Time for a break?

I’m the only one who knows when there is a break. No one else does. There are no breaks. I know that for a fact. Work goes on at all times.

Day and night, hour after hour. The thing is, people will sometimes think they are having a break, when they are eating a sandwich, for instance, or going for a walk or reading a magazine or just chatting around. But that’s not having a break. That is work, too. Only they fail to realise. People think they are having a break, while as a matter of fact they continue working. They never stop working, day and night, hour after hour. Until I tell them it’s time for a break. Which I don’t. Has anyone ever heard me say it’s time for a break? I’d love to tell them it’s time for a break, but just imagine – once people had experienced what a real break is like, they wouldn’t want to work ever again. They wouldn’t be any good to anyone then, would they? As it is, they are always working. I simply don’t call ‘take a break’ and see, they just carry on working! Strange, come to think of it, for who am I, why should people listen to what someone like me does NOT say?

 Werkvertaling door Marius Jaspers van ‘Ik weet wanneer het pauze is’ , op p.46 van ‘Vandaar dit huwelijksleven’ van Sylvia Hubers (naar aanleiding van een reactie van Kees van D.)