at ease and his only regret was that his body was too
+broad to get it all underneath.
+
+He spent the whole night there.  Some of the time he passed in a
+light sleep, although he frequently woke from it in alarm because of
+his hunger, and some of the time was spent in worries and vague
+hopes which, however, always led to the same conclusion: for the
+time being he must remain calm, he must show patience and the
+greatest consideration so that his family could bear the
+unpleasantness that he, in his present condition, was forced to
+impose on them.
+
+Gregor soon had the opportunity to test the strength of his
+decisions, as early the next morning, almost before the night had
+ended, his sister, nearly fully dressed, opened the door from the
+front room and looked anxiously in.  She did not see him straight
+away, but when she did notice him under the couch - he had to be
+somewhere, for God's sake, he couldn't have flown away - she was so
+shocked that she lost control of herself and slammed the door shut
+again from outside.  But she seemed to regret her behaviour, as she
+opened the door again straight away and came in on tip-toe as if
+entering the room of someone seriously ill or even of a stranger.
+Gregor had pushed his head forward, right to the edge of the couch,
+and watched her.  Would she notice that he had left the milk as it
+was, realise that it was not from any lack of hunger and bring him
+in some other food that was more suitable? If she didn't do it
+herself he would rather go hungry than draw her attention to it,
+although he did feel a terrible urge to rush forward from under the
+couch, throw himself at his sister's feet and beg her for something
+good to eat.  However, his sister noticed the full dish immediately
+and looked at it and the few drops of milk splashed around it with
+some surprise.  She immediately picked it up - using a rag,
+not her bare hands - and carried it out.  Gregor was extremely
+curious as to what she would bring in its place, imagining the
+wildest possibilities, but he never could have guessed what his
+sister, in her goodness, actually did bring.  In order to test his
+taste, she brought him a whole selection of things, all spread out
+on an old newspaper.  There were old, half-rotten vegetables; bones
+from the evening meal, covered in white sauce that had gone hard; a
+few raisins and almonds; some cheese that Gregor had declared
+inedible two days before; a dry roll and some bread spread with
+butter and salt.  As well as all that she had poured some water into
+the dish, which had probably been permanently set aside for Gregor's
+use, and placed it beside them.  Then, out of consideration for
+Gregor's feelings, as she knew that he would not eat in front of
+her, she hurried out again and even turned the key in the lock so
+that Gregor would know he could make things as comfortable for
+himself as he liked.  Gregor's little legs whirred, at last he could
+eat.  What's more, his injuries must already have completely healed
+as he found no difficulty in moving.  This amazed him, as more than
+a month earlier he had cut his finger slightly with a knife, he
+thought of how his finger had still hurt the day before yesterday.
+"Am I less sensitive than I used to be, then?", he thought, and was
+already sucking greedily at the cheese which had immediately, almost
+compellingly, attracted him much more than the other foods on the
+newspaper.  Quickly one after another, his eyes watering with
+pleasure, he consumed the cheese, the vegetables and the sauce; the
+fresh foods, on the other hand, he didn't like at all, and even
+dragged the things he did want to eat a little way away from them
+because he couldn't stand the smell.  Long after he had finished
+eating and lay lethargic in the same place, his sister slowly turned
+the key in the lock as a sign to him that he should withdraw.  He
+was immediately startled, although he had been half asleep, and he
+hurried back under the couch.  But he needed great self-control to
+stay there even for the short time that his sister was in the room,
+as eating so much food had rounded out his body a little and he
+could hardly breathe in that narrow space.  Half suffocating, he
+watched with bulging eyes as his sister unselfconsciously took a
+broom and swept up the left-overs, mixing them in with the food he
+had not even touched at all as if it could not be used any more.
+She quickly dropped it all into a bin, closed it with its wooden
+lid, and carried everything out.  She had hardly turned her back
+before Gregor came out again from under the couch and stretched
+himself.
+
+This was how Gregor received his food each day now, once in the
+morning while his parents and the maid were still asleep, and the
+second time after everyone had eaten their meal at midday as his
+parents would sleep for a little while then as well, and Gregor's
+sister would send the maid away on some errand.  Gregor's father and
+mother certainly did not want him to starve either, but perhaps it
+would have been more than they could stand to have any more
+experience of his feeding than being told about it, and perhaps his
+sister wanted to spare them what distress she could as they were
+indeed suffering enough.
+
+It was impossible for Gregor to find out what they had told the
+doctor and the locksmith that first morning to get them out of the
+flat.  As nobody could understand him, nobody, not even his sister,
+thought that he could understand them, so he had to be content to
+hear his sister's sighs and appeals to the saints as she moved about
+his room.  It was only later, when she had become a little more used
+to everything - there was, of course, no question of her ever
+becoming fully used to the situation - that Gregor would sometimes
+catch a friendly comment, or at least a comment that could be
+construed as friendly.  "He's enjoyed his dinner today", she might
+say when he had diligently cleared away all the food left for him,
+or if he left most of it, which slowly became more and more
+frequent, she would often say, sadly, "now everything's just been
+left there again".
+
+Although Gregor wasn't able to hear any news directly he did listen
+to much of what was said in the next rooms, and whenever he heard
+anyone speaking he would scurry straight to the appropriate door and
+press his whole body against it.  There was seldom any conversation,
+especially at first, that was not about him in some way, even if
+only in secret.  For two whole days, all the talk at every mealtime
+was about what they should do now; but even between meals they spoke
+about the same subject as there were always at least two members of
+the family at home - nobody wanted to be at home by themselves and
+it was out of the question to leave the flat entirely empty.  And on
+the very first day the maid had fallen to her knees and begged
+Gregor's mother to let her go without delay.  It was not very clear
+how much she knew of what had happened but she left within a quarter
+of an hour, tearfully thanking Gregor's mother for her dismissal as
+if she had done her an enormous service.  She even swore
+emphatically not to tell anyone the slightest about what had
+happened, even though no-one had asked that of her.
+
+Now Gregor's sister also had to help his mother with the cooking;
+although that was not so much bother as no-one ate very much.
+Gregor often heard how one of them would unsuccessfully urge another
+to eat, and receive no more answer than "no thanks, I've had enough"
+or something similar.  No-one drank very much either.  His sister
+would sometimes ask his father whether he would like a beer, hoping
+for the chance to go and fetch it herself.  When his father then
+said nothing she would add, so that he would not feel selfish, that
+she could send the housekeeper for it, but then his father would
+close the matter with a big, loud "No", and no more would be said.
+
+Even before the first day had come to an end, his father had
+explained to Gregor's mother and sister what their finances and
+prospects were.  Now and then he stood up from the table and took
+some receipt or document from the little cash box he had saved from
+his business when it had collapsed five years earlier.  Gregor heard
+how he opened the complicated lock and then closed it again after he
+had taken the item he wanted.  What he heard his father say was some
+of the first good news that Gregor heard since he had first been
+incarcerated in his room.  He had thought that nothing at all
+remained from his father's business, at least he had never told him
+anything different, and Gregor had never asked him about it anyway.
+Their business misfortune had reduced the family to a state of total
+despair, and Gregor's only concern at that time had been to arrange
+things so that they could all forget about it as quickly as
+possible.  So then he started working especially hard, with a fiery
+vigour that raised him from a junior salesman to a travelling
+representative almost overnight, bringing with it the chance to earn
+money in quite different ways.  Gregor converted his success at work
+straight into cash that he could lay on the table at home for the
+benefit of his astonished and delighted family.  They had been good
+times and they had never come again, at least not with the same
+splendour, even though Gregor had later earned so much that he was
+in a position to bear the costs of the whole family, and did bear
+them.  They had even got used to it, both Gregor and the family,
+they took the money with gratitude and he was glad to provide it,
+although there was no longer much warm affection given in return.
+Gregor only remained close to his sister now.  Unlike him, she was
+very fond of music and a gifted and expressive violinist, it was his
+secret plan to send her to the conservatory next year even though it
+would cause great expense that would have to be made up for in some
+other way.  During Gregor's short periods in town, conversation with
+his sister would often turn to the conservatory but it was only ever
+mentioned as a lovely dream that could never be realised.  Their
+parents did not like to hear this innocent talk, but Gregor thought
+about it quite hard and decided he would let them know what he
+planned with a grand announcement of it on Christmas day.
+
+That was the sort of totally pointless thing that went through his
+mind in his present state, pressed upright against the door and
+listening.  There were times when he simply became too tired to
+continue listening, when his head would fall wearily against the
+door and he would pull it up again with a start, as even the
+slightest noise he caused would be heard next door and they would
+all go silent.  "What's that he's doing now", his father would say
+after a while, clearly having gone over to the door, and only then
+would the interrupted conversation slowly be taken up again.
+
+When explaining things, his father repeated himself several times,
+partly because it was a long time since he had been occupied with
+these matters himself and partly because Gregor's mother did not
+understand everything the first time.  From these repeated explanations
+Gregor learned, to his pleasure, that despite all their misfortunes
+there was still some money available from the old days.  It was not
+a lot, but it had not been touched in the meantime and some interest
+had accumulated.  Besides that, they had not been using up all the
+money that Gregor had been bringing home every month, keeping only a
+little for himself, so that that, too, had been accumulating.
+Behind the door, Gregor nodded with enthusiasm in his pleasure at
+this unexpected thrift and caution.  He could actually have used
+this surplus money to reduce his father's debt to his boss, and the
+day when he could have freed himself from that job would have come
+much closer, but now it was certainly better the way his father had
+done things.
+
+This money, however, was certainly not enough to enable the family
+to live off the interest; it was enough to maintain them for,
+perhaps, one or two years, no more.  That's to say, it was money
+that should not really be touched but set aside for emergencies;
+money to live on had to be earned.  His father was healthy but old,
+and lacking in self confidence.  During the five years that he had
+not been working - the first holiday in a life that had been full of
+strain and no success - he had put on a lot of weight and become
+very slow and clumsy.  Would Gregor's elderly mother now have to go
+and earn money? She suffered from asthma and it was a strain for her
+just to move about the home, every other day would be spent
+struggling for breath on the sofa by the open window.  Would his
+sister have to go and earn money? She was still a child of
+seventeen, her life up till then had been very enviable, consisting
+of wearing nice clothes, sleeping late, helping out in the business,
+joining in with a few modest pleasures and most of all playing the
+violin.  Whenever they began to talk of the need to earn money,
+Gregor would always first let go of the door and then throw himself
+onto the cool, leather sofa next to it, as he became quite hot with
+shame and regret.
+
+He would often lie there the whole night through, not sleeping a
+wink but scratching at the leather for hours on end.  Or he might go
+to all the effort of pushing a chair to the window, climbing up onto
+the sill and, propped up in the chair, leaning on the window to
+stare out of it.  He had used to feel a great sense of freedom from
+doing this, but doing it now was obviously something more remembered
+than experienced,  as what he actually saw in this way was becoming
+less distinct every day, even things that were quite near; he had
+used to curse the ever-present view of the hospital across the
+street, but now he could not see it at all, and if he had not known
+that he lived in Charlottenstrasse, which was a quiet street despite
+being in the middle of the city, he could have thought that he was
+looking out the window at a barren waste where the grey sky and the
+grey earth mingled inseparably.  His observant sister only needed to
+notice the chair twice before she would always push it back to its
+exact position by the window after she had tidied up the room, and
+even left the inner pane of the window open from then on.
+
+If Gregor had only been able to speak to his sister and thank her
+for all that she had to do for him it would have been easier for him
+to bear it; but as it was it caused him pain.  His sister,
+naturally, tried as far as possible to pretend there was nothing
+burdensome about it, and the longer it went on, of course, the
+better she was able to do so, but as time went by Gregor was also
+able to see through it all so much better.  It had even become very
+unpleasant for him, now, whenever she entered the room.  No sooner
+had she come in than she would quickly close the door as a
+precaution so that no-one would have to suffer the view into
+Gregor's room, then she would go straight to the window and pull it
+hurriedly open almost as if she were suffocating.  Even if it was
+cold, she would stay at the window breathing deeply for a little
+while.  She would alarm Gregor twice a day with this running about
+and noise making; he would stay under the couch shivering the whole
+while, knowing full well that she would certainly have liked to
+spare him this ordeal, but it was impossible for her to be in the
+same room with him with the windows closed.
+
+One day, about a month after Gregor's transformation when his sister
+no longer had any particular reason to be shocked at his appearance,
+she came into the room a little earlier than usual and found him
+still staring out the window, motionless, and just where he would be
+most horrible.  In itself, his sister's not coming into the room
+would have been no surprise for Gregor as it would have been
+difficult for her to immediately open the window while he was still
+there, but not only did she not come in, she went straight back and
+closed the door behind her, a stranger would have thought he had
+threatened her and tried to bite her.  Gregor went straight to hide
+himself under the couch, of course, but he had to wait until midday
+before his sister came back and she seemed much more uneasy than
+usual.  It made him realise that she still found his appearance
+unbearable and would continue to do so, she probably even had to
+overcome the urge to flee when she saw the little bit of him that
+protruded from under the couch.  One day, in order to spare her even
+this sight, he spent four hours carrying the bedsheet over to the
+couch on his back and arranged it so that he was completely covered
+and his sister would not be able to see him even if she bent down.
+If she did not think this sheet was necessary then all she had to do
+was take it off again, as it was clear enough that it was no
+pleasure for Gregor to cut himself off so completely.  She left the
+sheet where it was.  Gregor even thought he glimpsed a look of
+gratitude one time when he carefully looked out from under the sheet
+to see how his sister liked the new arrangement.
+
+For the first fourteen days, Gregor's parents could not bring
+themselves to come into the room to see him.  He would often hear
+them say how they appreciated all the new work his sister was doing
+even though, before, they had seen her as a girl who was somewhat
+useless and frequently been annoyed with her.  But now the two of
+them, father and mother, would often both wait outside the door of
+Gregor's room while his sister tidied up in there, and as soon as
+she went out again she would have to tell them exactly how
+everything looked, what Gregor had eaten, how he had behaved this
+time and whether, perhaps, any slight improvement could be seen.
+His mother also wanted to go in and visit Gregor relatively soon but
+his father and sister at first persuaded her against it.  Gregor
+listened very closely to all this, and approved fully.  Later,
+though, she had to be held back by force, which made her call out:
+"Let me go and see Gregor, he is my unfortunate son! Can't you
+understand I have to see him?", and Gregor would think to himself
+that maybe it would be better if his mother came in, not every day
+of course, but one day a week, perhaps; she could understand
+everything much better than his sister who, for all her courage, was
+still just a child after all, and really might not have had an
+adult's appreciation of the burdensome job she had taken on.
+
+Gregor's wish to see his mother was soon realised.  Out of
+consideration for his parents, Gregor wanted to avoid being seen at
+the window during the day, the few square meters of the floor did
+not give him much room to crawl about, it was hard to just lie
+quietly through the night, his food soon stopped giving him any
+pleasure at all, and so, to entertain himself, he got into the habit
+of crawling up and down the walls and ceiling.  He was especially
+fond of hanging from the ceiling; it was quite different from lying
+on the floor; he could breathe more freely; his body had a light
+swing to it; and up there, relaxed and almost happy, it might happen
+that he would surprise even himself by letting go of the ceiling and
+landing on the floor with a crash.  But now, of course, he had far
+better control of his body than before and, even with a fall as
+great as that, caused himself no damage.  Very soon his sister
+noticed Gregor's new way of entertaining himself - he had, after
+all, left traces of the adhesive from his feet as he crawled about -
+and got it into her head to make it as easy as possible for him by
+removing the furniture that got in his way, especially the chest of
+drawers and the desk.  Now, this was not something that she would be
+able to do by herself; she did not dare to ask for help from her
+father; the sixteen year old maid had carried on bravely since the
+cook had left but she certainly would not have helped in this, she
+had even asked to be allowed to keep the kitchen locked at all times
+and never to have to open the door unless it was especially
+important; so his sister had no choice but to choose some time when
+Gregor's father was not there and fetch his mother to help her.  As
+she approached the room, Gregor could hear his mother express her
+joy, but once at the door she went silent.  First, of course, his
+sister came in and looked round to see that everything in the room
+was alright; and only then did she let her mother enter.  Gregor had
+hurriedly pulled the sheet down lower over the couch and put more
+folds into it so that everything really looked as if it had just
+been thrown down by chance.  Gregor also refrained, this time, from
+spying out from under the sheet; he gave up the chance to see his
+mother until later and was simply glad that she had come.  "You can
+come in, he can't be seen", said his sister, obviously leading her
+in by the hand.  The old chest of drawers was too heavy for a pair
+of feeble women to be heaving about, but Gregor listened as they
+pushed it from its place, his sister always taking on the heaviest
+part of the work for herself and ignoring her mother's warnings that
+she would strain herself.  This lasted a very long time.  After
+labouring at it for fifteen minutes or more his mother said it would
+be better to leave the chest where it was, for one thing it was too
+heavy for them to get the job finished before Gregor's father got
+home and leaving it in the middle of the room it would be in his way
+even more, and for another thing it wasn't even sure that taking the
+furniture away would really be any help to him.  She thought just
+the opposite; the sight of the bare walls saddened her right to her
+heart; and why wouldn't Gregor feel the same way about it, he'd been
+used to this furniture in his room for a long time and it would make
+him feel abandoned to be in an empty room like that.  Then, quietly,
+almost whispering as if wanting Gregor (whose whereabouts she did
+not know) to hear not even the tone of her voice, as she was
+convinced that he did not understand her words, she added "and by
+taking the furniture away, won't it seem like we're showing that
+we've given up all hope of improvement and we're abandoning him to
+cope for himself? I think it'd be best to leave the room exactly the
+way it was before so that when Gregor comes back to us again he'll
+find everything unchanged and he'll be able to forget the time in
+between all the easier".
+
+Hearing these words from his mother made Gregor realise that the
+lack of any direct human communication, along with the monotonous
+life led by the family during these two months, must have made him
+confused - he could think of no other way of explaining to himself
+why he had seriously wanted his room emptied out.  Had he really
+wanted to transform his room into a cave, a warm room fitted out
+with the nice furniture he had inherited? That would have let him
+crawl around unimpeded in any direction, but it would also have let
+him quickly forget his past when he had still been human.  He had
+come very close to forgetting, and it had only been the voice of his
+mother, unheard for so long, that had shaken him out of it.  Nothing
+should be removed; everything had to stay; he could not do without
+the good influence the furniture had on his condition; and if the
+furniture made it difficult for him to crawl about mindlessly that
+was not a loss but a great advantage.
+
+His sister, unfortunately, did not agree; she had become used to the
+idea, not without reason, that she was Gregor's spokesman to his
+parents about the things that concerned him.  This meant that his
+mother's advice now was sufficient reason for her to insist on
+removing not only the chest of drawers and the desk, as she had
+thought at first, but all the furniture apart from the all-important
+couch.  It was more than childish perversity, of course, or the
+unexpected confidence she had recently acquired, that made her
+insist; she had indeed noticed that Gregor needed a lot of room to
+crawl about in, whereas the furniture, as far as anyone could see,
+was of no use to him at all.  Girls of that age, though, do become
+enthusiastic about things and feel they must get their way whenever
+they can.  Perhaps this was what tempted Grete to make Gregor's
+situation seem even more shocking than it was so that she could do
+even more for him.  Grete would probably be the only one who would
+dare enter a room dominated by Gregor crawling about the bare walls
+by himself.
+
+So she refused to let her mother dissuade her.  Gregor's mother
+already looked uneasy in his room, she soon stopped speaking and
+helped Gregor's sister to get the chest of drawers out with what
+strength she had.  The chest of drawers was something that Gregor
+could do without if he had to, but the writing desk had to stay.
+Hardly had the two women pushed the chest of drawers, groaning, out
+of the room than Gregor poked his head out from under the couch to
+see what he could do about it.  He meant to be as careful and
+considerate as he could, but, unfortunately, it was his mother who
+came back first while Grete in the next room had her arms round the
+chest, pushing and pulling at it from side to side by herself
+without, of course, moving it an inch.  His mother was not used to
+the sight of Gregor, he might have made her ill, so Gregor hurried
+backwards to the far end of the couch.  In his startlement, though,
+he was not able to prevent the sheet at its front from moving a
+little.  It was enough to attract his mother's attention.  She stood
+very still, remained there a moment, and then went back out to
+Grete.
+
+Gregor kept trying to assure himself that nothing unusual was
+happening, it was just a few pieces of furniture being moved after
+all, but he soon had to admit that the women going to and fro, their
+little calls to each other, the scraping of the furniture on the
+floor, all these things made him feel as if he were being assailed
+from all sides.  With his head and legs pulled in against him and
+his body pressed to the floor, he was forced to admit to himself
+that he could not stand all of this much longer.  They were emptying
+his room out; taking away everything that was dear to him; they had
+already taken out the chest containing his fretsaw and other tools;
+now they threatened to remove the writing desk with its place
+clearly worn into the floor, the desk where he had done his homework
+as a business trainee, at high school, even while he had been at
+infant school--he really could not wait any longer to see whether
+the two women's intentions were good.  He had nearly forgotten they
+were there anyway, as they were now too tired to say anything while
+they worked and he could only hear their feet as they stepped
+heavily on the floor.
+
+So, while the women were leant against the desk in the other room
+catching their breath, he sallied out, changed direction four times
+not knowing what he should save first before his attention was
+suddenly caught by the picture on the wall - which was already
+denuded of everything else that had been on it - of the lady dressed
+in copious fur.  He hurried up onto the picture and pressed himself
+against its glass, it held him firmly and felt good on his hot
+belly.  This picture at least, now totally covered by Gregor, would
+certainly be taken away by no-one.  He turned his head to face the
+door into the living room so that he could watch the women when they
+came back.
+
+They had not allowed themselves a long rest and came back quite
+soon; Grete had put her arm around her mother and was nearly
+carrying her.  "What shall we take now, then?", said Grete and
+looked around.  Her eyes met those of Gregor on the wall.  Perhaps
+only because her mother was there, she remained calm, bent her face
+to her so that she would not look round and said, albeit hurriedly
+and with a tremor in her voice: "Come on, let's go back in the
+living room for a while?"  Gregor could see what Grete had in mind,
+she wanted to take her mother somewhere safe and then chase him down
+from the wall.  Well, she could certainly try it! He sat unyielding
+on his picture.  He would rather jump at Grete's face.
+
+But Grete's words had made her mother quite worried, she stepped to
+one side, saw the enormous brown patch against the flowers of the
+wallpaper, and before she even realised it was Gregor that she saw
+screamed: "Oh God, oh God!"  Arms outstretched, she fell onto the
+couch as if she had given up everything and stayed there immobile.
+"Gregor!" shouted his sister, glowering at him and shaking her fist.
+ That was the first word she had spoken to him directly since his
+transformation.  She ran into the other room to fetch some kind of
+smelling salts to bring her mother out of her faint; Gregor wanted
+to help too - he could save his picture later, although he stuck
+fast to the glass and had to pull himself off by force; then he,
+too, ran into the next room as if he could advise his sister like in
+the old days; but he had to just stand behind her doing nothing; she
+was looking into various bottles, he startled her when she turned
+round; a bottle fell to the ground and broke; a splinter cut
+Gregor's face, some kind of caustic medicine splashed all over him;
+now, without delaying any longer, Grete took hold of all the bottles
+she could and ran with them in to her mother; she slammed the door
+shut with her foot.  So now Gregor was shut out from his mother,
+who, because of him, might be near to death; he could not open the
+door if he did not want to chase his sister away, and she had to
+stay with his mother; there was nothing for him to do but wait; and,
+oppressed with anxiety and self-reproach, he began to crawl about,
+he crawled over everything, walls, furniture, ceiling, and finally
+in his confusion as the whole room began to spin around him he fell
+down into the middle of the dinner table.
+
+He lay there for a while, numb and immobile, all around him it was
+quiet, maybe that was a good sign.  Then there was someone at the
+door.  The maid, of course, had locked herself in her kitchen so
+that Grete would have to go and answer it.  His father had arrived
+home.  "What's happened?" were his first words; Grete's appearance
+must have made everything clear to him.  She answered him with
+subdued voice, and openly pressed her face into his chest: "Mother's
+fainted, but she's better now.  Gregor got out."  "Just as I
+expected", said his father, "just as I always said, but you women
+wouldn't listen, would you."  It was clear to Gregor that Grete had
+not said enough and that his father took it to mean that something
+bad had happened, that he was responsible for some act of violence.
+That meant Gregor would now have to try to calm his father, as he
+did not have the time to explain things to him even if that had been
+possible.  So he fled to the door of his room and pressed himself
+against it so that his father, when he came in from the hall, could
+see straight away that Gregor had the best intentions and would go
+back into his room without delay, that it would not be necessary to
+drive him back but that they had only to open the door and he would
+disappear.
+
+His father, though, was not in the mood to notice subtleties like
+that; "Ah!", he shouted as he came in, sounding as if he were both
+angry and glad at the same time.  Gregor drew his head back from the
+door and lifted it towards his father.  He really had not imagined
+his father the way he stood there now; of late, with his new habit
+of crawling about, he had neglected to pay attention to what was
+going on the rest of the flat the way he had done before.  He really
+ought to have expected things to have changed, but still, still, was
+that really his father? The same tired man as used to be laying
+there entombed in his bed when Gregor came back from his business
+trips, who would receive him sitting in the armchair in his
+nightgown when he came back in the evenings; who was hardly even
+able to stand up but, as a sign of his pleasure, would just raise
+his arms and who, on the couple of times a year when they went for a
+walk together on a Sunday or public holiday wrapped up tightly in
+his overcoat between Gregor and his mother, would always labour his
+way forward a little more slowly than them, who were already walking
+slowly for his sake; who would place his stick down carefully and,
+if he wanted to say something would invariably stop and gather his
+companions around him.  He was standing up straight enough now;
+dressed in a smart blue uniform with gold buttons, the sort worn by
+the employees at the banking institute; above the high, stiff collar
+of the coat his strong double-chin emerged; under the bushy
+eyebrows, his piercing, dark eyes looked out fresh and alert; his
+normally unkempt white hair was combed down painfully close to his
+scalp.  He took his cap, with its gold monogram from, probably, some
+bank, and threw it in an arc right across the room onto the sofa,
+put his hands in his trouser pockets, pushing back the bottom of his
+long uniform coat, and, with look of determination, walked towards
+Gregor.  He probably did not even know himself what he had in mind,
+but nonetheless lifted his feet unusually high.  Gregor was amazed
+at the enormous size of the soles of his boots, but wasted no time
+with that - he knew full well, right from the first day of his new
+life, that his father thought it necessary to always be extremely
+strict with him.  And so he ran up to his father, stopped when his
+father stopped, scurried forwards again when he moved, even
+slightly.  In this way they went round the room several times
+without anything decisive happening, without even giving the
+impression of a chase as everything went so slowly.  Gregor remained
+all this time on the floor, largely because he feared his father
+might see it as especially provoking if he fled onto the wall or
+ceiling.  Whatever he did, Gregor had to admit that he certainly
+would not be able to keep up this running about for long, as for
+each step his father took he had to carry out countless movements.
+He became noticeably short of breath, even in his earlier life his
+lungs had not been very reliable.  Now, as he lurched about in his
+efforts to muster all the strength he could for running he could
+hardly keep his eyes open; his thoughts became too slow for him to
+think of any other way of saving himself than running; he almost
+forgot that the walls were there for him to use although, here, they
+were concealed behind carefully carved furniture full of notches and
+protrusions - then, right beside him, lightly tossed, something flew
+down and rolled in front of him.  It was an apple; then another one
+immediately flew at him; Gregor froze in shock; there was no longer
+any point in running as his father had decided to bombard him.  He
+had filled his pockets with fruit from the bowl on the sideboard and
+now, without even taking the time for careful aim, threw one apple
+after another.  These little, red apples rolled about on the floor,
+knocking into each other as if they had electric motors.  An apple
+thrown without much force glanced against Gregor's back and slid off
+without doing any harm.  Another one however, immediately following
+it, hit squarely and lodged in his back; Gregor wanted to drag
+himself away, as if he could remove the surprising, the incredible
+pain by changing his position; but he felt as if nailed to the spot
+and spread himself out, all his senses in confusion.  The last thing
+he saw was the door of his room being pulled open, his sister was
+screaming, his mother ran out in front of her in her blouse (as his
+sister had taken off some of her clothes after she had fainted to
+make it easier for her to breathe), she ran to his father, her
+skirts unfastened and sliding one after another to the ground,
+stumbling over the skirts she pushed herself to his father, her arms
+around him, uniting herself with him totally - now Gregor lost his
+ability to see anything - her hands behind his father's head begging
+him to spare Gregor's life.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+No-one dared to remove the apple lodged in Gregor's flesh, so it
+remained there as a visible reminder of his injury.  He had suffered
+it there for more than a month, and his condition seemed serious
+enough to remind even his father that Gregor, despite his current
+sad and revolting form, was a family member who could not be treated
+as an enemy.  On the contrary, as a family there was a duty to
+swallow any revulsion for him and to be patient, just to be patient.
+
+Because of his injuries, Gregor had lost much of his mobility -
+probably permanently.  He had been reduced to the condition of an
+ancient invalid and it took him long, long minutes to crawl across
+his room - crawling over the ceiling was out of the question - but
+this deterioration in his condition was fully (in his opinion) made
+up for by the door to the living room being left open every evening.
+ He got into the habit of closely watching it for one or two hours
+before it was opened and then, lying in the darkness of his room
+where he could not be seen from the living room, he could watch the
+family in the light of the dinner table and listen to their
+conversation - with everyone's permission, in a way, and thus quite
+differently from before.
+
+They no longer held the lively conversations of earlier times, of
+course, the ones that Gregor always thought about with longing when
+he was tired and getting into the damp bed in some small hotel room.
+ All of them were usually very quiet nowadays.  Soon after dinner,
+his father would go to sleep in his chair; his mother and sister
+would urge each other to be quiet; his mother, bent deeply under the
+lamp, would sew fancy underwear for a fashion shop; his sister, who
+had taken a sales job, learned shorthand and French in the evenings
+so that she might be able to get a better position later on.
+Sometimes his father would wake up and say to Gregor's mother
+"you're doing so much sewing again today!", as if he did not know
+that he had been dozing - and then he would go back to sleep again
+while mother and sister would exchange a tired grin.
+
+With a kind of stubbornness, Gregor's father refused to take his
+uniform off even at home; while his nightgown hung unused on its peg
+Gregor's father would slumber where he was, fully dressed, as if
+always ready to serve and expecting to hear the voice of his
+superior even here.  The uniform had not been new to start with, but
+as a result of this it slowly became even shabbier despite the
+efforts of Gregor's mother and sister to look after it.  Gregor
+would often spend the whole evening looking at all the stains on
+this coat, with its gold buttons always kept polished and shiny,
+while the old man in it would sleep, highly uncomfortable but
+peaceful.
+
+As soon as it struck ten, Gregor's mother would speak gently to his
+father to wake him and try to persuade him to go to bed, as he
+couldn't sleep properly where he was and he really had to get his
+sleep if he was to be up at six to get to work.  But since he had
+been in work he had become more obstinate and would always insist on
+staying longer at the table, even though he regularly fell asleep
+and it was then harder than ever to persuade him to exchange the
+chair for his bed.  Then, however much mother and sister would
+importune him with little reproaches and warnings he would keep
+slowly shaking his head for a quarter of an hour with his eyes
+closed and refusing to get up.  Gregor's mother would tug at his
+sleeve, whisper endearments into his ear, Gregor's sister would
+leave her work to help her mother, but nothing would have any effect
+on him.  He would just sink deeper into his chair.  Only when the
+two women took him under the arms he would abruptly open his eyes,
+look at them one after the other and say: "What a life! This is what
+peace I get in my old age!"  And supported by the two women he would
+lift himself up carefully as if he were carrying the greatest load
+himself, let the women take him to the door, send them off and carry
+on by himself while Gregor's mother would throw down her needle and
+his sister her pen so that they could run after his father and
+continue being of help to him.
+
+Who, in this tired and overworked family, would have had time to
+give more attention to Gregor than was absolutely necessary? The
+household budget became even smaller; so now the maid was dismissed;
+an enormous, thick-boned charwoman with white hair that flapped
+around her head came every morning and evening to do the heaviest
+work; everything else was looked after by Gregor's mother on top of
+the large amount of sewing work she did.  Gregor even learned,
+listening to the evening conversation about what price they had
+hoped for, that several items of jewellery belonging to the family
+had been sold, even though both mother and sister had been very fond
+of wearing them at functions and celebrations.  But the loudest
+complaint was that although the flat was much too big for their
+present circumstances, they could not move out of it, there was no
+imaginable way of transferring Gregor to the new address.  He could
+see quite well, though, that there were more reasons than
+consideration for him that made it difficult for them to move, it
+would have been quite easy to transport him in any suitable crate
+with a few air holes in it; the main thing holding the family back
+from their decision to move was much more to do with their total
+despair, and the thought that they had been struck with a misfortune
+unlike anything experienced by anyone else they knew or were related
+to.  They carried out absolutely everything that the world expects
+from poor people, Gregor's father brought bank employees their
+breakfast, his mother sacrificed herself by washing clothes for
+strangers, his sister ran back and forth behind her desk at the
+behest of the customers, but they just did not have the strength to
+do any more.  And the injury in Gregor's back began to hurt as much
+as when it was new.  After they had come back from taking his father
+to bed Gregor's mother and sister would now leave their work where
+it was and sit close together, cheek to cheek; his mother would
+point to Gregor's room and say "Close that door, Grete", and then,
+when he was in the dark again, they would sit in the next room and
+their tears would mingle, or they would simply sit there staring
+dry-eyed at the table.
+
+Gregor hardly slept at all, either night or day.  Sometimes he would
+think of taking over the family's affairs, just like before, the
+next time the door was opened; he had long forgotten about his boss
+and the chief clerk, but they would appear again in his thoughts,
+the salesmen and the apprentices, that stupid teaboy, two or three
+friends from other businesses, one of the chambermaids from a
+provincial hotel, a tender memory that appeared and disappeared
+again, a cashier from a hat shop for whom his attention had been
+serious but too slow, - all of them appeared to him, mixed together
+with strangers and others he had forgotten, but instead of helping
+him and his family they were all of them inaccessible, and he was
+glad when they disappeared.  Other times he was not at all in the
+mood to look after his family, he was filled with simple rage about
+the lack of attention he was shown, and although he could think of
+nothing he would have wanted, he made plans of how he could get into
+the pantry where he could take all the things he was entitled to,
+even if he was not hungry.  Gregor's sister no longer thought about
+how she could please him but would hurriedly push some food or other
+into his room with her foot before she rushed out to work in the
+morning and at midday, and in the evening she would sweep it away
+again with the broom, indifferent as to whether it had been eaten or
+- more often than not - had been left totally untouched.  She still
+cleared up the room in the evening, but now she could not have been
+any quicker about it.  Smears of dirt were left on the walls, here
+and there were little balls of dust and filth.  At first, Gregor
+went into one of the worst of these places when his sister arrived
+as a reproach to her, but he could have stayed there for weeks
+without his sister doing anything about it; she could see the dirt
+as well as he could but she had simply decided to leave him to it.
+At the same time she became touchy in a way that was quite new for
+her and which everyone in the family understood - cleaning up
+Gregor's room was for her and her alone.  Gregor's mother did once
+thoroughly clean his room, and needed to use several bucketfuls of
+water to do it - although that much dampness also made Gregor ill
+and he lay flat on the couch, bitter and immobile.  But his mother
+was to be punished still more for what she had done, as hardly had
+his sister arrived home in the evening than she noticed the change
+in Gregor's room and, highly aggrieved, ran back into the living
+room where, despite her mothers raised and imploring hands, she
+broke into convulsive tears.  Her father, of course, was startled
+out of his chair and the two parents looked on astonished and
+helpless; then they, too, became agitated; Gregor's father, standing
+to the right of his mother, accused her of not leaving the cleaning
+of Gregor's room to his sister; from her left, Gregor's sister
+screamed at her that she was never to clean Gregor's room again;
+while his mother tried to draw his father, who was beside himself
+with anger, into the bedroom; his sister, quaking with tears,
+thumped on the table with her small fists; and Gregor hissed in
+anger that no-one had even thought of closing the door to save him
+the sight of this and all its noise.
+
+Gregor's sister was exhausted from going out to work, and looking
+after Gregor as she had done before was even more work for her, but
+even so his mother ought certainly not to have taken her place.
+Gregor, on the other hand, ought not to be neglected.  Now, though,
+the charwoman was here.  This elderly widow, with a robust bone
+structure that made her able to withstand the hardest of things in
+her long life, wasn't really repelled by Gregor.  Just by chance one
+day, rather than any real curiosity, she opened the door to Gregor's
+room and found herself face to face with him.  He was taken totally
+by surprise, no-one was chasing him but he began to rush to and fro
+while she just stood there in amazement with her hands crossed in
+front of her.  From then on she never failed to open the door
+slightly every evening and morning and look briefly in on him.  At
+first she would call to him as she did so with words that she
+probably considered friendly, such as "come on then, you old
+dung-beetle!", or "look at the old dung-beetle there!"  Gregor never
+responded to being spoken to in that way, but just remained where he
+was without moving as if the door had never even been opened.  If
+only they had told this charwoman to clean up his room every day
+instead of letting her disturb him for no reason whenever she felt
+like it! One day, early in the morning while a heavy rain struck the
+windowpanes, perhaps indicating that spring was coming, she began to
+speak to him in that way once again.  Gregor was so resentful of it
+that he started to move toward her, he was slow and infirm, but it
+was like a kind of attack.  Instead of being afraid, the charwoman
+just lifted up one of the chairs from near the door and stood there
+with her mouth open, clearly intending not to close her mouth until
+the chair in her hand had been slammed down into Gregor's back.
+"Aren't you coming any closer, then?", she asked when Gregor turned
+round again, and she calmly put the chair back in the corner.
+
+Gregor had almost entirely stopped eating.  Only if he happened to
+find himself next to the food that had been prepared for him he
+might take some of it into his mouth to play with it, leave it there
+a few hours and then, more often than not, spit it out again.  At
+first he thought it was distress at the state of his room that
+stopped him eating, but he had soon got used to the changes made
+there.  They had got into the habit of putting things into this room
+that they had no room for anywhere else, and there were now many
+such things as one of the rooms in the flat had been rented out to
+three gentlemen.  These earnest gentlemen - all three of them had
+full beards, as Gregor learned peering through the crack in the door
+one day - were painfully insistent on things' being tidy.  This
+meant not only in their own room but, since they had taken a room in
+this establishment, in the entire flat and especially in the
+kitchen.  Unnecessary clutter was something they could not tolerate,
+especially if it was dirty.  They had moreover brought most of their
+own furnishings and equipment with them.  For this reason, many
+things had become superfluous which, although they could not be
+sold, the family did not wish to discard.  All these things found
+their way into Gregor's room.  The dustbins from the kitchen found
+their way in there too.  The charwoman was always in a hurry, and
+anything she couldn't use for the time being she would just chuck in
+there.  He, fortunately, would usually see no more than the object
+and the hand that held it.  The woman most likely meant to fetch the
+things back out again when she had time and the opportunity, or to
+throw everything out in one go, but what actually happened was that
+they were left where they landed when they had first been thrown
+unless Gregor made his way through the junk and moved it somewhere
+else.  At first he moved it because, with no other room free where
+he could crawl about, he was forced to, but later on he came to
+enjoy it although moving about in that way left him sad and tired to
+death, and he would remain immobile for hours afterwards.
+
+The gentlemen who rented the room would sometimes take their evening
+meal at home in the living room that was used by everyone, and so
+the door to this room was often kept closed in the evening.  But
+Gregor found it easy to give up having the door open, he had, after
+all, often failed to make use of it when it was open and, without
+the family having noticed it, lain in his room in its darkest
+corner.  One time, though, the charwoman left the door to the living
+room slightly open, and it remained open when the gentlemen who
+rented the room came in in the evening and the light was put on.
+They sat up at the table where, formerly, Gregor had taken his meals
+with his father and mother, they unfolded the serviettes and picked
+up their knives and forks.  Gregor's mother immediately appeared in
+the doorway with a dish of meat and soon behind her came his sister
+with a dish piled high with potatoes.  The food was steaming, and
+filled the room with its smell.  The gentlemen bent over the dishes
+set in front of them as if they wanted to test the food before
+eating it, and the gentleman in the middle, who seemed to count as
+an authority for the other two, did indeed cut off a piece of meat
+while it was still in its dish, clearly wishing to establish whether
+it was sufficiently cooked or whether it should be sent back to the
+kitchen.  It was to his satisfaction, and Gregor's mother and
+sister, who had been looking on anxiously, began to breathe again
+and smiled.
+
+The family themselves ate in the kitchen.  Nonetheless, Gregor's
+father came into the living room before he went into the kitchen,
+bowed once with his cap in his hand and did his round of the table.
+The gentlemen stood as one, and mumbled something into their beards.
+ Then, once they were alone, they ate in near perfect silence.  It
+seemed remarkable to Gregor that above all the various noises of
+eating their chewing teeth could still be heard, as if they had
+wanted to show Gregor that you need teeth in order to eat and it was
+not possible to perform anything with jaws that are toothless
+however nice they might be.  "I'd like to eat something", said
+Gregor anxiously, "but not anything like they're eating.  They do
+feed themselves.  And here I am, dying!"
+
+Throughout all this time, Gregor could not remember having heard the
+violin being played, but this evening it began to be heard from the
+kitchen.  The three gentlemen had already finished their meal, the
+one in the middle had produced a newspaper, given a page to each of
+the others, and now they leant back in their chairs reading them and
+smoking.  When the violin began playing they became attentive, stood
+up and went on tip-toe over to the door of the hallway where they
+stood pressed against each other.  Someone must have heard them in
+the kitchen, as Gregor's father called out: "Is the playing perhaps
+unpleasant for the gentlemen? We can stop it straight away."  "On
+the contrary", said the middle gentleman, "would the young lady not
+like to come in and play for us here in the room, where it is, after
+all, much more cosy and comfortable?"  "Oh yes, we'd love to",
+called back Gregor's father as if he had been the violin player
+himself.  The gentlemen stepped back into the room and waited.
+Gregor's father soon appeared with the music stand, his mother with
+the music and his sister with the violin.  She calmly prepared
+everything for her to begin playing; his parents, who had never
+rented a room out before and therefore showed an exaggerated
+courtesy towards the three gentlemen, did not even dare to sit on
+their own chairs; his father leant against the door with his right
+hand pushed in between two buttons on his uniform coat; his mother,
+though, was offered a seat by one of the gentlemen and sat - leaving
+the chair where the gentleman happened to have placed it - out of
+the way in a corner.
+
+His sister began to play; father and mother paid close attention,
+one on each side, to the movements of her hands.  Drawn in by the
+playing, Gregor had dared to come forward a little and already had
+his head in the living room.  Before, he had taken great pride in
+how considerate he was but now it hardly occurred to him that he had
+become so thoughtless about the others.  What's more, there was now
+all the more reason to keep himself hidden as he was covered in the
+dust that lay everywhere in his room and flew up at the slightest
+movement; he carried threads, hairs, and remains of food about on
+his back and sides; he was much too indifferent to everything now to
+lay on his back and wipe himself on the carpet like he had used to
+do several times a day.  And despite this condition, he was not too
+shy to move forward a little onto the immaculate floor of the living
+room.
+
+No-one noticed him, though.  The family was totally preoccupied with
+the violin playing; at first, the three gentlemen had put their
+hands in their pockets and come up far too close behind the music
+stand to look at all the notes being played, and they must have
+disturbed Gregor's sister, but soon, in contrast with the family,
+they  withdrew back to the window with their heads sunk and talking
+to each other at half volume, and they stayed by the window while
+Gregor's father observed them anxiously.  It really now seemed very
+obvious that they had expected to hear some beautiful or
+entertaining violin playing but had been disappointed, that they had
+had enough of the whole performance and it was only now out of
+politeness that they allowed their peace to be disturbed.  It was
+especially unnerving, the way they all blew the smoke from their
+cigarettes upwards from their mouth and noses.  Yet Gregor's sister
+was playing so beautifully.  Her face was leant to one side,
+following the lines of music with a careful and melancholy
+expression.  Gregor crawled a little further forward, keeping his
+head close to the ground so that he could meet her eyes if the
+chance came.  Was he an animal if music could captivate him so? It
+seemed to him that he was being shown the way to the unknown
+nourishment he had been yearning for.  He was determined to make his
+way forward to his sister and tug at her skirt to show her she might
+come into his room with her violin, as no-one appreciated her
+playing here as much as he would.  He never wanted to let her out of
+his room, not while he lived, anyway; his shocking appearance
+should, for once, be of some use to him; he wanted to be at every
+door of his room at once to hiss and spit at the attackers; his
+sister should not be forced to stay with him, though, but stay of
+her own free will; she would sit beside him on the couch with her
+ear bent down to him while he told her how he had always intended to
+send her to the conservatory, how he would have told everyone about
+it last Christmas - had Christmas really come and gone already? - if
+this misfortune hadn't got in the way, and refuse to let anyone
+dissuade him from it.  On hearing all this, his sister would break
+out in tears of emotion, and Gregor would climb up to her shoulder
+and kiss her neck, which, since she had been going out to work, she
+had kept free without any necklace or collar.
+
+"Mr. Samsa!", shouted the middle gentleman to Gregor's father,
+pointing, without wasting any more words, with his forefinger at
+Gregor as he slowly moved forward.  The violin went silent, the
+middle of the three gentlemen first smiled at his two friends,
+shaking his head, and then looked back at Gregor.  His father seemed
+to think it more important to calm the three gentlemen before
+driving Gregor out, even though they were not at all upset and
+seemed to think Gregor was more entertaining than the violin playing
+had been.  He rushed up to them with his arms spread out and
+attempted to drive them back into their room at the same time as
+trying to block their view of Gregor with his body.  Now they did
+become a little annoyed, and it was not clear whether it was his
+father's behaviour that annoyed them or the dawning realisation that
+they had had a neighbour like Gregor in the next room without
+knowing it.  They asked Gregor's father for explanations, raised
+their arms like he had, tugged excitedly at their beards and moved
+back towards their room only very slowly.  Meanwhile Gregor's sister
+had overcome the despair she had fallen into when her playing was
+suddenly interrupted.  She had let her hands drop and let violin and
+bow hang limply for a while but continued to look at the music as if
+still playing, but then she suddenly pulled herself together, lay
+the instrument on her mother's lap who still sat laboriously
+struggling for breath where she was, and ran into the next room
+which, under pressure from her father, the three gentlemen were more
+quickly moving toward.  Under his sister's experienced hand, the
+pillows and covers on the beds flew up and were put into order and
+she had already finished making the beds and slipped out again
+before the three gentlemen had reached the room.  Gregor's father
+seemed so obsessed with what he was doing that he forgot all the
+respect he owed to his tenants.  He urged them and pressed them
+until, when he was already at the door of the room, the middle of
+the three gentlemen shouted like thunder and stamped his foot and
+thereby brought Gregor's father to a halt.  "I declare here and
+now", he said, raising his hand and glancing at Gregor's mother and
+sister to gain their attention too, "that with regard to the
+repugnant conditions that prevail in this flat and with this family"
+- here he looked briefly but decisively at the floor - "I give
+immediate notice on my room.  For the days that I have been living
+here I will, of course, pay nothing at all, on the contrary I will
+consider whether to proceed with some kind of action for damages
+from you, and believe me it would be very easy to set out the
+grounds for such an action."  He was silent and looked straight
+ahead as if waiting for something.  And indeed, his two friends
+joined in with the words: "And we also give immediate notice."  With
+that, he took hold of the door handle and slammed the door.
+
+Gregor's father staggered back to his seat, feeling his way with his
+hands, and fell into it; it looked as if he was stretching himself
+out for his usual evening nap but from the uncontrolled way his head
+kept nodding it could be seen that he was not sleeping at all.
+Throughout all this, Gregor had lain still where the three gentlemen
+had first seen him.  His disappointment at the failure of his plan,
+and perhaps also because he was weak from hunger, made it impossible
+for him to move.  He was sure that everyone would turn on him any
+moment, and he waited.  He was not even startled out of this state
+when the violin on his mother's lap fell from her trembling fingers
+and landed loudly on the floor.
+
+"Father, Mother", said his sister, hitting the table with her hand
+as introduction, "we can't carry on like this.  Maybe you can't see
+it, but I can.  I don't want to call this monster my brother, all I
+can say is: we have to try and get rid of it.  We've done all that's
+humanly possible to look after it and be patient, I don't think
+anyone could accuse us of doing anything wrong."
+
+"She's absolutely right", said Gregor's father to himself.  His
+mother, who still had not had time to catch her breath, began to
+cough dully, her hand held out in front of her and a deranged
+expression in her eyes.
+
+Gregor's sister rushed to his mother and put her hand on her
+forehead.  Her words seemed to give Gregor's father some more
+definite ideas.  He sat upright, played with his uniform cap between
+the plates left by the three gentlemen after their meal, and
+occasionally looked down at Gregor as he lay there immobile.
+
+"We have to try and get rid of it", said Gregor's sister, now
+speaking only to her father, as her mother was too occupied with
+coughing to listen, "it'll be the death of both of you, I can see it
+coming.  We can't all work as hard as we have to and then come home
+to be tortured like this, we can't endure it.  I can't endure it any
+more."  And she broke out so heavily in tears that they flowed down
+the face of her mother, and she wiped them away with mechanical hand
+movements.
+
+"My child", said her father with sympathy and obvious understanding,
+"what are we to do?"
+
+His sister just shrugged her shoulders as a sign of the helplessness
+and tears that had taken hold of her, displacing her earlier
+certainty.
+
+"If he could just understand us", said his father almost as a
+question; his sister shook her hand vigorously through her tears as
+a sign that of that there was no question.
+
+"If he could just understand us", repeated Gregor's father, closing
+his eyes in acceptance of his sister's certainty that that was quite
+impossible, "then perhaps we could come to some kind of arrangement
+with him.  But as it is ..."
+
+"It's got to go", shouted his sister, "that's the only way, Father.
+You've got to get rid of the idea that that's Gregor.  We've only
+harmed ourselves by believing it for so long.  How can that be
+Gregor? If it were Gregor he would have seen long ago that it's not
+possible for human beings to live with an animal like that and he
+would have gone of his own free will.  We wouldn't have a brother
+any more, then, but we could carry on with our lives and remember
+him with respect.  As it is this animal is persecuting us, it's
+driven out our tenants, it obviously wants to take over the whole
+flat and force us to sleep on the streets.  Father, look, just
+look", she suddenly screamed, "he's starting again!"   In her alarm,
+which was totally beyond Gregor's comprehension, his sister even
+abandoned his mother as she pushed herself vigorously out of her
+chair as if more willing to sacrifice her own mother than stay
+anywhere near Gregor.  She rushed over to behind her father, who had
+become excited merely because she was and stood up half raising his
+hands in front of Gregor's sister as if to protect her.
+
+But Gregor had had no intention of frightening anyone, least of all
+his sister.  All he had done was begin to turn round so that he
+could go back into his room, although that was in itself quite
+startling as his pain-wracked condition meant that turning round
+required a great deal of effort and he was using his head to help
+himself do it, repeatedly raising it and striking it against the
+floor.  He stopped and looked round.  They seemed to have realised
+his good intention and had only been alarmed briefly.  Now they all
+looked at him in unhappy silence.  His mother lay in her chair with
+her legs stretched out and pressed against each other, her eyes
+nearly closed with exhaustion; his sister sat next to his father
+with her arms around his neck.
+
+"Maybe now they'll let me turn round", thought Gregor and went back
+to work.  He could not help panting loudly with the effort and had
+sometimes to stop and take a rest.  No-one was making him rush any
+more, everything was left up to him.  As soon as he had finally
+finished turning round he began to move straight ahead.  He was
+amazed at the great distance that separated him from his room, and
+could not understand how he had covered that distance in his weak
+state a little while before and almost without noticing it.  He
+concentrated on crawling as fast as he could and hardly noticed that
+there was not a word, not any cry, from his family to distract him.
+He did not turn his head until he had reached the doorway.  He did
+not turn it all the way round as he felt his neck becoming stiff,
+but it was nonetheless enough to see that nothing behind him had
+changed, only his sister had stood up.  With his last glance he saw
+that his mother had now fallen completely asleep.
+
+He was hardly inside his room before the door was hurriedly shut,
+bolted and locked.  The sudden noise behind Gregor so startled him
+that his little legs collapsed under him.  It was his sister who had
+been in so much of a rush.  She had been standing there waiting and
+sprung forward lightly, Gregor had not heard her coming at all, and
+as she turned the key in the lock she said loudly to her parents "At
+last!".
+
+"What now, then?", Gregor asked himself as he looked round in the
+darkness.  He soon made the discovery that he could no longer move
+at all.  This was no surprise to him, it seemed rather that being
+able to actually move around on those spindly little legs until then
+was unnatural.  He also felt relatively comfortable.  It is true
+that his entire body was aching, but the pain seemed to be slowly
+getting weaker and weaker and would finally disappear altogether.
+He could already hardly feel the decayed apple in his back or the
+inflamed area around it, which was entirely covered in white dust.
+He thought back of his family with emotion and love.  If it was
+possible, he felt that he must go away even more strongly than his
+sister.  He remained in this state of empty and peaceful rumination
+until he heard the clock tower strike three in the morning.  He
+watched as it slowly began to get light everywhere outside the
+window too.  Then, without his willing it, his head sank down
+completely, and his last breath flowed weakly from his nostrils.
+
+When the cleaner came in early in the morning - they'd often asked
+her not to keep slamming the doors but with her strength and in her
+hurry she still did, so that everyone in the flat knew when she'd
+arrived and from then on it was impossible to sleep in peace - she
+made her usual brief look in on Gregor and at first found nothing
+special.  She thought he was laying there so still on purpose,
+playing the martyr; she attributed all possible understanding to
+him.  She happened to be holding the long broom in her hand, so she
+tried to tickle Gregor with it from the doorway.  When she had no
+success with that she tried to make a nuisance of herself and poked
+at him a little, and only when she found she could shove him across
+the floor with no resistance at all did she start to pay attention.
+She soon realised what had really happened, opened her eyes wide,
+whistled to herself, but did not waste time to yank open the bedroom
+doors and shout loudly into the darkness of the bedrooms: "Come and
+'ave a look at this, it's dead, just lying there, stone dead!"
+
+Mr. and  Mrs. Samsa sat upright there in their marriage bed and had
+to make an effort to get over the shock caused by the cleaner before
+they could grasp what she was saying.  But then, each from his own
+side, they hurried out of bed.  Mr. Samsa threw the blanket over his
+shoulders,  Mrs. Samsa just came out in her nightdress; and that is
+how they went into Gregor's room.  On the way they opened the door
+to the living room where Grete had been sleeping since the three
+gentlemen had moved in; she was fully dressed as if she had never
+been asleep, and the paleness of her face seemed to confirm this.
+"Dead?", asked  Mrs. Samsa, looking at the charwoman enquiringly,
+even though she could have checked for herself and could have known
+it even without checking.  "That's what I said",  replied the
+cleaner, and to prove it she gave Gregor's body another shove with
+the broom, sending it sideways across the floor.  Mrs. Samsa made a
+movement as if she wanted to hold back the broom, but did not
+complete it.  "Now then", said  Mr. Samsa, "let's give thanks to God
+for that". He crossed himself, and the three women followed his
+example.  Grete, who had not taken her eyes from the corpse, said:
+"Just look how thin he was.  He didn't eat anything for so long.
+The food came out again just the same as when it went in". Gregor's
+body was indeed completely dried up and flat, they had not seen it
+until then, but now he was not lifted up on his little legs, nor did
+he do anything to make them look away.
+
+"Grete, come with us in here for a little while", said  Mrs. Samsa
+with a pained smile, and Grete followed her parents into the bedroom
+but not without looking back at the body.  The cleaner shut the door
+and opened the window wide.  Although it was still early in the
+morning the fresh air had something of warmth mixed in with it.  It
+was already the end of March, after all.
+
+The three gentlemen stepped out of their room and looked round in
+amazement for their breakfasts;  they had been forgotten about.
+"Where is our breakfast?", the middle gentleman asked the cleaner
+irritably.  She just put her finger on her lips and made a quick and
+silent sign to the men that they might like to come into Gregor's
+room.  They did so, and stood around Gregor's corpse with their
+hands in the pockets of their well-worn coats. It was now quite
+light in the room.
+
+Then the door of the bedroom opened and  Mr. Samsa appeared in his
+uniform with his wife on one arm and his daughter on the other.  All
+of them had been crying a little; Grete now and then pressed her
+face against her father's arm.
+
+"Leave my home.  Now!", said  Mr. Samsa, indicating the door and
+without letting the women from him.  "What do you mean?", asked the
+middle of the three gentlemen somewhat disconcerted, and he smiled
+sweetly.  The other two held their hands behind their backs and
+continually rubbed them together in gleeful anticipation of a loud
+quarrel which could only end in their favour.  "I mean just what I
+said", answered  Mr. Samsa, and, with his two companions, went in a
+straight line towards the man.  At first, he stood there still,
+looking at the ground as if the contents of his head were
+rearranging themselves into new positions.  "Alright, we'll go
+then", he said, and looked up at  Mr. Samsa as if he had been
+suddenly overcome with humility and wanted permission again from
+Mr. Samsa for his decision.  Mr. Samsa merely opened his eyes wide
+and briefly nodded to him several times.  At that, and without
+delay, the man actually did take long strides into the front
+hallway; his two friends had stopped rubbing their hands some time
+before and had been listening to what was being said.  Now they
+jumped off after their friend as if taken with a sudden fear that
+Mr. Samsa might go into the hallway in front of them and break the
+connection with their leader.  Once there, all three took their hats
+from the stand, took their sticks from the holder, bowed without a
+word and left the premises.  Mr. Samsa and the two women followed
+them out onto the landing; but they had had no reason to mistrust
+the men's intentions and as they leaned over the landing they saw how
+the three gentlemen made slow but steady progress down the many
+steps.  As they turned the corner on each floor they disappeared and
+would reappear a few moments later; the further down they went, the
+more that the Samsa family lost interest in them; when a butcher's
+boy, proud of posture with his tray on his head, passed them on his
+way up and came nearer than they were,  Mr. Samsa and the women came
+away from the landing and went, as if relieved, back into the flat.
+
+They decided the best way to make use of that day was for relaxation
+and to go for a walk; not only had they earned a break from work but
+they were in serious need of it.  So they sat at the table and wrote
+three letters of excusal,  Mr. Samsa to his employers,  Mrs. Samsa
+to her contractor and Grete to her principal.  The cleaner came in
+while they were writing to tell them she was going, she'd finished
+her work for that morning.  The three of them at first just nodded
+without looking up from what they were writing, and it was only when
+the cleaner still did not seem to want to leave that they looked up
+in irritation.  "Well?", asked  Mr. Samsa.  The charwoman stood in
+the doorway with a smile on her face as if she had some tremendous
+good news to report, but would only do it if she was clearly asked
+to.  The almost vertical little ostrich feather on her hat, which
+had been a source of irritation to  Mr. Samsa all the time she had
+been working for them, swayed gently in all directions.  "What is it
+you want then?", asked  Mrs. Samsa, whom the cleaner had the most
+respect for.  "Yes", she answered, and broke into a friendly laugh
+that made her unable to speak straight away, "well then, that thing
+in there, you needn't worry about how you're going to get rid of it.
+ That's all been sorted out."   Mrs. Samsa and Grete bent down over
+their letters as if intent on continuing with what they were
+writing;  Mr. Samsa saw that the cleaner wanted to start describing
+everything in detail but, with outstretched hand, he made it quite
+clear that she was not to.  So, as she was prevented from telling
+them all about it, she suddenly remembered what a hurry she was in
+and, clearly peeved, called out "Cheerio then, everyone", turned
+round sharply and left, slamming the door terribly as she went.
+
+"Tonight she gets sacked", said  Mr. Samsa, but he received no reply
+from either his wife or his daughter as the charwoman seemed to have
+destroyed the peace they had only just gained.  They got up and went
+over to the window where they remained with their arms around each
+other.  Mr. Samsa twisted round in his chair to look at them and sat
+there watching for a while.  Then he called out: "Come here, then.
+Let's forget about all that old stuff, shall we.  Come and give me a
+bit of attention". The two women immediately did as he said,
+hurrying over to him where they kissed him and hugged him and then
+they quickly finished their letters.
+
+After that, the three of them left the flat together, which was
+something they had not done for months, and took the tram out to the
+open country outside the town.  They had the tram, filled with warm
+sunshine, all to themselves.  Leant back comfortably on their seats,
+they discussed their prospects and found that on closer examination
+they were not at all bad - until then they had never asked each
+other about their work but all three had jobs which were very good
+and held particularly good promise for the future.  The greatest
+improvement for the time being, of course, would be achieved quite
+easily by moving house; what they needed now was a flat that was
+smaller and cheaper than the current one which had been chosen by
+Gregor, one that was in a better location and, most of all, more
+practical.  All the time, Grete was becoming livelier.  With all the
+worry they had been having of late her cheeks had become pale, but,
+while they were talking,  Mr. and  Mrs. Samsa were struck, almost
+simultaneously, with the thought of how their daughter was
+blossoming into a well built and beautiful young lady.  They became
+quieter.  Just from each other's glance and almost without knowing
+it they agreed that it would soon be time to find a good man for
+her.  And, as if in confirmation of their new dreams and good
+intentions, as soon as they reached their destination Grete was the
+first to get up and stretch out her young body.

--- a/magitek.asd	Mon Jan 16 21:20:27 2017 +0000
+++ b/magitek.asd	Mon Jan 16 22:39:22 2017 +0000
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
                :iterate
                :chancery
                :named-readtables
+               :split-sequence
                :cl-arrows)
 
   :serial t
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@
                (:module "src" :serial t
                 :components ((:file "database")
                              (:file "twitter")
+                             (:file "markov")
                              (:module "robots"
                               :components ((:file "git-commands")))
                              (:file "main")))))

--- a/package.lisp	Mon Jan 16 21:20:27 2017 +0000
+++ b/package.lisp	Mon Jan 16 22:39:22 2017 +0000
@@ -24,6 +24,17 @@
     :db-tweeted-since-p))
 
 
+(defpackage :magitek.markov
+  (:use
+    :cl
+    :losh
+    :iterate
+    :cl-arrows
+    :magitek.quickutils)
+  (:export
+    ))
+
+
 (defpackage :magitek.robots.git-commands
   (:use
     :cl
@@ -35,6 +46,7 @@
   (:export :random-string))
 
 
+
 (defpackage :magitek
   (:use
     :cl

--- a/src/main.lisp	Mon Jan 16 21:20:27 2017 +0000
+++ b/src/main.lisp	Mon Jan 16 22:39:22 2017 +0000
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
           (tt-tweet name tweet)
           (sleep 5.0))))))
 
+
 (defun main ()
   (db-connect)
   (db-initialize)

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/src/markov.lisp	Mon Jan 16 22:39:22 2017 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+(in-package :magitek.markov)
+
+;;;; Database API -------------------------------------------------------------
+(defclass markov ()
+  ((database :initarg :database :accessor markov-database
+             :documentation "A mapping of {prefix #(suffix ...)}")
+   (beginnings :initarg :beginnings :accessor markov-beginnings
+               :documentation "A vector of all the prefixes beginning a sentence.")))
+
+(defun make-markov ()
+  (make-instance 'markov
+    :database (make-hash-table :test 'equal)
+    :beginnings (make-array 10 :fill-pointer 0 :adjustable t)))
+
+
+(defun markov-insert-pair (markov prefix suffix)
+  (vector-push-extend
+    suffix
+    (ensure-gethash prefix (markov-database markov)
+                    (make-array 1 :fill-pointer 0 :adjustable t))))
+
+(defun markov-insert-beginning (markov prefix)
+  (vector-push-extend prefix (markov-beginnings markov)))
+
+
+(defun markov-random-beginning (markov)
+  (random-elt (markov-beginnings markov)))
+
+(defun markov-random-suffix (markov prefix)
+  (random-elt (gethash prefix (markov-database markov))))
+
+
+;;;; Corpus-parsing & Building ------------------------------------------------
+(defun delimiterp (c)
+  (member c '(#\space #\newline) :test #'char=))
+
+(defun sentence-end-p (word)
+  (member (aref word (1- (length word)))
+          '(#\. #\? #\!)))
+
+
+(defun split-after (pred list)
+  "Split `list` into sublists after each element satisfying `predicate`
+
+  Example:
+
+    (split-after #'zerop '(1 2 0 3 4 0 0 1))
+    ; => ((1 2 0) (3 4 0) (0) (1))
+
+  "
+  (iterate (for (element . remaining) :on list)
+           (collect element :into current)
+           (when (funcall pred element)
+             (collect current :into result)
+             (setf current nil))
+           (when (and (null remaining)
+                      (not (null current)))
+             (collect current :into result))
+           (finally (return result))))
+
+(defun split-before (pred list)
+  "Split `list` into sublists before each element satisfying `predicate`
+
+  Example:
+
+    (split-before #'zerop '(1 2 0 3 4 0 0 1))
+    ; => ((1 2) (0 3 4) (0) (0 1))
+
+  "
+  (iterate (for (element . remaining) :on list)
+           (when (funcall pred element)
+             (collect current :into result)
+             (setf current nil))
+           (collect element :into current)
+           (when (and (null remaining)
+                      (not (null current)))
+             (collect current :into result))
+           (finally (return result))))
+
+
+(defun split-words (string)
+  (split-sequence:split-sequence-if #'delimiterp string
+                                    :remove-empty-subseqs t))
+
+(defun split-sentences (string)
+  (split-after #'sentence-end-p (split-words string)))
+
+
+(defun prefix (n-gram)
+  (butlast n-gram))
+
+(defun suffix (n-gram)
+  (car (last n-gram)))
+
+
+(defun chunk-sentence (size sentence)
+  (mapcar (juxt #'prefix #'suffix)
+          (when (>= (length sentence) size)
+            (n-grams size sentence))))
+
+
+(defun build-markov-generator (corpus order)
+  (iterate
+    (with markov = (make-markov))
+    (for sentence :in (split-sentences corpus))
+    (iterate
+      (for (prefix suffix) :in (chunk-sentence (1+ order) sentence))
+      (if-first-time
+        (markov-insert-beginning markov prefix))
+      (markov-insert-pair markov prefix suffix))
+    (finally (return markov))))
+
+
+;;;; Generation ---------------------------------------------------------------
+(defun generate-sentence (markov)
+  (iterate
+    (repeat 50)
+    (with start = (markov-random-beginning markov))
+    (if-first-time (appending start :into sentence))
+    (for prefix :first start :then (append (cdr prefix) (list word)))
+    (for word = (markov-random-suffix markov prefix))
+    (collect word :into sentence)
+    (until (sentence-end-p word))
+    (finally (return (format nil "~{~A~^ ~}" sentence)))))
+
+
+;;;; Scratch ------------------------------------------------------------------
+(defparameter *text* (read-file-into-string "data/metamorphosis.txt"))
+(defparameter *m* (build-markov-generator *text* 3))

--- a/vendor/make-quickutils.lisp	Mon Jan 16 21:20:27 2017 +0000
+++ b/vendor/make-quickutils.lisp	Mon Jan 16 22:39:22 2017 +0000
@@ -6,9 +6,12 @@
 
                :curry
                :ensure-boolean
+               :ensure-gethash
                :ensure-list
+               :n-grams
                :once-only
                :rcurry
+               :read-file-into-string
                :with-gensyms
 
                )

--- a/vendor/quickutils.lisp	Mon Jan 16 21:20:27 2017 +0000
+++ b/vendor/quickutils.lisp	Mon Jan 16 22:39:22 2017 +0000
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 ;;;; See http://quickutil.org for details.
 
 ;;;; To regenerate:
-;;;; (qtlc:save-utils-as "quickutils.lisp" :utilities '(:CURRY :ENSURE-BOOLEAN :ENSURE-LIST :ONCE-ONLY :RCURRY :WITH-GENSYMS) :ensure-package T :package "MAGITEK.QUICKUTILS")
+;;;; (qtlc:save-utils-as "quickutils.lisp" :utilities '(:CURRY :ENSURE-BOOLEAN :ENSURE-GETHASH :ENSURE-LIST :N-GRAMS :ONCE-ONLY :RCURRY :READ-FILE-INTO-STRING :WITH-GENSYMS) :ensure-package T :package "MAGITEK.QUICKUTILS")
 
 (eval-when (:compile-toplevel :load-toplevel :execute)
   (unless (find-package "MAGITEK.QUICKUTILS")
@@ -14,9 +14,12 @@
 
 (when (boundp '*utilities*)
   (setf *utilities* (union *utilities* '(:MAKE-GENSYM-LIST :ENSURE-FUNCTION
-                                         :CURRY :ENSURE-BOOLEAN :ENSURE-LIST
-                                         :ONCE-ONLY :RCURRY :STRING-DESIGNATOR
-                                         :WITH-GENSYMS))))
+                                         :CURRY :ENSURE-BOOLEAN :ENSURE-GETHASH
+                                         :ENSURE-LIST :TAKE :N-GRAMS :ONCE-ONLY
+                                         :RCURRY :WITH-OPEN-FILE*
+                                         :WITH-INPUT-FROM-FILE
+                                         :READ-FILE-INTO-STRING
+                                         :STRING-DESIGNATOR :WITH-GENSYMS))))
 (eval-when (:compile-toplevel :load-toplevel :execute)
   (defun make-gensym-list (length &optional (x "G"))
     "Returns a list of `length` gensyms, each generated as if with a call to `make-gensym`,
@@ -66,6 +69,16 @@
     (and x t))
   
 
+  (defmacro ensure-gethash (key hash-table &optional default)
+    "Like `gethash`, but if `key` is not found in the `hash-table` saves the `default`
+under key before returning it. Secondary return value is true if key was
+already in the table."
+    `(multiple-value-bind (value ok) (gethash ,key ,hash-table)
+       (if ok
+           (values value ok)
+           (values (setf (gethash ,key ,hash-table) ,default) nil))))
+  
+
   (defun ensure-list (list)
     "If `list` is a list, it is returned. Otherwise returns the list designated by `list`."
     (if (listp list)
@@ -73,6 +86,27 @@
         (list list)))
   
 
+  (defun take (n sequence)
+    "Take the first `n` elements from `sequence`."
+    (subseq sequence 0 n))
+  
+
+  (defun n-grams (n sequence)
+    "Find all `n`-grams of the sequence `sequence`."
+    (assert (and (plusp n)
+                 (<= n (length sequence))))
+    
+    (etypecase sequence
+      ;; Lists
+      (list (loop :repeat (1+ (- (length sequence) n))
+                  :for seq :on sequence
+                  :collect (take n seq)))
+      
+      ;; General sequences
+      (sequence (loop :for i :to (- (length sequence) n)
+                      :collect (subseq sequence i (+ i n))))))
+  
+
   (defmacro once-only (specs &body forms)
     "Evaluates `forms` with symbols specified in `specs` rebound to temporary
 variables, ensuring that each initform is evaluated only once.
@@ -122,6 +156,58 @@
         (multiple-value-call fn (values-list more) (values-list arguments)))))
   
 
+  (defmacro with-open-file* ((stream filespec &key direction element-type
+                                                   if-exists if-does-not-exist external-format)
+                             &body body)
+    "Just like `with-open-file`, but `nil` values in the keyword arguments mean to use
+the default value specified for `open`."
+    (once-only (direction element-type if-exists if-does-not-exist external-format)
+      `(with-open-stream
+           (,stream (apply #'open ,filespec
+                           (append
+                            (when ,direction
+                              (list :direction ,direction))
+                            (when ,element-type
+                              (list :element-type ,element-type))
+                            (when ,if-exists
+                              (list :if-exists ,if-exists))
+                            (when ,if-does-not-exist
+                              (list :if-does-not-exist ,if-does-not-exist))
+                            (when ,external-format
+                              (list :external-format ,external-format)))))
+         ,@body)))
+  
+
+  (defmacro with-input-from-file ((stream-name file-name &rest args
+                                                         &key (direction nil direction-p)
+                                                         &allow-other-keys)
+                                  &body body)
+    "Evaluate `body` with `stream-name` to an input stream on the file
+`file-name`. `args` is sent as is to the call to `open` except `external-format`,
+which is only sent to `with-open-file` when it's not `nil`."
+    (declare (ignore direction))
+    (when direction-p
+      (error "Can't specifiy :DIRECTION for WITH-INPUT-FROM-FILE."))
+    `(with-open-file* (,stream-name ,file-name :direction :input ,@args)
+       ,@body))
+  
+
+  (defun read-file-into-string (pathname &key (buffer-size 4096) external-format)
+    "Return the contents of the file denoted by `pathname` as a fresh string.
+
+The `external-format` parameter will be passed directly to `with-open-file`
+unless it's `nil`, which means the system default."
+    (with-input-from-file
+        (file-stream pathname :external-format external-format)
+      (let ((*print-pretty* nil))
+        (with-output-to-string (datum)
+          (let ((buffer (make-array buffer-size :element-type 'character)))
+            (loop
+              :for bytes-read = (read-sequence buffer file-stream)
+              :do (write-sequence buffer datum :start 0 :end bytes-read)
+              :while (= bytes-read buffer-size)))))))
+  
+
   (deftype string-designator ()
     "A string designator type. A string designator is either a string, a symbol,
 or a character."
@@ -166,7 +252,7 @@
     `(with-gensyms ,names ,@forms))
   
 (eval-when (:compile-toplevel :load-toplevel :execute)
-  (export '(curry ensure-boolean ensure-list once-only rcurry with-gensyms
-            with-unique-names)))
+  (export '(curry ensure-boolean ensure-gethash ensure-list n-grams once-only
+            rcurry read-file-into-string with-gensyms with-unique-names)))
 
 ;;;; END OF quickutils.lisp ;;;;