Status Updates From Envy by Olesha, Yuri [NYRB ...

but like a man, calmly, and he reached the conclusion that you'te just a big-shot official-and that's all, a mediocre individual elevated to an enviable rank due to purely exter-
nal circumstances.

Only petty tyranny can explain the hurricane you raised over a piece of mediocre sausage,

Actually, I have just one feeling: hatred.

The paths were confusing, I felt like I was walking through fish soup.

And all because they showed him a new type of sausage…

(Things don't like me. Furniture purposely sticks out its leg for me. A polished corner once literally bit me. My blanket and I have always had a complicated relationship. Soup served to me never cools. Any little thing a coin or a cuff link-that falls off the table usually rolls away under furniture that's hard to move. I crawl across the floor and lifting my head I see the sideboard laughing.)