Others as castles

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Only now I realize that other people have always been for me unconquerable citadels, fortresses. There has never been any chance to have access to them, like for the land surveyor in Kafka’s “Castle”. It took a whole life to understand that I never, never could have had admittance to those castles who the others are for me. Only with passerbys, you may find some crumbs of what you look for. With animals you may find some more intensity. The real problem for all of us is to take in time some exact measurement of what is possible and what is out of our reach and dedicate completely ourselves to some perfection in cultivate the minor spaces, rather than pretend to struggle for what is forbidden.

What is the plural of passerby please?

passers by...

I've felt more like being in a castle than out of one...

I agree with Pakled (great name, btw). I have had to build walls so thick and arm my ramparts so heavily that it seems my brain can do nothing else but maintain it when talking with other people.

A winters day
In a deep and dark december;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
Ive built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
Its laughter and its loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Dont talk of love,
But Ive heard the words before;
Its sleeping in my memory.
I wont disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries

Simon And Garfunkel

I am not in a castle--I feel I was left on a rocky isle with no-one else in sight.