250
PARTISAN REVIEW
beautiful, profoundly lazy man sing the praises of laziness? Cer–
tainly not. Just as we could not speak eloquently about our own stut–
tering. And the lazy do only what they want. And even that not
always .
The lazy naturally are too lazy even to demonstrate their
laziness. For example, better to admit our own obsession with work
than to write condescendingly about the lazy who don't write about
laziness because they are lazy.
In
fact, nothing human is foreign to
us (especially when we are personally in question) .
(The Hungarian Version)
The Hungarian, as we know, is a hot–
blooded dashing guy, appropriately, his laziness too is bellicose,
cantankerous , and irascible.
In
our country, it is customary to lose a
revolution from time to time. To put it metaphorically, the evils of
Austrian oppression catch up with us.
In
response, Hungarians fly
into a mighty rage, "Watch out!
Passive resistance!"
and they make a
resolution : whether they live or die as long as this global scandal
lasts they will refuse to buy Austrian goods. Indeed, it is only for
their family's sake that they will go on breathing at all.
As in the joke, "Sir, you have to have your teeth fixed." "For
whom? For Them?"
Thus , all is well. The problem is, however, that while the
gorgeous girls inhabiting the world love us as daredevils, when our
teeth rot away , the same young ladies sneer and grimace .
At this point, clammy dread grips us. After all, we are serious
men , damn it. And we have forgotten our dead brethren, humiliated
fathers, dishonored sisters, our own dignity, and turned our rich in–
heritance into small change .
Indignantly,
we throw ourselves into
work.
We work night and day , we hustle from dawn till dusk, until
we feel numb. Business moves on , ambles on. Sunday, we are closed .
( =
joke)
It
is difficult to talk about this offense without taking offense
because if one could, one wouldn't have anything to talk about .
In
this mutually held grudge , we are quick to say, "WE," "we"
who suffer collectively from "them," from "these people ." No, not col–
lectively. There is no such big we. What I am writing is directed
against you also.
In
vain has Eastern European time carved these
creases on your face and on mine and has turned against you and
against you too , because you are this, that, and the other.
And me too .
