Know ye the delight which rolleth stones into
precipitous
depths?
Thus Spake Zarathustra- A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
--
Like the sun will also Zarathustra go down: now sitteth he here
and waiteth, old broken tables around him, and also new
tables--half-written.
4.
Behold, here is a new table; but where are my brethren who will carry it
with me to the valley and into hearts of flesh? --
Thus demandeth my great love to the remotest ones: BE NOT CONSIDERATE OF
THY NEIGHBOUR! Man is something that must be surpassed.
There are many divers ways and modes of surpassing: see THOU thereto!
But only a buffoon thinketh: "man can also be OVERLEAPT. "
Surpass thyself even in thy neighbour: and a right which thou canst
seize upon, shalt thou not allow to be given thee!
What thou doest can no one do to thee again. Lo, there is no requital.
He who cannot command himself shall obey. And many a one CAN command
himself, but still sorely lacketh self-obedience!
5.
Thus wisheth the type of noble souls: they desire to have nothing
GRATUITOUSLY, least of all, life.
He who is of the populace wisheth to live gratuitously; we others,
however, to whom life hath given itself--we are ever considering WHAT we
can best give IN RETURN!
And verily, it is a noble dictum which saith: "What life promiseth US,
that promise will WE keep--to life! "
One should not wish to enjoy where one doth not contribute to the
enjoyment. And one should not WISH to enjoy!
For enjoyment and innocence are the most bashful things. Neither like
to be sought for. One should HAVE them,--but one should rather SEEK for
guilt and pain! --
6.
O my brethren, he who is a firstling is ever sacrificed. Now, however,
are we firstlings!
We all bleed on secret sacrificial altars, we all burn and broil in
honour of ancient idols.
Our best is still young: this exciteth old palates. Our flesh is tender,
our skin is only lambs' skin:--how could we not excite old idol-priests!
IN OURSELVES dwelleth he still, the old idol-priest, who broileth our
best for his banquet. Ah, my brethren, how could firstlings fail to be
sacrifices!
But so wisheth our type; and I love those who do not wish to preserve
themselves, the down-going ones do I love with mine entire love: for
they go beyond. --
7.
To be true--that CAN few be! And he who can, will not! Least of all,
however, can the good be true.
Oh, those good ones! GOOD MEN NEVER SPEAK THE TRUTH. For the spirit,
thus to be good, is a malady.
They yield, those good ones, they submit themselves; their heart
repeateth, their soul obeyeth: HE, however, who obeyeth, DOTH NOT LISTEN
TO HIMSELF!
All that is called evil by the good, must come together in order that
one truth may be born. O my brethren, are ye also evil enough for THIS
truth?
The daring venture, the prolonged distrust, the cruel Nay, the tedium,
the cutting-into-the-quick--how seldom do THESE come together! Out of
such seed, however--is truth produced!
BESIDE the bad conscience hath hitherto grown all KNOWLEDGE! Break up,
break up, ye discerning ones, the old tables!
8.
When the water hath planks, when gangways and railings o'erspan the
stream, verily, he is not believed who then saith: "All is in flux. "
But even the simpletons contradict him. "What? " say the simpletons, "all
in flux? Planks and railings are still OVER the stream!
"OVER the stream all is stable, all the values of things, the bridges
and bearings, all 'good' and 'evil': these are all STABLE! "--
Cometh, however, the hard winter, the stream-tamer, then learn even the
wittiest distrust, and verily, not only the simpletons then say: "Should
not everything--STAND STILL? "
"Fundamentally standeth everything still"--that is an appropriate winter
doctrine, good cheer for an unproductive period, a great comfort for
winter-sleepers and fireside-loungers.
"Fundamentally standeth everything still"--: but CONTRARY thereto,
preacheth the thawing wind!
The thawing wind, a bullock, which is no ploughing bullock--a furious
bullock, a destroyer, which with angry horns breaketh the ice! The ice
however--BREAKETH GANGWAYS!
O my brethren, is not everything AT PRESENT IN FLUX? Have not all
railings and gangways fallen into the water? Who would still HOLD ON to
"good" and "evil"?
"Woe to us! Hail to us! The thawing wind bloweth! "--Thus preach, my
brethren, through all the streets!
9.
There is an old illusion--it is called good and evil. Around soothsayers
and astrologers hath hitherto revolved the orbit of this illusion.
Once did one BELIEVE in soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did
one believe, "Everything is fate: thou shalt, for thou must! "
Then again did one distrust all soothsayers and astrologers; and
THEREFORE did one believe, "Everything is freedom: thou canst, for thou
willest! "
O my brethren, concerning the stars and the future there hath hitherto
been only illusion, and not knowledge; and THEREFORE concerning good and
evil there hath hitherto been only illusion and not knowledge!
10.
"Thou shalt not rob! Thou shalt not slay! "--such precepts were once
called holy; before them did one bow the knee and the head, and take off
one's shoes.
But I ask you: Where have there ever been better robbers and slayers in
the world than such holy precepts?
Is there not even in all life--robbing and slaying? And for such
precepts to be called holy, was not TRUTH itself thereby--slain?
--Or was it a sermon of death that called holy what contradicted and
dissuaded from life? --O my brethren, break up, break up for me the old
tables!
11.
It is my sympathy with all the past that I see it is abandoned,--
--Abandoned to the favour, the spirit and the madness of every
generation that cometh, and reinterpreteth all that hath been as its
bridge!
A great potentate might arise, an artful prodigy, who with approval and
disapproval could strain and constrain all the past, until it became for
him a bridge, a harbinger, a herald, and a cock-crowing.
This however is the other danger, and mine other sympathy:--he who is
of the populace, his thoughts go back to his grandfather,--with his
grandfather, however, doth time cease.
Thus is all the past abandoned: for it might some day happen for the
populace to become master, and drown all time in shallow waters.
Therefore, O my brethren, a NEW NOBILITY is needed, which shall be the
adversary of all populace and potentate rule, and shall inscribe anew
the word "noble" on new tables.
For many noble ones are needed, and many kinds of noble ones, FOR A NEW
NOBILITY! Or, as I once said in parable: "That is just divinity, that
there are Gods, but no God! "
12.
O my brethren, I consecrate you and point you to a new nobility: ye
shall become procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future;--
--Verily, not to a nobility which ye could purchase like traders with
traders' gold; for little worth is all that hath its price.
Let it not be your honour henceforth whence ye come, but whither ye go!
Your Will and your feet which seek to surpass you--let these be your new
honour!
Verily, not that ye have served a prince--of what account are princes
now! --nor that ye have become a bulwark to that which standeth, that it
may stand more firmly.
Not that your family have become courtly at courts, and that ye have
learned--gay-coloured, like the flamingo--to stand long hours in shallow
pools:
(For ABILITY-to-stand is a merit in courtiers; and all courtiers believe
that unto blessedness after death pertaineth--PERMISSION-to-sit! )
Nor even that a Spirit called Holy, led your forefathers into promised
lands, which I do not praise: for where the worst of all trees grew--the
cross,--in that land there is nothing to praise! --
--And verily, wherever this "Holy Spirit" led its knights, always in
such campaigns did--goats and geese, and wryheads and guyheads run
FOREMOST! --
O my brethren, not backward shall your nobility gaze, but OUTWARD!
Exiles shall ye be from all fatherlands and forefather-lands!
Your CHILDREN'S LAND shall ye love: let this love be your new
nobility,--the undiscovered in the remotest seas! For it do I bid your
sails search and search!
Unto your children shall ye MAKE AMENDS for being the children of your
fathers: all the past shall ye THUS redeem! This new table do I place
over you!
13.
"Why should one live? All is vain! To live--that is to thrash straw; to
live--that is to burn oneself and yet not get warm. "--
Such ancient babbling still passeth for "wisdom"; because it is old,
however, and smelleth mustily, THEREFORE is it the more honoured. Even
mould ennobleth. --
Children might thus speak: they SHUN the fire because it hath burnt
them! There is much childishness in the old books of wisdom.
And he who ever "thrasheth straw," why should he be allowed to rail at
thrashing! Such a fool one would have to muzzle!
Such persons sit down to the table and bring nothing with them, not even
good hunger:--and then do they rail: "All is vain! "
But to eat and drink well, my brethren, is verily no vain art! Break up,
break up for me the tables of the never-joyous ones!
14.
"To the clean are all things clean"--thus say the people. I, however,
say unto you: To the swine all things become swinish!
Therefore preach the visionaries and bowed-heads (whose hearts are also
bowed down): "The world itself is a filthy monster. "
For these are all unclean spirits; especially those, however, who have
no peace or rest, unless they see the world FROM THE BACKSIDE--the
backworldsmen!
TO THOSE do I say it to the face, although it sound unpleasantly: the
world resembleth man, in that it hath a backside,--SO MUCH is true!
There is in the world much filth: SO MUCH is true! But the world itself
is not therefore a filthy monster!
There is wisdom in the fact that much in the world smelleth badly:
loathing itself createth wings, and fountain-divining powers!
In the best there is still something to loathe; and the best is still
something that must be surpassed! --
O my brethren, there is much wisdom in the fact that much filth is in
the world! --
15.
Such sayings did I hear pious backworldsmen speak to their consciences,
and verily without wickedness or guile,--although there is nothing more
guileful in the world, or more wicked.
"Let the world be as it is! Raise not a finger against it! "
"Let whoever will choke and stab and skin and scrape the people: raise
not a finger against it! Thereby will they learn to renounce the world. "
"And thine own reason--this shalt thou thyself stifle and choke; for it
is a reason of this world,--thereby wilt thou learn thyself to renounce
the world. "--
--Shatter, shatter, O my brethren, those old tables of the pious! Tatter
the maxims of the world-maligners! --
16.
"He who learneth much unlearneth all violent cravings"--that do people
now whisper to one another in all the dark lanes.
"Wisdom wearieth, nothing is worth while; thou shalt not crave! "--this
new table found I hanging even in the public markets.
Break up for me, O my brethren, break up also that NEW table! The
weary-o'-the-world put it up, and the preachers of death and the jailer:
for lo, it is also a sermon for slavery:--
Because they learned badly and not the best, and everything too early
and everything too fast; because they ATE badly: from thence hath
resulted their ruined stomach;--
--For a ruined stomach, is their spirit: IT persuadeth to death! For
verily, my brethren, the spirit IS a stomach!
Life is a well of delight, but to him in whom the ruined stomach
speaketh, the father of affliction, all fountains are poisoned.
To discern: that is DELIGHT to the lion-willed! But he who hath become
weary, is himself merely "willed"; with him play all the waves.
And such is always the nature of weak men: they lose themselves on their
way. And at last asketh their weariness: "Why did we ever go on the way?
All is indifferent! "
TO THEM soundeth it pleasant to have preached in their ears: "Nothing is
worth while! Ye shall not will! " That, however, is a sermon for slavery.
O my brethren, a fresh blustering wind cometh Zarathustra unto all
way-weary ones; many noses will he yet make sneeze!
Even through walls bloweth my free breath, and in into prisons and
imprisoned spirits!
Willing emancipateth: for willing is creating: so do I teach. And ONLY
for creating shall ye learn!
And also the learning shall ye LEARN only from me, the learning
well! --He who hath ears let him hear!
17.
There standeth the boat--thither goeth it over, perhaps into vast
nothingness--but who willeth to enter into this "Perhaps"?
None of you want to enter into the death-boat! How should ye then be
WORLD-WEARY ones!
World-weary ones! And have not even withdrawn from the earth! Eager
did I ever find you for the earth, amorous still of your own
earth-weariness!
Not in vain doth your lip hang down:--a small worldly wish still sitteth
thereon! And in your eye--floateth there not a cloudlet of unforgotten
earthly bliss?
There are on the earth many good inventions, some useful, some pleasant:
for their sake is the earth to be loved.
And many such good inventions are there, that they are like woman's
breasts: useful at the same time, and pleasant.
Ye world-weary ones, however! Ye earth-idlers! You, shall one beat with
stripes! With stripes shall one again make you sprightly limbs.
For if ye be not invalids, or decrepit creatures, of whom the earth is
weary, then are ye sly sloths, or dainty, sneaking pleasure-cats. And if
ye will not again RUN gaily, then shall ye--pass away!
To the incurable shall one not seek to be a physician: thus teacheth
Zarathustra:--so shall ye pass away!
But more COURAGE is needed to make an end than to make a new verse: that
do all physicians and poets know well. --
18.
O my brethren, there are tables which weariness framed, and tables
which slothfulness framed, corrupt slothfulness: although they speak
similarly, they want to be heard differently. --
See this languishing one! Only a span-breadth is he from his goal; but
from weariness hath he lain down obstinately in the dust, this brave
one!
From weariness yawneth he at the path, at the earth, at the goal, and at
himself: not a step further will he go,--this brave one!
Now gloweth the sun upon him, and the dogs lick at his sweat: but he
lieth there in his obstinacy and preferreth to languish:--
--A span-breadth from his goal, to languish! Verily, ye will have to
drag him into his heaven by the hair of his head--this hero!
Better still that ye let him lie where he hath lain down, that sleep may
come unto him, the comforter, with cooling patter-rain.
Let him lie, until of his own accord he awakeneth,--until of his own
accord he repudiateth all weariness, and what weariness hath taught
through him!
Only, my brethren, see that ye scare the dogs away from him, the idle
skulkers, and all the swarming vermin:--
--All the swarming vermin of the "cultured," that--feast on the sweat of
every hero! --
19.
I form circles around me and holy boundaries; ever fewer ascend with
me ever higher mountains: I build a mountain-range out of ever holier
mountains. --
But wherever ye would ascend with me, O my brethren, take care lest a
PARASITE ascend with you!
A parasite: that is a reptile, a creeping, cringing reptile, that trieth
to fatten on your infirm and sore places.
And THIS is its art: it divineth where ascending souls are weary, in
your trouble and dejection, in your sensitive modesty, doth it build its
loathsome nest.
Where the strong are weak, where the noble are all-too-gentle--there
buildeth it its loathsome nest; the parasite liveth where the great have
small sore-places.
What is the highest of all species of being, and what is the lowest?
The parasite is the lowest species; he, however, who is of the highest
species feedeth most parasites.
For the soul which hath the longest ladder, and can go deepest down: how
could there fail to be most parasites upon it? --
--The most comprehensive soul, which can run and stray and rove furthest
in itself; the most necessary soul, which out of joy flingeth itself
into chance:--
--The soul in Being, which plungeth into Becoming; the possessing soul,
which SEEKETH to attain desire and longing:--
--The soul fleeing from itself, which overtaketh itself in the widest
circuit; the wisest soul, unto which folly speaketh most sweetly:--
--The soul most self-loving, in which all things have their current and
counter-current, their ebb and their flow:--oh, how could THE LOFTIEST
SOUL fail to have the worst parasites?
20.
O my brethren, am I then cruel? But I say: What falleth, that shall one
also push!
Everything of to-day--it falleth, it decayeth; who would preserve it!
But I--I wish also to push it!
Know ye the delight which rolleth stones into precipitous depths? --Those
men of to-day, see just how they roll into my depths!
A prelude am I to better players, O my brethren! An example! DO
according to mine example!
And him whom ye do not teach to fly, teach I pray you--TO FALL FASTER! --
21.
I love the brave: but it is not enough to be a swordsman,--one must also
know WHEREON to use swordsmanship!
And often is it greater bravery to keep quiet and pass by, that THEREBY
one may reserve oneself for a worthier foe!
Ye shall only have foes to be hated; but not foes to be despised: ye
must be proud of your foes. Thus have I already taught.
For the worthier foe, O my brethren, shall ye reserve yourselves:
therefore must ye pass by many a one,--
--Especially many of the rabble, who din your ears with noise about
people and peoples.
Keep your eye clear of their For and Against! There is there much right,
much wrong: he who looketh on becometh wroth.
Therein viewing, therein hewing--they are the same thing: therefore
depart into the forests and lay your sword to sleep!
Go YOUR ways! and let the people and peoples go theirs! --gloomy ways,
verily, on which not a single hope glinteth any more!
Let there the trader rule, where all that still glittereth is--traders'
gold. It is the time of kings no longer: that which now calleth itself
the people is unworthy of kings.
See how these peoples themselves now do just like the traders: they pick
up the smallest advantage out of all kinds of rubbish!
They lay lures for one another, they lure things out of one
another,--that they call "good neighbourliness. " O blessed remote period
when a people said to itself: "I will be--MASTER over peoples! "
For, my brethren, the best shall rule, the best also WILLETH to rule!
And where the teaching is different, there--the best is LACKING.
22.
If THEY had--bread for nothing, alas! for what would THEY cry! Their
maintainment--that is their true entertainment; and they shall have it
hard!
Beasts of prey, are they: in their "working"--there is even plundering,
in their "earning"--there is even overreaching! Therefore shall they
have it hard!
Better beasts of prey shall they thus become, subtler, cleverer, MORE
MAN-LIKE: for man is the best beast of prey.
All the animals hath man already robbed of their virtues: that is why of
all animals it hath been hardest for man.
Only the birds are still beyond him. And if man should yet learn to fly,
alas! TO WHAT HEIGHT--would his rapacity fly!
23.
Thus would I have man and woman: fit for war, the one; fit for
maternity, the other; both, however, fit for dancing with head and legs.
And lost be the day to us in which a measure hath not been danced. And
false be every truth which hath not had laughter along with it!
24.
Your marriage-arranging: see that it be not a bad ARRANGING! Ye have
arranged too hastily: so there FOLLOWETH therefrom--marriage-breaking!
And better marriage-breaking than marriage-bending,
marriage-lying! --Thus spake a woman unto me: "Indeed, I broke the
marriage, but first did the marriage break--me!
The badly paired found I ever the most revengeful: they make every one
suffer for it that they no longer run singly.
On that account want I the honest ones to say to one another: "We love
each other: let us SEE TO IT that we maintain our love! Or shall our
pledging be blundering? "
--"Give us a set term and a small marriage, that we may see if we are
fit for the great marriage! It is a great matter always to be twain. "
Thus do I counsel all honest ones; and what would be my love to the
Superman, and to all that is to come, if I should counsel and speak
otherwise!
Not only to propagate yourselves onwards but UPWARDS--thereto, O my
brethren, may the garden of marriage help you!
25.
He who hath grown wise concerning old origins, lo, he will at last seek
after the fountains of the future and new origins. --
O my brethren, not long will it be until NEW PEOPLES shall arise and new
fountains shall rush down into new depths.
For the earthquake--it choketh up many wells, it causeth much
languishing: but it bringeth also to light inner powers and secrets.
The earthquake discloseth new fountains. In the earthquake of old
peoples new fountains burst forth.
And whoever calleth out: "Lo, here is a well for many thirsty ones, one
heart for many longing ones, one will for many instruments":--around him
collecteth a PEOPLE, that is to say, many attempting ones.
Who can command, who must obey--THAT IS THERE ATTEMPTED! Ah, with what
long seeking and solving and failing and learning and re-attempting!
Human society: it is an attempt--so I teach--a long seeking: it seeketh
however the ruler! --
--An attempt, my brethren! And NO "contract"! Destroy, I pray you,
destroy that word of the soft-hearted and half-and-half!
26.
O my brethren! With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human
future? Is it not with the good and just? --
--As those who say and feel in their hearts: "We already know what
is good and just, we possess it also; woe to those who still seek
thereafter!
And whatever harm the wicked may do, the harm of the good is the
harmfulest harm!
And whatever harm the world-maligners may do, the harm of the good is
the harmfulest harm!
O my brethren, into the hearts of the good and just looked some one
once on a time, who said: "They are the Pharisees. " But people did not
understand him.
The good and just themselves were not free to understand him; their
spirit was imprisoned in their good conscience. The stupidity of the
good is unfathomably wise.
It is the truth, however, that the good MUST be Pharisees--they have no
choice!
The good MUST crucify him who deviseth his own virtue! That IS the
truth!
The second one, however, who discovered their country--the country,
heart and soil of the good and just,--it was he who asked: "Whom do they
hate most? "
The CREATOR, hate they most, him who breaketh the tables and old values,
the breaker,--him they call the law-breaker.
For the good--they CANNOT create; they are always the beginning of the
end:--
--They crucify him who writeth new values on new tables, they sacrifice
UNTO THEMSELVES the future--they crucify the whole human future!
The good--they have always been the beginning of the end. --
27.
O my brethren, have ye also understood this word? And what I once said
of the "last man"? --
With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not
with the good and just?
BREAK UP, BREAK UP, I PRAY YOU, THE GOOD AND JUST! --O my brethren, have
ye understood also this word?
28.
Ye flee from me? Ye are frightened? Ye tremble at this word?
O my brethren, when I enjoined you to break up the good, and the tables
of the good, then only did I embark man on his high seas.
And now only cometh unto him the great terror, the great outlook, the
great sickness, the great nausea, the great sea-sickness.
False shores and false securities did the good teach you; in the lies of
the good were ye born and bred. Everything hath been radically contorted
and distorted by the good.
But he who discovered the country of "man," discovered also the country
of "man's future. " Now shall ye be sailors for me, brave, patient!
Keep yourselves up betimes, my brethren, learn to keep yourselves up!
The sea stormeth: many seek to raise themselves again by you.
The sea stormeth: all is in the sea. Well! Cheer up! Ye old
seaman-hearts!
What of fatherland! THITHER striveth our helm where our CHILDREN'S LAND
is! Thitherwards, stormier than the sea, stormeth our great longing! --
29.
"Why so hard! "--said to the diamond one day the charcoal; "are we then
not near relatives? "--
Why so soft? O my brethren; thus do _I_ ask you: are ye then not--my
brethren?
Why so soft, so submissive and yielding? Why is there so much negation
and abnegation in your hearts? Why is there so little fate in your
looks?
And if ye will not be fates and inexorable ones, how can ye one day--
conquer with me?
And if your hardness will not glance and cut and chip to pieces, how can
ye one day--create with me?
For the creators are hard. And blessedness must it seem to you to press
your hand upon millenniums as upon wax,--
--Blessedness to write upon the will of millenniums as upon
brass,--harder than brass, nobler than brass. Entirely hard is only the
noblest.
This new table, O my brethren, put I up over you: BECOME HARD! --
30.
O thou, my Will! Thou change of every need, MY needfulness! Preserve me
from all small victories!
Thou fatedness of my soul, which I call fate! Thou In-me! Over-me!
Preserve and spare me for one great fate!
And thy last greatness, my Will, spare it for thy last--that thou mayest
be inexorable IN thy victory! Ah, who hath not succumbed to his victory!
Ah, whose eye hath not bedimmed in this intoxicated twilight! Ah, whose
foot hath not faltered and forgotten in victory--how to stand! --
--That I may one day be ready and ripe in the great noontide: ready and
ripe like the glowing ore, the lightning-bearing cloud, and the swelling
milk-udder:--
--Ready for myself and for my most hidden Will: a bow eager for its
arrow, an arrow eager for its star:--
--A star, ready and ripe in its noontide, glowing, pierced, blessed, by
annihilating sun-arrows:--
--A sun itself, and an inexorable sun-will, ready for annihilation in
victory!
O Will, thou change of every need, MY needfulness! Spare me for one
great victory! ---
Thus spake Zarathustra.
LVII. THE CONVALESCENT.
1.
One morning, not long after his return to his cave, Zarathustra sprang
up from his couch like a madman, crying with a frightful voice, and
acting as if some one still lay on the couch who did not wish to rise.
Zarathustra's voice also resounded in such a manner that his animals
came to him frightened, and out of all the neighbouring caves and
lurking-places all the creatures slipped away--flying, fluttering,
creeping or leaping, according to their variety of foot or wing.
Zarathustra, however, spake these words:
Up, abysmal thought out of my depth! I am thy cock and morning dawn,
thou overslept reptile: Up! Up! My voice shall soon crow thee awake!
Unbind the fetters of thine ears: listen! For I wish to hear thee! Up!
Up! There is thunder enough to make the very graves listen!
And rub the sleep and all the dimness and blindness out of thine eyes!
Hear me also with thine eyes: my voice is a medicine even for those born
blind.
And once thou art awake, then shalt thou ever remain awake. It is not
MY custom to awake great-grandmothers out of their sleep that I may bid
them--sleep on!
Thou stirrest, stretchest thyself, wheezest? Up! Up! Not wheeze, shalt
thou,--but speak unto me! Zarathustra calleth thee, Zarathustra the
godless!
I, Zarathustra, the advocate of living, the advocate of suffering, the
advocate of the circuit--thee do I call, my most abysmal thought!
Joy to me! Thou comest,--I hear thee! Mine abyss SPEAKETH, my lowest
depth have I turned over into the light!
Joy to me! Come hither! Give me thy hand--ha! let be! aha! --Disgust,
disgust, disgust--alas to me!
2.
Hardly, however, had Zarathustra spoken these words, when he fell down
as one dead, and remained long as one dead. When however he again came
to himself, then was he pale and trembling, and remained lying; and for
long he would neither eat nor drink. This condition continued for seven
days; his animals, however, did not leave him day nor night, except that
the eagle flew forth to fetch food. And what it fetched and foraged,
it laid on Zarathustra's couch: so that Zarathustra at last lay among
yellow and red berries, grapes, rosy apples, sweet-smelling herbage, and
pine-cones. At his feet, however, two lambs were stretched, which the
eagle had with difficulty carried off from their shepherds.
At last, after seven days, Zarathustra raised himself upon his couch,
took a rosy apple in his hand, smelt it and found its smell pleasant.
Then did his animals think the time had come to speak unto him.
"O Zarathustra," said they, "now hast thou lain thus for seven days with
heavy eyes: wilt thou not set thyself again upon thy feet?
Step out of thy cave: the world waiteth for thee as a garden. The wind
playeth with heavy fragrance which seeketh for thee; and all brooks
would like to run after thee.
All things long for thee, since thou hast remained alone for seven
days--step forth out of thy cave! All things want to be thy physicians!
Did perhaps a new knowledge come to thee, a bitter, grievous knowledge?
Like leavened dough layest thou, thy soul arose and swelled beyond all
its bounds. --"
--O mine animals, answered Zarathustra, talk on thus and let me listen!
It refresheth me so to hear your talk: where there is talk, there is the
world as a garden unto me.
How charming it is that there are words and tones; are not words and
tones rainbows and seeming bridges 'twixt the eternally separated?
To each soul belongeth another world; to each soul is every other soul a
back-world.
Among the most alike doth semblance deceive most delightfully: for the
smallest gap is most difficult to bridge over.
For me--how could there be an outside-of-me? There is no outside! But
this we forget on hearing tones; how delightful it is that we forget!
Have not names and tones been given unto things that man may refresh
himself with them? It is a beautiful folly, speaking; therewith danceth
man over everything.
How lovely is all speech and all falsehoods of tones! With tones danceth
our love on variegated rainbows. --
--"O Zarathustra," said then his animals, "to those who think like us,
things all dance themselves: they come and hold out the hand and laugh
and flee--and return.
Everything goeth, everything returneth; eternally rolleth the wheel
of existence.
Like the sun will also Zarathustra go down: now sitteth he here
and waiteth, old broken tables around him, and also new
tables--half-written.
4.
Behold, here is a new table; but where are my brethren who will carry it
with me to the valley and into hearts of flesh? --
Thus demandeth my great love to the remotest ones: BE NOT CONSIDERATE OF
THY NEIGHBOUR! Man is something that must be surpassed.
There are many divers ways and modes of surpassing: see THOU thereto!
But only a buffoon thinketh: "man can also be OVERLEAPT. "
Surpass thyself even in thy neighbour: and a right which thou canst
seize upon, shalt thou not allow to be given thee!
What thou doest can no one do to thee again. Lo, there is no requital.
He who cannot command himself shall obey. And many a one CAN command
himself, but still sorely lacketh self-obedience!
5.
Thus wisheth the type of noble souls: they desire to have nothing
GRATUITOUSLY, least of all, life.
He who is of the populace wisheth to live gratuitously; we others,
however, to whom life hath given itself--we are ever considering WHAT we
can best give IN RETURN!
And verily, it is a noble dictum which saith: "What life promiseth US,
that promise will WE keep--to life! "
One should not wish to enjoy where one doth not contribute to the
enjoyment. And one should not WISH to enjoy!
For enjoyment and innocence are the most bashful things. Neither like
to be sought for. One should HAVE them,--but one should rather SEEK for
guilt and pain! --
6.
O my brethren, he who is a firstling is ever sacrificed. Now, however,
are we firstlings!
We all bleed on secret sacrificial altars, we all burn and broil in
honour of ancient idols.
Our best is still young: this exciteth old palates. Our flesh is tender,
our skin is only lambs' skin:--how could we not excite old idol-priests!
IN OURSELVES dwelleth he still, the old idol-priest, who broileth our
best for his banquet. Ah, my brethren, how could firstlings fail to be
sacrifices!
But so wisheth our type; and I love those who do not wish to preserve
themselves, the down-going ones do I love with mine entire love: for
they go beyond. --
7.
To be true--that CAN few be! And he who can, will not! Least of all,
however, can the good be true.
Oh, those good ones! GOOD MEN NEVER SPEAK THE TRUTH. For the spirit,
thus to be good, is a malady.
They yield, those good ones, they submit themselves; their heart
repeateth, their soul obeyeth: HE, however, who obeyeth, DOTH NOT LISTEN
TO HIMSELF!
All that is called evil by the good, must come together in order that
one truth may be born. O my brethren, are ye also evil enough for THIS
truth?
The daring venture, the prolonged distrust, the cruel Nay, the tedium,
the cutting-into-the-quick--how seldom do THESE come together! Out of
such seed, however--is truth produced!
BESIDE the bad conscience hath hitherto grown all KNOWLEDGE! Break up,
break up, ye discerning ones, the old tables!
8.
When the water hath planks, when gangways and railings o'erspan the
stream, verily, he is not believed who then saith: "All is in flux. "
But even the simpletons contradict him. "What? " say the simpletons, "all
in flux? Planks and railings are still OVER the stream!
"OVER the stream all is stable, all the values of things, the bridges
and bearings, all 'good' and 'evil': these are all STABLE! "--
Cometh, however, the hard winter, the stream-tamer, then learn even the
wittiest distrust, and verily, not only the simpletons then say: "Should
not everything--STAND STILL? "
"Fundamentally standeth everything still"--that is an appropriate winter
doctrine, good cheer for an unproductive period, a great comfort for
winter-sleepers and fireside-loungers.
"Fundamentally standeth everything still"--: but CONTRARY thereto,
preacheth the thawing wind!
The thawing wind, a bullock, which is no ploughing bullock--a furious
bullock, a destroyer, which with angry horns breaketh the ice! The ice
however--BREAKETH GANGWAYS!
O my brethren, is not everything AT PRESENT IN FLUX? Have not all
railings and gangways fallen into the water? Who would still HOLD ON to
"good" and "evil"?
"Woe to us! Hail to us! The thawing wind bloweth! "--Thus preach, my
brethren, through all the streets!
9.
There is an old illusion--it is called good and evil. Around soothsayers
and astrologers hath hitherto revolved the orbit of this illusion.
Once did one BELIEVE in soothsayers and astrologers; and THEREFORE did
one believe, "Everything is fate: thou shalt, for thou must! "
Then again did one distrust all soothsayers and astrologers; and
THEREFORE did one believe, "Everything is freedom: thou canst, for thou
willest! "
O my brethren, concerning the stars and the future there hath hitherto
been only illusion, and not knowledge; and THEREFORE concerning good and
evil there hath hitherto been only illusion and not knowledge!
10.
"Thou shalt not rob! Thou shalt not slay! "--such precepts were once
called holy; before them did one bow the knee and the head, and take off
one's shoes.
But I ask you: Where have there ever been better robbers and slayers in
the world than such holy precepts?
Is there not even in all life--robbing and slaying? And for such
precepts to be called holy, was not TRUTH itself thereby--slain?
--Or was it a sermon of death that called holy what contradicted and
dissuaded from life? --O my brethren, break up, break up for me the old
tables!
11.
It is my sympathy with all the past that I see it is abandoned,--
--Abandoned to the favour, the spirit and the madness of every
generation that cometh, and reinterpreteth all that hath been as its
bridge!
A great potentate might arise, an artful prodigy, who with approval and
disapproval could strain and constrain all the past, until it became for
him a bridge, a harbinger, a herald, and a cock-crowing.
This however is the other danger, and mine other sympathy:--he who is
of the populace, his thoughts go back to his grandfather,--with his
grandfather, however, doth time cease.
Thus is all the past abandoned: for it might some day happen for the
populace to become master, and drown all time in shallow waters.
Therefore, O my brethren, a NEW NOBILITY is needed, which shall be the
adversary of all populace and potentate rule, and shall inscribe anew
the word "noble" on new tables.
For many noble ones are needed, and many kinds of noble ones, FOR A NEW
NOBILITY! Or, as I once said in parable: "That is just divinity, that
there are Gods, but no God! "
12.
O my brethren, I consecrate you and point you to a new nobility: ye
shall become procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future;--
--Verily, not to a nobility which ye could purchase like traders with
traders' gold; for little worth is all that hath its price.
Let it not be your honour henceforth whence ye come, but whither ye go!
Your Will and your feet which seek to surpass you--let these be your new
honour!
Verily, not that ye have served a prince--of what account are princes
now! --nor that ye have become a bulwark to that which standeth, that it
may stand more firmly.
Not that your family have become courtly at courts, and that ye have
learned--gay-coloured, like the flamingo--to stand long hours in shallow
pools:
(For ABILITY-to-stand is a merit in courtiers; and all courtiers believe
that unto blessedness after death pertaineth--PERMISSION-to-sit! )
Nor even that a Spirit called Holy, led your forefathers into promised
lands, which I do not praise: for where the worst of all trees grew--the
cross,--in that land there is nothing to praise! --
--And verily, wherever this "Holy Spirit" led its knights, always in
such campaigns did--goats and geese, and wryheads and guyheads run
FOREMOST! --
O my brethren, not backward shall your nobility gaze, but OUTWARD!
Exiles shall ye be from all fatherlands and forefather-lands!
Your CHILDREN'S LAND shall ye love: let this love be your new
nobility,--the undiscovered in the remotest seas! For it do I bid your
sails search and search!
Unto your children shall ye MAKE AMENDS for being the children of your
fathers: all the past shall ye THUS redeem! This new table do I place
over you!
13.
"Why should one live? All is vain! To live--that is to thrash straw; to
live--that is to burn oneself and yet not get warm. "--
Such ancient babbling still passeth for "wisdom"; because it is old,
however, and smelleth mustily, THEREFORE is it the more honoured. Even
mould ennobleth. --
Children might thus speak: they SHUN the fire because it hath burnt
them! There is much childishness in the old books of wisdom.
And he who ever "thrasheth straw," why should he be allowed to rail at
thrashing! Such a fool one would have to muzzle!
Such persons sit down to the table and bring nothing with them, not even
good hunger:--and then do they rail: "All is vain! "
But to eat and drink well, my brethren, is verily no vain art! Break up,
break up for me the tables of the never-joyous ones!
14.
"To the clean are all things clean"--thus say the people. I, however,
say unto you: To the swine all things become swinish!
Therefore preach the visionaries and bowed-heads (whose hearts are also
bowed down): "The world itself is a filthy monster. "
For these are all unclean spirits; especially those, however, who have
no peace or rest, unless they see the world FROM THE BACKSIDE--the
backworldsmen!
TO THOSE do I say it to the face, although it sound unpleasantly: the
world resembleth man, in that it hath a backside,--SO MUCH is true!
There is in the world much filth: SO MUCH is true! But the world itself
is not therefore a filthy monster!
There is wisdom in the fact that much in the world smelleth badly:
loathing itself createth wings, and fountain-divining powers!
In the best there is still something to loathe; and the best is still
something that must be surpassed! --
O my brethren, there is much wisdom in the fact that much filth is in
the world! --
15.
Such sayings did I hear pious backworldsmen speak to their consciences,
and verily without wickedness or guile,--although there is nothing more
guileful in the world, or more wicked.
"Let the world be as it is! Raise not a finger against it! "
"Let whoever will choke and stab and skin and scrape the people: raise
not a finger against it! Thereby will they learn to renounce the world. "
"And thine own reason--this shalt thou thyself stifle and choke; for it
is a reason of this world,--thereby wilt thou learn thyself to renounce
the world. "--
--Shatter, shatter, O my brethren, those old tables of the pious! Tatter
the maxims of the world-maligners! --
16.
"He who learneth much unlearneth all violent cravings"--that do people
now whisper to one another in all the dark lanes.
"Wisdom wearieth, nothing is worth while; thou shalt not crave! "--this
new table found I hanging even in the public markets.
Break up for me, O my brethren, break up also that NEW table! The
weary-o'-the-world put it up, and the preachers of death and the jailer:
for lo, it is also a sermon for slavery:--
Because they learned badly and not the best, and everything too early
and everything too fast; because they ATE badly: from thence hath
resulted their ruined stomach;--
--For a ruined stomach, is their spirit: IT persuadeth to death! For
verily, my brethren, the spirit IS a stomach!
Life is a well of delight, but to him in whom the ruined stomach
speaketh, the father of affliction, all fountains are poisoned.
To discern: that is DELIGHT to the lion-willed! But he who hath become
weary, is himself merely "willed"; with him play all the waves.
And such is always the nature of weak men: they lose themselves on their
way. And at last asketh their weariness: "Why did we ever go on the way?
All is indifferent! "
TO THEM soundeth it pleasant to have preached in their ears: "Nothing is
worth while! Ye shall not will! " That, however, is a sermon for slavery.
O my brethren, a fresh blustering wind cometh Zarathustra unto all
way-weary ones; many noses will he yet make sneeze!
Even through walls bloweth my free breath, and in into prisons and
imprisoned spirits!
Willing emancipateth: for willing is creating: so do I teach. And ONLY
for creating shall ye learn!
And also the learning shall ye LEARN only from me, the learning
well! --He who hath ears let him hear!
17.
There standeth the boat--thither goeth it over, perhaps into vast
nothingness--but who willeth to enter into this "Perhaps"?
None of you want to enter into the death-boat! How should ye then be
WORLD-WEARY ones!
World-weary ones! And have not even withdrawn from the earth! Eager
did I ever find you for the earth, amorous still of your own
earth-weariness!
Not in vain doth your lip hang down:--a small worldly wish still sitteth
thereon! And in your eye--floateth there not a cloudlet of unforgotten
earthly bliss?
There are on the earth many good inventions, some useful, some pleasant:
for their sake is the earth to be loved.
And many such good inventions are there, that they are like woman's
breasts: useful at the same time, and pleasant.
Ye world-weary ones, however! Ye earth-idlers! You, shall one beat with
stripes! With stripes shall one again make you sprightly limbs.
For if ye be not invalids, or decrepit creatures, of whom the earth is
weary, then are ye sly sloths, or dainty, sneaking pleasure-cats. And if
ye will not again RUN gaily, then shall ye--pass away!
To the incurable shall one not seek to be a physician: thus teacheth
Zarathustra:--so shall ye pass away!
But more COURAGE is needed to make an end than to make a new verse: that
do all physicians and poets know well. --
18.
O my brethren, there are tables which weariness framed, and tables
which slothfulness framed, corrupt slothfulness: although they speak
similarly, they want to be heard differently. --
See this languishing one! Only a span-breadth is he from his goal; but
from weariness hath he lain down obstinately in the dust, this brave
one!
From weariness yawneth he at the path, at the earth, at the goal, and at
himself: not a step further will he go,--this brave one!
Now gloweth the sun upon him, and the dogs lick at his sweat: but he
lieth there in his obstinacy and preferreth to languish:--
--A span-breadth from his goal, to languish! Verily, ye will have to
drag him into his heaven by the hair of his head--this hero!
Better still that ye let him lie where he hath lain down, that sleep may
come unto him, the comforter, with cooling patter-rain.
Let him lie, until of his own accord he awakeneth,--until of his own
accord he repudiateth all weariness, and what weariness hath taught
through him!
Only, my brethren, see that ye scare the dogs away from him, the idle
skulkers, and all the swarming vermin:--
--All the swarming vermin of the "cultured," that--feast on the sweat of
every hero! --
19.
I form circles around me and holy boundaries; ever fewer ascend with
me ever higher mountains: I build a mountain-range out of ever holier
mountains. --
But wherever ye would ascend with me, O my brethren, take care lest a
PARASITE ascend with you!
A parasite: that is a reptile, a creeping, cringing reptile, that trieth
to fatten on your infirm and sore places.
And THIS is its art: it divineth where ascending souls are weary, in
your trouble and dejection, in your sensitive modesty, doth it build its
loathsome nest.
Where the strong are weak, where the noble are all-too-gentle--there
buildeth it its loathsome nest; the parasite liveth where the great have
small sore-places.
What is the highest of all species of being, and what is the lowest?
The parasite is the lowest species; he, however, who is of the highest
species feedeth most parasites.
For the soul which hath the longest ladder, and can go deepest down: how
could there fail to be most parasites upon it? --
--The most comprehensive soul, which can run and stray and rove furthest
in itself; the most necessary soul, which out of joy flingeth itself
into chance:--
--The soul in Being, which plungeth into Becoming; the possessing soul,
which SEEKETH to attain desire and longing:--
--The soul fleeing from itself, which overtaketh itself in the widest
circuit; the wisest soul, unto which folly speaketh most sweetly:--
--The soul most self-loving, in which all things have their current and
counter-current, their ebb and their flow:--oh, how could THE LOFTIEST
SOUL fail to have the worst parasites?
20.
O my brethren, am I then cruel? But I say: What falleth, that shall one
also push!
Everything of to-day--it falleth, it decayeth; who would preserve it!
But I--I wish also to push it!
Know ye the delight which rolleth stones into precipitous depths? --Those
men of to-day, see just how they roll into my depths!
A prelude am I to better players, O my brethren! An example! DO
according to mine example!
And him whom ye do not teach to fly, teach I pray you--TO FALL FASTER! --
21.
I love the brave: but it is not enough to be a swordsman,--one must also
know WHEREON to use swordsmanship!
And often is it greater bravery to keep quiet and pass by, that THEREBY
one may reserve oneself for a worthier foe!
Ye shall only have foes to be hated; but not foes to be despised: ye
must be proud of your foes. Thus have I already taught.
For the worthier foe, O my brethren, shall ye reserve yourselves:
therefore must ye pass by many a one,--
--Especially many of the rabble, who din your ears with noise about
people and peoples.
Keep your eye clear of their For and Against! There is there much right,
much wrong: he who looketh on becometh wroth.
Therein viewing, therein hewing--they are the same thing: therefore
depart into the forests and lay your sword to sleep!
Go YOUR ways! and let the people and peoples go theirs! --gloomy ways,
verily, on which not a single hope glinteth any more!
Let there the trader rule, where all that still glittereth is--traders'
gold. It is the time of kings no longer: that which now calleth itself
the people is unworthy of kings.
See how these peoples themselves now do just like the traders: they pick
up the smallest advantage out of all kinds of rubbish!
They lay lures for one another, they lure things out of one
another,--that they call "good neighbourliness. " O blessed remote period
when a people said to itself: "I will be--MASTER over peoples! "
For, my brethren, the best shall rule, the best also WILLETH to rule!
And where the teaching is different, there--the best is LACKING.
22.
If THEY had--bread for nothing, alas! for what would THEY cry! Their
maintainment--that is their true entertainment; and they shall have it
hard!
Beasts of prey, are they: in their "working"--there is even plundering,
in their "earning"--there is even overreaching! Therefore shall they
have it hard!
Better beasts of prey shall they thus become, subtler, cleverer, MORE
MAN-LIKE: for man is the best beast of prey.
All the animals hath man already robbed of their virtues: that is why of
all animals it hath been hardest for man.
Only the birds are still beyond him. And if man should yet learn to fly,
alas! TO WHAT HEIGHT--would his rapacity fly!
23.
Thus would I have man and woman: fit for war, the one; fit for
maternity, the other; both, however, fit for dancing with head and legs.
And lost be the day to us in which a measure hath not been danced. And
false be every truth which hath not had laughter along with it!
24.
Your marriage-arranging: see that it be not a bad ARRANGING! Ye have
arranged too hastily: so there FOLLOWETH therefrom--marriage-breaking!
And better marriage-breaking than marriage-bending,
marriage-lying! --Thus spake a woman unto me: "Indeed, I broke the
marriage, but first did the marriage break--me!
The badly paired found I ever the most revengeful: they make every one
suffer for it that they no longer run singly.
On that account want I the honest ones to say to one another: "We love
each other: let us SEE TO IT that we maintain our love! Or shall our
pledging be blundering? "
--"Give us a set term and a small marriage, that we may see if we are
fit for the great marriage! It is a great matter always to be twain. "
Thus do I counsel all honest ones; and what would be my love to the
Superman, and to all that is to come, if I should counsel and speak
otherwise!
Not only to propagate yourselves onwards but UPWARDS--thereto, O my
brethren, may the garden of marriage help you!
25.
He who hath grown wise concerning old origins, lo, he will at last seek
after the fountains of the future and new origins. --
O my brethren, not long will it be until NEW PEOPLES shall arise and new
fountains shall rush down into new depths.
For the earthquake--it choketh up many wells, it causeth much
languishing: but it bringeth also to light inner powers and secrets.
The earthquake discloseth new fountains. In the earthquake of old
peoples new fountains burst forth.
And whoever calleth out: "Lo, here is a well for many thirsty ones, one
heart for many longing ones, one will for many instruments":--around him
collecteth a PEOPLE, that is to say, many attempting ones.
Who can command, who must obey--THAT IS THERE ATTEMPTED! Ah, with what
long seeking and solving and failing and learning and re-attempting!
Human society: it is an attempt--so I teach--a long seeking: it seeketh
however the ruler! --
--An attempt, my brethren! And NO "contract"! Destroy, I pray you,
destroy that word of the soft-hearted and half-and-half!
26.
O my brethren! With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human
future? Is it not with the good and just? --
--As those who say and feel in their hearts: "We already know what
is good and just, we possess it also; woe to those who still seek
thereafter!
And whatever harm the wicked may do, the harm of the good is the
harmfulest harm!
And whatever harm the world-maligners may do, the harm of the good is
the harmfulest harm!
O my brethren, into the hearts of the good and just looked some one
once on a time, who said: "They are the Pharisees. " But people did not
understand him.
The good and just themselves were not free to understand him; their
spirit was imprisoned in their good conscience. The stupidity of the
good is unfathomably wise.
It is the truth, however, that the good MUST be Pharisees--they have no
choice!
The good MUST crucify him who deviseth his own virtue! That IS the
truth!
The second one, however, who discovered their country--the country,
heart and soil of the good and just,--it was he who asked: "Whom do they
hate most? "
The CREATOR, hate they most, him who breaketh the tables and old values,
the breaker,--him they call the law-breaker.
For the good--they CANNOT create; they are always the beginning of the
end:--
--They crucify him who writeth new values on new tables, they sacrifice
UNTO THEMSELVES the future--they crucify the whole human future!
The good--they have always been the beginning of the end. --
27.
O my brethren, have ye also understood this word? And what I once said
of the "last man"? --
With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not
with the good and just?
BREAK UP, BREAK UP, I PRAY YOU, THE GOOD AND JUST! --O my brethren, have
ye understood also this word?
28.
Ye flee from me? Ye are frightened? Ye tremble at this word?
O my brethren, when I enjoined you to break up the good, and the tables
of the good, then only did I embark man on his high seas.
And now only cometh unto him the great terror, the great outlook, the
great sickness, the great nausea, the great sea-sickness.
False shores and false securities did the good teach you; in the lies of
the good were ye born and bred. Everything hath been radically contorted
and distorted by the good.
But he who discovered the country of "man," discovered also the country
of "man's future. " Now shall ye be sailors for me, brave, patient!
Keep yourselves up betimes, my brethren, learn to keep yourselves up!
The sea stormeth: many seek to raise themselves again by you.
The sea stormeth: all is in the sea. Well! Cheer up! Ye old
seaman-hearts!
What of fatherland! THITHER striveth our helm where our CHILDREN'S LAND
is! Thitherwards, stormier than the sea, stormeth our great longing! --
29.
"Why so hard! "--said to the diamond one day the charcoal; "are we then
not near relatives? "--
Why so soft? O my brethren; thus do _I_ ask you: are ye then not--my
brethren?
Why so soft, so submissive and yielding? Why is there so much negation
and abnegation in your hearts? Why is there so little fate in your
looks?
And if ye will not be fates and inexorable ones, how can ye one day--
conquer with me?
And if your hardness will not glance and cut and chip to pieces, how can
ye one day--create with me?
For the creators are hard. And blessedness must it seem to you to press
your hand upon millenniums as upon wax,--
--Blessedness to write upon the will of millenniums as upon
brass,--harder than brass, nobler than brass. Entirely hard is only the
noblest.
This new table, O my brethren, put I up over you: BECOME HARD! --
30.
O thou, my Will! Thou change of every need, MY needfulness! Preserve me
from all small victories!
Thou fatedness of my soul, which I call fate! Thou In-me! Over-me!
Preserve and spare me for one great fate!
And thy last greatness, my Will, spare it for thy last--that thou mayest
be inexorable IN thy victory! Ah, who hath not succumbed to his victory!
Ah, whose eye hath not bedimmed in this intoxicated twilight! Ah, whose
foot hath not faltered and forgotten in victory--how to stand! --
--That I may one day be ready and ripe in the great noontide: ready and
ripe like the glowing ore, the lightning-bearing cloud, and the swelling
milk-udder:--
--Ready for myself and for my most hidden Will: a bow eager for its
arrow, an arrow eager for its star:--
--A star, ready and ripe in its noontide, glowing, pierced, blessed, by
annihilating sun-arrows:--
--A sun itself, and an inexorable sun-will, ready for annihilation in
victory!
O Will, thou change of every need, MY needfulness! Spare me for one
great victory! ---
Thus spake Zarathustra.
LVII. THE CONVALESCENT.
1.
One morning, not long after his return to his cave, Zarathustra sprang
up from his couch like a madman, crying with a frightful voice, and
acting as if some one still lay on the couch who did not wish to rise.
Zarathustra's voice also resounded in such a manner that his animals
came to him frightened, and out of all the neighbouring caves and
lurking-places all the creatures slipped away--flying, fluttering,
creeping or leaping, according to their variety of foot or wing.
Zarathustra, however, spake these words:
Up, abysmal thought out of my depth! I am thy cock and morning dawn,
thou overslept reptile: Up! Up! My voice shall soon crow thee awake!
Unbind the fetters of thine ears: listen! For I wish to hear thee! Up!
Up! There is thunder enough to make the very graves listen!
And rub the sleep and all the dimness and blindness out of thine eyes!
Hear me also with thine eyes: my voice is a medicine even for those born
blind.
And once thou art awake, then shalt thou ever remain awake. It is not
MY custom to awake great-grandmothers out of their sleep that I may bid
them--sleep on!
Thou stirrest, stretchest thyself, wheezest? Up! Up! Not wheeze, shalt
thou,--but speak unto me! Zarathustra calleth thee, Zarathustra the
godless!
I, Zarathustra, the advocate of living, the advocate of suffering, the
advocate of the circuit--thee do I call, my most abysmal thought!
Joy to me! Thou comest,--I hear thee! Mine abyss SPEAKETH, my lowest
depth have I turned over into the light!
Joy to me! Come hither! Give me thy hand--ha! let be! aha! --Disgust,
disgust, disgust--alas to me!
2.
Hardly, however, had Zarathustra spoken these words, when he fell down
as one dead, and remained long as one dead. When however he again came
to himself, then was he pale and trembling, and remained lying; and for
long he would neither eat nor drink. This condition continued for seven
days; his animals, however, did not leave him day nor night, except that
the eagle flew forth to fetch food. And what it fetched and foraged,
it laid on Zarathustra's couch: so that Zarathustra at last lay among
yellow and red berries, grapes, rosy apples, sweet-smelling herbage, and
pine-cones. At his feet, however, two lambs were stretched, which the
eagle had with difficulty carried off from their shepherds.
At last, after seven days, Zarathustra raised himself upon his couch,
took a rosy apple in his hand, smelt it and found its smell pleasant.
Then did his animals think the time had come to speak unto him.
"O Zarathustra," said they, "now hast thou lain thus for seven days with
heavy eyes: wilt thou not set thyself again upon thy feet?
Step out of thy cave: the world waiteth for thee as a garden. The wind
playeth with heavy fragrance which seeketh for thee; and all brooks
would like to run after thee.
All things long for thee, since thou hast remained alone for seven
days--step forth out of thy cave! All things want to be thy physicians!
Did perhaps a new knowledge come to thee, a bitter, grievous knowledge?
Like leavened dough layest thou, thy soul arose and swelled beyond all
its bounds. --"
--O mine animals, answered Zarathustra, talk on thus and let me listen!
It refresheth me so to hear your talk: where there is talk, there is the
world as a garden unto me.
How charming it is that there are words and tones; are not words and
tones rainbows and seeming bridges 'twixt the eternally separated?
To each soul belongeth another world; to each soul is every other soul a
back-world.
Among the most alike doth semblance deceive most delightfully: for the
smallest gap is most difficult to bridge over.
For me--how could there be an outside-of-me? There is no outside! But
this we forget on hearing tones; how delightful it is that we forget!
Have not names and tones been given unto things that man may refresh
himself with them? It is a beautiful folly, speaking; therewith danceth
man over everything.
How lovely is all speech and all falsehoods of tones! With tones danceth
our love on variegated rainbows. --
--"O Zarathustra," said then his animals, "to those who think like us,
things all dance themselves: they come and hold out the hand and laugh
and flee--and return.
Everything goeth, everything returneth; eternally rolleth the wheel
of existence.
