Extract from Michael Mitchell's translation

Martin Prinz' On the Run (Der Raüber)

As he runs, the bank robber pushes into the nocturnal landscape he has to hurry through. Stride by loping stride, the ground covered accumulates. It happens automatically, each of his movements flowing quite naturally into the next. His escape is there, hurrying along ahead of him, never quite disappearing, like a fleeting thought or a vacant look. As he runs, he is absorbed into the nocturnal landscape, at the same time appearing as part of it with the smooth lift of his knees, the release of his legs as they swing out behind him. His arms prescribe the rhythm. Bent at an angle, they swing back from his chest, then forward again, brushing his hips, drawing his body back up, even as it touches the ground, creating the necessary tension. Thus he determines his pace, the degree of concentration, increases the centrifugal force of his body.

The bank robber accelerates imperceptibly. The slope gets steeper and he goes a touch faster. He has long since left the vineyards behind, now he is running up the hillside. The steeper it gets, the more the upward path is compressed into curves and bends, so that he is almost overwhelmed by the desire to head straight for the summit. But he is still reluctant to entrust himself to the trees. He needs a path, needs to feel its firmness under his feet, to see it shining in the moonlight so as not to give way to despair in the darkness. And the bank robber runs faster still, he feels as if he is about to fly. Every acceleration of the stride pattern on a slope getting steeper and steeper makes you feel as if you are taking off, floating briefly through the air. Perhaps that is what he is running after. He almost floats over the Anninger, putting in one final spurt before the summit. It could be a moment in which the world pauses in its slow turning, stops while the bank robber continues running alone for a brief instant, before the world starts to turn again, binding him firmly to the ground. The next moment he disappears in the trees.