Nepodnošljiva lakoća postojanja, Milan Kundera

I.2.

Ako se svaka sekunda našega života bude bezbroj puta ponavljala, bit ćemo prikovani za vječnost kao Isus za križ. Takva je pomisao užasna. U svijetu vječnog vraćanja svaka je gesta opterećena težinom nepodnošljive odgovornosti. Zbog toga je Nietzsche misao o vječnom vraćanju nazvao najtežim teretom (da schwerste Gewicht).

A ako je vječno vraćanje najteži teret, naši životi mogu se na njegovoj pozadini ocrtavati u svoj svojoj predivnoj lakoći.

Samo, je li težina doista strašna, a lakoća divna?

Najteži teret nas lomi, posrćemo pod njim, potiskuje nas prema zemlji, ali u ljubavnoj poeziji svih vremena žena čezne za tim da bude pritisnuta težinom muškog tijela. Najteži teret je, prema tome, ujedno i slika najintenzivnije ispunjena života. I što je teret teži, što je naš život bliži zemlji, to je stvarniji i istinitiji.

Nasuprot tome, apsolutna odsutnost tereta čini da čovjek postaje lakši od zraka, uzdiže se u visine, udaljava se od zemlje i ovozemaljskoga postojanja, postaje tek napola stvaran, a njegovi pokreti su koliko slobodni toliko i nevažni.

Pa za što se onda odlučimo? Za težinu ili lakoću?

III.10

Životna drama se uvijek može opisati metaforama težine. Kažemo kako je čovjeka pritislo breme. Čovjek taj teret nekad može, a nekad ne može podnijeti, pada pod njim, bori se s njim, pobjeđuje ili gubi. Ali što se, zapravo, dogodilo Sabini? Ništa. Napustila je jednog muškarca zato što ga je željela napustiti. Jeli ju progonio? Je li joj se osvećivao? Nije. Njena drama nije bila drama težine, nego lakoće. Sabinu nije pritiskao teret, pritiskala ju je nepodnošljiva lakoća postojanja.

Unbearable lightness of being, Milan Kundera

Part I.2

If every second of our lives recurs an infinite number of times, we are nailed to eternity as Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross. It is a terrifying prospect. In the world of eternal return the weight of unbearable responsibility lies heavy on every move we make. That is why Nietzsche called the idea of eternal return the heaviest of burdens (das schwerste Gewicht).
If eternal return is the heaviest of burdens, then our lives can stand out against it in all their splendid lightness.
But is heaviness truly deplorable and lightness splendid?
The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man’s body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life’s most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.
Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.

What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?

Part III.10

When we want to give expression to a dramatic situation in our lives, we tend to use metaphors of heaviness. We say that something has become a great burden to us. We either bear the burden or fail and go down with it, we struggle with it, win or lose. And Sabina—what had come over her? Nothing. She had left a man because she felt like leaving him. Had he persecuted her? Had he tried to take revenge on her? No. Her drama was a drama not of heaviness but of lightness. What fell to her lot was not the burden but the unbearable lightness of being.