"Just think, what would a human life and the world be like without the chance of an accident? How self-confident he would be, how shamelessly arrogant and overbearing! No, the possibility of an accident lurks in your every moment, the objects, the situations, the people, the chemicals, the static and physical formulas: all of them are against you. So be careful. Do not watch out anxiously, but in a manner befitting your human rank, seriously and objectively, very attentively. And always know that it was not the wealth of the world that arbitrarily came against you when the accident happened, but that you were weak, lazy and petty. There is no "electrical accident". It's just you and the tram and the world order.
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Author
Márai SándorAll Translations
All Translations
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Just think, what would a human life and the world be like without the chance of an accident? How self-confident he would be, how shamelessly arrogant and overbearing! No, the possibility of an accident lurks in your every moment, the objects, the situations, the people, the chemicals, the static and physical formulas: all of them are against you. So be careful. Do not watch out anxiously, but in a manner befitting your human rank, seriously and objectively, very attentively. And always know that it was not the wealth of the world that arbitrarily came against you when the accident happened, but that you were weak, lazy and petty. There is no "electrical accident". It's just you and the tram and the world order.
""Gondold csak el, milyen is lenne egy emberélet és a világ a baleset esélye nélkül? Milyen pökhendin magabiztos lenne, milyen szemérmetlenül gőgös és fennhéjázó! Nem, a baleset lehetősége ott lappang minden pillanatodban, a tárgyak, a helyzetek, az emberek, a vegyi anyagok, a statikus és fizikai képletek: mindez ellened is van. Tehát vigyázz. Ne aggályosan vigyázz, hanem emberi rangodhoz illően, komolyan és tárgyilagosan, nagyon figyelmesen. S mindig tudjad, hogy nem a világ ármánya tört önkényesen ellened, mikor a baleset bekövetkezik, hanem te voltál gyönge, lusta és kicsinyes. Nincs "villamosbaleset". Csak te vagy, s a villamos és a világrend."