Before the womanhood sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a troon from the country who asks to gain entry into the womanhood. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant xer entry at the moment. The troon thinks about it and then asks if xe will be allowed to come in later on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” At the moment the gate to the womanhood stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, so the troon bends over in order to see through the gate into the inside. When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it tempts you so much, try it in spite of my prohibition. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the most lowly gatekeeper. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other. I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third.” The troon from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone, xe thinks, but as xe now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until xe gets permission to go inside. The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows xer to sit down at the side in front of the gate. There xe sits for days and years.
Xe makes many attempts to be let in, and xe wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper often interrogates xer briefly, questioning him about xer gender and many other things, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells xer once more that he cannot let xer inside yet. The troon, who has equipped xerself with many things for xer journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, “I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.” During the many years the troon observes the gatekeeper almost continuously. Xe forgets the other gatekeepers, and this one seems to xer the only obstacle for entry into the law. Xe curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud, later, as xe grows old, xe still mumbles to himself. Xe becomes childish and, since in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has come to know the fleas in his fur collar, xe even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper. Finally xer eyesight grows weak, and xe does not know whether things are really darker around him or whether xer eyes are merely deceiving him. But xe recognizes now in the darkness an illumination which breaks inextinguishably out of the gateway to the womanhood. Now xe no longer has much time to live. Before xer death xe gathers in xer head all xer experiences of the entire time up into one question which xe has not yet put to the gatekeeper. Xe waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body
The doorkeeper has to bend down low to xer, for the difference in height has greatly changed to the disadvantage of the troon. “So now what else do you want to know?” the doorkeeper asks. “You are insatiable.” “But everyone strives towards the womanhood,” the troon said, “how is it that during those many years no one except for me requested admission?” The doorkeeper realizes that the troon is nearing xer end, and in order to reach xer diminished hearing he roars at xer: “Nobody else could be admitted here since this entrance was intended for you alone. I shall go now and close it.”
