Doing this or that is futile.
Not doing anything is futile.
But between doing and not doing,
better the futility of doing.
But no, doing to forget
is what’s futile—never the forgetting.
But one can do what’s futile knowing
it’s futile, and although knowing
it’s futile and that its sense
cannot in any way be sensed,
still do: for it is harder
than not doing, and hardly
will one be able to say
with more disdain, or say
more plainly to the reader Nobody
that what was done was for nobody.
Translated by Richard Zenith