No More Learning

Thy loveliness, to all—obscurity,
What? Fear'st not to unveil before my seeing?
O shield of Destiny!
O carven tablets of Eternity!
Yea, verily, thou knowest—what mankind doth
hate,
What I alone do love: thou art inviolate
To strokes of change and time, of fates the fate!
'Tis only thou, O dire Necessity,
Canst kindle everlasting love in me!
O loftiest crown of Life! O shield of Fate!
That no desire can reach to invocate,
That ne'er defiled or sullied is by Nay,
Eternal Yea of life, for e'er am I thy Yea:
For I love thee, Eternity!


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## p. 191 (#249) ############################################

FRAGMENTS
OF DIONYSUS-DITHYRAMBS
(1882–88)
191


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## p. 193 (#251) ############################################

FRAGMENTS OF DIONYSUS-
DITHYRAMBS
Speeches, Parables, and Similes
3
My home's in the highlands,
For the highlands I yearn not,
I raise not mine eyes aloft:
I am one that looks downward,
One that must bless,—
All blessers look downward.
II
Thus I began,
I unlearned all self-pity!
13
Not in shattering idols,
But in shattering the idol-worshipper in thee,
Consisted thy valour.
14
See, there stand
Those heavy cats of granite,
Those old, old Values.
Woe is me! How overthrow them?
* * # *
Scratching cats,
With paws that are fettered,
There they sit
And their glance is poison.
N


## p. 194 (#252) ############################################

194
POETRY
17
A lightning-flash became my wisdom :
With sword of adamant it clove me every
darkness !
19
A thought that still
Flows hot, like lava :
But all streams of lava
Build a fortress around them,
And every thought finally
Oppresses itself with laws.
20
Such is my will:
And since 'tis my will,
All goes as I wish-
That was my final wisdom:
I willed what I must,
And thus I forced every “must,”—
Since then has been for me no “must. "
- 23
Deceit
Is war's whole art.
The fox's skin
Is my secret shirt of mail.
25
We of the new underworld
Grub for new treasures.
Godless it seemed to the ancients
To disturb the earth's bowels for treasures :
And once more this godlessness revives,
Hear ye not earth's bowels thunder ?


## p. 195 (#253) ############################################

FRAGMENTS OF DIONYSUS-DITHYRAMBS 195
28
Looking for love and finding masks,
Finding accursed masks and having to break
them!
29
Do I love you?
Yes, as the rider loves his steed,
That carryeth him to his goal.
30
His pity is cruel,
His loving hand-clasp bruises,
Give not a giant your hand !
31
Ye fear me?
Ye fear the taut-strung bow?
Ye fear a man might set his arrow to the bow?
33
I am naught but a word-maker.
What matter words ?
What matter I? .
34
Ah, my friends,
Whither has flown all that is called “good”?
Whither all good people?
Whither the innocence of all these falsehoods ?
I call all good,
Leaves and grass, happiness, blessing, and rain.


## p. 196 (#254) ############################################

196
POETRY
35
Not through his sins and greatest follies,
Through his perfection I suffered,
As I suffered most from men. *
36
“ Man is evil. "
So spake the wisest
For my consolement.
37
And only when I to myself am a burden
Do ye fall heavy upon me!
38
Too soon, already
I laugh again :
For a foe 'tis easy
To make me amends.
39
Gentle am I towards man and chance;
Gentle with all men, and even with grasses :
A spot of sunshine on winter curtains,
Moist with tenderness,
A thawing wind to snow-bound souls:
Proud-minded towards trilling
Gains, where I see the huckster's long finger,
'Tis aye my pleasure
To be bamboozled :
Such is the bidding of my fastidious taste.
* Nietzsche here alludes to Christian perfection, which he
considers equivalent to harmlessness. —TR.


## p. 197 (#255) ############################################

FRAGMENTS OF DIONYSUS-DITHYRAMBS 197
40
A strange breath breathes and spits at me,
Am I a mirror, that straightway is clouded?
Little people,
Confiding, open-hearted,
But low-built portals,
Where only the low of stature can enter.
• # • »
How can I get through the city-gate
Who had forgotten to live among dwarfs?
42
My wisdom was like to the sun,
I longed to give them light,
But I only deceived them.
The sun of my wisdom
Blinded the eyes
Of these poor bats. . . .
43
Blacker and eviller things didst thou see than ever
a seer did:
Through the revels of Hell no sage had ever
journeyed.
44
Back! on my heels too closely ye follow!
Back! lest my wisdom should tread on you, crush
you!
45
"He goes to hell who goes thy ways! "
So be it! to my hell
I'll pave the way myself with well-made maxims.


## p. 198 (#256) ############################################

198
POETRY
46
Your God, you tell me,
Is a God of love?
The sting of conscience
A sting from God?
A sting of love?
48
They chew gravel,
They lie on their bellies
Before little round things,
They adore all that falleth not down-
These last servants of God
Believers (in reality)!
50
They made their God out of nothing,
What wonder if now he is naught?
51
Ye loftier men! There have once been
More thoughtful times, more reflective,
Than is our to-day and to-morrow.
52
Our time is like a sick woman-
Let her but shriek, rave, scold,
And break the tables and dishes !
54
Ye mount?
Is it true that ye mount,
Ye loftier men ?


## p. 199 (#257) ############################################

FRAGMENTS OF DIONYSUS-DITHYRAMBS 199
Are ye not, pray,
Like to a ball
Sped to the heights
By the lowest that's in you ?
Do ye not flee from yourselves, O ye climbers ?
All that you thought
You had to despise,
Where you only renounced !
Whered to de bought 55
56
All men repeat the refrain !
No, no, and thrice say No!
What's all this yap-yap talk of heaven ?
We would not enter the kingdom of heaven,
The kingdom of earth shall be ours?
57
The will redeemeth,
He that has nothing to do
In a Nothing finds food for trouble.
58
You cannot endure it more,
Your tyrannous destiny,
Love it-you're given no choice !
59
These alone free us from woes
(Choose now! )
Sudden death
Or long-drawn-out love.


## p. 200 (#258) ############################################

200 POETRY
60
Of death we are sure,
So why not be merry?
61
The worst of pleas
I have hidden from you—that life grew tedious!
Throw it away, that ye find it again to your taste!
62
Lonely days,
Ye must walk on valorous feet!
63
Loneliness
Plants naught, it ripens. . . .
And even then you must have the sun for your
friend.
64
Once more must ye plunge in the throng—
In the throng ye grow hard and smooth.
Solitude withers
And lastly destroys.
65
When on the hermit comes the great fear;
When he runs and runs
And knows not whither;
When the storms roar behind
And the lightning bears witness against him,
And his cavern breeds spectres
And fills him with dread.


## p. 201 (#259) ############################################

FRAGMENTS OF DIONYSUS-DITHYRAMBS 201
67
Throw thy pain in the depths,
Man, forget! Man, forget!
Divine is the art of forgetting!
Wouldst fly?
Wouldst feel at home in the heights?
Throw thy heaviest load in the sea!
Here is the sea, hurl thyself in the sea!
Divine is the art of forgetting!
69
Look forward, never look back!
We sink to the depths
If we peer ever into the depths.
70
Beware, beware
Of warning the reckless!
Thy warning will drive them
To leap into every abyss!
7i
Why hurled he himself from the heights?
What led him astray?
His pity for all that is lowly led him astray,
And now he lies there, broken, useless, and cold.
72
Whither went he? Who knows?
We only know that he sank.
A star went out in the desolate void,
And lone was the void.


## p. 202 (#260) ############################################

202
POETRY
73
What we have not
But need,
We must take.
And so a good conscience I took.
74
Who is there that could bestow right upon thee?
So take thy right!
75
O ye waves,
Wondrous waves, are ye wroth with me?
Do ye raise me your crests in wrath ?
With my rudder I smite
Your folly full square.
This bark ye yourselves
To immortal life will carry along.
77
When no new voice was heard,
Ye made from old words
A law:
When life grows stark, there shoots up the law.
78
What none can refute
Ye say must be true?
Oh, ye innocents !
79
Art thou strong?
Strong as an ass ? Strong as God ?
Art thou proud ?
So proud as to flaunt
Unashamed thy conceit?


## p. 203 (#261) ############################################

FRAGMENTS OF DIONYSUS-DITHYRAMBS 203
80
Beware,
And ne'er beat the drum
Of thy destiny!
Go out of the way
From all pom-pom of fame!
* * * #
Be not known too soon!
Be one that has hoarded renown!
81
Wilt thou grasp at the thorns?
Thy fingers must pay.
Grasp at a poniard.
85
Be a tablet of gold,
They will grave upon thee
In golden script.
86
Upright he stands
With more sense of "justice"
In his outermost toe
Than I have in all my head.
A virtue-monster
Mantled in white.
Already he mimics himself,
Already weary he grows,
Already he seeks the paths he has trod—
Who of late still loved all tracks untrodden!


## p. 204 (#262) ############################################

POETRY
Secretis burnt-
Not for his fait. .
Rather because he had lost the heart
To find new faith.
88
Too long he sat in the cage,
That runaway!
Too long he dreaded
Á gaoier :
Timorous now he goeth his ways,
All things make him to stumble-
The shadow een of a stick makes him to stumble.
89
Ye chambers smoky and musty,
Ye cages and narrow hearts,
How could your spirit be free?
90
Narrow souls !
Huckster-souls !
When money leaps into the box
The soul leaps into it too! *
Are ye women,
That ye wish to suffer
From that which ye love?
* Alluding to the saving as the Tommon mens s
who sold indulgences or the time when -
leaps into the box, the son tears from thel, sr


## p. 205 (#263) ############################################

FRAGMENTS OF DIONYSUS-DITHYRAMBS 205
99
They are cold, these men of learning!
Would that a lightning-flash might strike their
food,
And their mouths could learn to eat fire!
101
Your false love
For the past,
A love for the graves of the dead,
Is a theft from life
That steals all the future.
* * * *
An antiquary
Is a craftsman of dead things,
Who lives among coffins and skeletons.
103
Only the poet who can lie
Wilfully, skilfully,
Can tell the truth.
104
Our chase after truth,
Is't a chase after happiness?
Truth
Is a woman, no better,
Cunning in her shame:
Of what she likes best
She will know naught,
And covers her face. . .
To what doth she yield
105


## p. 206 (#264) ############################################

206
POETRY
But to violence?
Violence she needs.
Be hard, ye sages!
Ye must compel her,
That shamefaced Truth. . . .
For her happiness
She needs constraint-
She is a woman, no better.
106
We thought evil of each other ?
We were too distant,
But now in this tiny hut,
Pinned to one destiny,
How could we still be foes ?
We must needs love those
Whom we cannot escape.
107
Love thy foe,
Let the robber rob thee:
The woman hears and-does it.
110
A proud eye
With silken curtains,
Seldom clear,
Honours him that may see it unveiled.
III
Sluggard eyes
That seldom love-
But when they love, the levin flashes
As from shafts of gold
Where a dagger keeps guard at the treasure of love.


## p. 207 (#265) ############################################

FRAGMENTS OF DIONYSUS-DITHYRAMBS 207
117
They are crabs, for whom I have no fellow-feeling.
Grasp them, they pinch you;
Leave them alone, and they walk backward.
119
Crooked go great rivers and men,
Crooked, but turned to their goal;
That is their highest courage,
They dreaded not crooked paths.
121
Wouldst catch them?
Then speak to them
As to stray sheep:
"Your path, your path
You have lost! "
They follow all
That flatter them so:
"What? had we a path? "
Each whispers the other:
"It really seems that we have a path.
"
[The numbering given corresponds to that of the original,
several fragments having been omitted. —Tr. ]


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HYMN TO LIFE.
For Chorus and Orchestra.
Words by Lou SALONE. Music by FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.
Trans. by HERMAN SCHEFFAUER. Arr. for Piano by Adrian COLLINS, M. A.
With decision.
Piano. f
(ORCH.
V
II
tly
DIE
TULLN
v
a
TOP
1
loves
friend.
TON
As
friend. .
As. . . . . . . . .
I love thee, O
Life in my-st'ry
tre
As
If joy or
grief
#
Odly
If
joy. . . . . . or
joy or grief to
bid
den !
(ORCH. )
d
fir
joy or


## p. (#268) ################################################

me. . . . . . . . . . . . .
thou
send;. . . . . .
If
loud I
grief to
me
send:
thou
thou
folk-=-701
me
loud
grief to
me thou
send;

laugh or else
am
weep
else
bid - den,
bid - den
Or
to
weep am

I
thee with all thy
change. ful
$
Yet
love i
thee. . . . . . . . . .
with
all
thy

ELE
fa • ces; And should'st thou
doom me to
de
it
change . . fulfa - ces; Should'st thou doom me


## p. (#269) ################################################

ORCH.
I
would
PP,
rit.
I
would
would
al.
So. . . . . .
I
tear my-self
from
So
rppi
ORCI.
to de-part, So would I tear my-self from thy em
.
AU
thy thy em embra
bra • ces, As
would I tear my self from thy em
com
bra . C
-
O
ORCH.
Ped.
As
com
•
rade
.
brace,
Tranquillo.
a
• rade from
com-rade from
com • rade's heart,
com • rade's heart,
HUI
from
a
com • rade's heart,
Più ritenuto.
com - rade
com . rade
from. . . . . .
from
com
com
•
.
rade's
rade's
a


## p. (#270) ################################################

COND
heart.
With all
my
strength
10
On,
send thy
WIN.
clasp
thee
thee
close ;. . . . . .
close :. . . . .
send thy
Oh,. . . . . . senu thy
1
Leta
Uto
-
flame
1-1-1-THE
me like a
lov
ORCH.
TTIP-V
144
rage. . .
and
Bit
And 'mid the bat . . tle's rage, the bat - tle's
And 'mid the bat - tle's rage
and
And
'mid the
bat-tle's rage and


## p. (#271) ################################################

throes,
Be - ing's in · most
thy
rage and throes, Let
throes,
Let
me
me
thy
tby
Be - ing's in - most
Be · · ing's
ORCH. throes,
Let me
thy
Be · · ing's
ORCH.
self
dis-cover! To
in - most self dis · cov - er! To
think, to live till
think, to live till
nice
wito
EDIFICE
SABR
mu
LLL av
Time a-lone shall drown me, With all
- shall
-
Allin-
AT
Alfa
po_
rollo
fill! (ORCH. )
TEN.
And
pp
IT
JUALA


## p. (#272) ################################################

ORCH.
bliss. .
3
otolog
And if thou
if thou hast no
PP |
hast now left no
bliss now left to
bliss
crown me, Lead
Ir
OL
A
ORCH.
a.
Ped.
And
if thou hast no. . . . . . lo bliss now left to
Ped.
Ped.
crown me,
.
crown me,
on,
Lead
ORCH. ORCH.
thou hast thy
on
sor - row
TIOL
SI
---
crown me,
cres.
Ped
-
sti
1 ORCH.
Tranquillo.
L
hat
IL
P dolce.
Lead on! thou
TOE IN
chy
sor. ro W
still !
SAT
(. U


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## p. (#274) ################################################




## p. (#275) ################################################

THE WORKS OF
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.
First Complete and Authorised English Translation, in 18 Volumes.
Edited by Dr. OSCAR LEVY.
I. THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY. Translated by William
A. Haussmann, B. A. , Ph. D. , with Biographical Introduction by
the Author's Sister, Portrait and Facsimile. 2s. 6d. net.
y
-*

^
)i'r
[Second Edition. V / t /
41. EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER f^
ESSAYS. Translated by M. A. MUggb, Ph. D. Crown 8vo,
2s. 6d. net. - , . ,
III. THE FUTURE OF OUR EDUCATIONAL 1^''
INSTITUTIONS. Translated by J. M. Kennedy. as. 6d. net.
[Second Edition. . -* '""\
IV. THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON, Vol. I. Trans-. / **v
lated by A. M. Luoovici, with Editorial Note.