To cave explorers from the west

We’re needy relatives, we’re the aborigines, we are the ones left behind – the backward, the stunted, the misshapen, the down-and-out, the moochers, parasites, conmen, suckers. Sentimental, old-fashioned, childish, uniformed, troubled, melodramatic, devious, unpredictable, negligent. The ones who don’t answer letters, the ones who miss the great opportunity, the hard drinkers, the babblers, the porch-sitters, the deadline-missers, the promise-breakers, the braggarts, the immature, the monstrous, the undisciplined, the easily offended, the ones who insult each other to death but cannot break off relations. We are the maladjusted, the complainers intoxicated by failure.
We are irritating, excessive, depressing, somehow unlucky. People are accustomed to slight us. we are cheap labor; merchandise may be had from us at a lower price; people bring us their old newspapers as a gift. Letters from us come sloppily typed, unnecessarily detailed. People smile at us, pityingly, as long as we do not suddenly become unpleasant.
As long as we do not say anything strange, sharp; as long as we do not stare at our nails and bare our teeth; as long as we do not become wild and cynical.

- György Konrád, To Cave Explorers from the West
Epigraph from “How we survived communism and even laughed”, Slavenka Drakulic

Som els parents necessitats. Nosaltres som les aborígens, les que queden enrere, el retard en el creixement, la malformació, els sota-i-fora, paràsits, estafadores, les recién nascudes. Sentimentals, passades de modes, infantils, uniformes, amb problemes, melodramátiques, tortuoses, imprevisibles, negligents. Les que no contesten les cartes, les que van perdre la gran opurtunitat, les bebedores, les xerraires, trencadores de promeses, les que van arribar tard, les trencadores de promeses, fantasmes, immadures, monstruoses, indisciplinades, les que ofenen fácilment, les que insulten a la mort però són incapaces de trencar relacions. Nosaltres som les inadaptades, les que es queixen intoxicades de fracàs.
Som irritants, excessives, depriments, malafortunades en part. Ningú està acostumat a nosaltres. Som la mà d’obra barata, la mercaderia que tenim val menys que la resta; la gent ens dona diaris vells com si fossin regals. De nosaltres venen les lletres escrites descuidadament, amb massa detalls innecessaris. La gent ens somriu, amb llàstima, sempre i quan no ens convertim en res desagradable. Sempre que no diguem res estrany en veu alta, sempre que no esmolen les nostres ungles i ensenyem les dents, sempre que no esdevinguem salvatges i cíniques.