No More Learning

"--

Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of
rings--the ring of the return?

Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children,
unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity!

FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!




FOURTH AND LAST PART.

Ah, where in the world have there been greater follies than with the
pitiful? And what in the world hath caused more suffering than the
follies of the pitiful?

Woe unto all loving ones who have not an elevation which is above their
pity!

Thus spake the devil unto me, once on a time: "Even God hath his hell:
it is his love for man. "

And lately did I hear him say these words: "God is dead: of his pity for
man hath God died. "--ZARATHUSTRA, II. , "The Pitiful. "




LXI. THE HONEY SACRIFICE.

--And again passed moons and years over Zarathustra's soul, and he
heeded it not; his hair, however, became white. One day when he sat on
a stone in front of his cave, and gazed calmly into the distance--one
there gazeth out on the sea, and away beyond sinuous abysses,--then went
his animals thoughtfully round about him, and at last set themselves in
front of him.

"O Zarathustra," said they, "gazest thou out perhaps for thy
happiness? "--"Of what account is my happiness! " answered he, "I have
long ceased to strive any more for happiness, I strive for my work. "--"O
Zarathustra," said the animals once more, "that sayest thou as one
who hath overmuch of good things. Liest thou not in a sky-blue lake of
happiness? "--"Ye wags," answered Zarathustra, and smiled, "how well did
ye choose the simile! But ye know also that my happiness is heavy, and
not like a fluid wave of water: it presseth me and will not leave me,
and is like molten pitch. "--

Then went his animals again thoughtfully around him, and placed
themselves once more in front of him. "O Zarathustra," said they, "it is
consequently FOR THAT REASON that thou thyself always becometh yellower
and darker, although thy hair looketh white and flaxen? Lo, thou sittest
in thy pitch! "--"What do ye say, mine animals? " said Zarathustra,
laughing; "verily I reviled when I spake of pitch. As it happeneth with
me, so is it with all fruits that turn ripe. It is the HONEY in my veins
that maketh my blood thicker, and also my soul stiller. "--"So will it
be, O Zarathustra," answered his animals, and pressed up to him; "but
wilt thou not to-day ascend a high mountain? The air is pure, and to-day
one seeth more of the world than ever. "--"Yea, mine animals," answered
he, "ye counsel admirably and according to my heart: I will to-day
ascend a high mountain! But see that honey is there ready to hand,
yellow, white, good, ice-cool, golden-comb-honey. For know that when
aloft I will make the honey-sacrifice. "--

When Zarathustra, however, was aloft on the summit, he sent his animals
home that had accompanied him, and found that he was now alone:--then he
laughed from the bottom of his heart, looked around him, and spake thus:

That I spake of sacrifices and honey-sacrifices, it was merely a ruse
in talking and verily, a useful folly! Here aloft can I now speak freer
than in front of mountain-caves and anchorites' domestic animals.

What to sacrifice! I squander what is given me, a squanderer with a
thousand hands: how could I call that--sacrificing?

And when I desired honey I only desired bait, and sweet mucus and
mucilage, for which even the mouths of growling bears, and strange,
sulky, evil birds, water:

--The best bait, as huntsmen and fishermen require it. For if the world
be as a gloomy forest of animals, and a pleasure-ground for all wild
huntsmen, it seemeth to me rather--and preferably--a fathomless, rich
sea;

--A sea full of many-hued fishes and crabs, for which even the Gods
might long, and might be tempted to become fishers in it, and casters of
nets,--so rich is the world in wonderful things, great and small!

Especially the human world, the human sea:--towards IT do I now throw
out my golden angle-rod and say: Open up, thou human abyss!

Open up, and throw unto me thy fish and shining crabs! With my best bait
shall I allure to myself to-day the strangest human fish!

--My happiness itself do I throw out into all places far and wide 'twixt
orient, noontide, and occident, to see if many human fish will not learn
to hug and tug at my happiness;--

Until, biting at my sharp hidden hooks, they have to come up unto MY
height, the motleyest abyss-groundlings, to the wickedest of all fishers
of men.

For THIS am I from the heart and from the beginning--drawing,
hither-drawing, upward-drawing, upbringing; a drawer, a trainer, a
training-master, who not in vain counselled himself once on a time:
"Become what thou art! "

Thus may men now come UP to me; for as yet do I await the signs that it
is time for my down-going; as yet do I not myself go down, as I must do,
amongst men.

Therefore do I here wait, crafty and scornful upon high mountains,
no impatient one, no patient one; rather one who hath even unlearnt
patience,--because he no longer "suffereth. "

For my fate giveth me time: it hath forgotten me perhaps? Or doth it sit
behind a big stone and catch flies?

And verily, I am well-disposed to mine eternal fate, because it doth not
hound and hurry me, but leaveth me time for merriment and mischief; so
that I have to-day ascended this high mountain to catch fish.

Did ever any one catch fish upon high mountains? And though it be a
folly what I here seek and do, it is better so than that down below I
should become solemn with waiting, and green and yellow--

--A posturing wrath-snorter with waiting, a holy howl-storm from
the mountains, an impatient one that shouteth down into the valleys:
"Hearken, else I will scourge you with the scourge of God! "

Not that I would have a grudge against such wrathful ones on that
account: they are well enough for laughter to me! Impatient must they
now be, those big alarm-drums, which find a voice now or never!

Myself, however, and my fate--we do not talk to the Present, neither
do we talk to the Never: for talking we have patience and time and more
than time. For one day must it yet come, and may not pass by.

What must one day come and may not pass by? Our great Hazar, that is
to say, our great, remote human-kingdom, the Zarathustra-kingdom of a
thousand years--

How remote may such "remoteness" be? What doth it concern me? But on
that account it is none the less sure unto me--, with both feet stand I
secure on this ground;

--On an eternal ground, on hard primary rock, on this highest, hardest,
primary mountain-ridge, unto which all winds come, as unto the
storm-parting, asking Where? and Whence? and Whither?

Here laugh, laugh, my hearty, healthy wickedness! From high mountains
cast down thy glittering scorn-laughter! Allure for me with thy
glittering the finest human fish!

And whatever belongeth unto ME in all seas, my in-and-for-me in all
things--fish THAT out for me, bring THAT up to me: for that do I wait,
the wickedest of all fish-catchers.

Out! out! my fishing-hook! In and down, thou bait of my happiness! Drip
thy sweetest dew, thou honey of my heart! Bite, my fishing-hook, into
the belly of all black affliction!

Look out, look out, mine eye! Oh, how many seas round about me, what
dawning human futures! And above me--what rosy red stillness! What
unclouded silence!




LXII. THE CRY OF DISTRESS.

The next day sat Zarathustra again on the stone in front of his cave,
whilst his animals roved about in the world outside to bring home new
food,--also new honey: for Zarathustra had spent and wasted the old
honey to the very last particle. When he thus sat, however, with a
stick in his hand, tracing the shadow of his figure on the earth, and
reflecting--verily! not upon himself and his shadow,--all at once he
startled and shrank back: for he saw another shadow beside his own.
And when he hastily looked around and stood up, behold, there stood the
soothsayer beside him, the same whom he had once given to eat and drink
at his table, the proclaimer of the great weariness, who taught: "All is
alike, nothing is worth while, the world is without meaning, knowledge
strangleth. " But his face had changed since then; and when Zarathustra
looked into his eyes, his heart was startled once more: so much evil
announcement and ashy-grey lightnings passed over that countenance.

The soothsayer, who had perceived what went on in Zarathustra's soul,
wiped his face with his hand, as if he would wipe out the impression;
the same did also Zarathustra. And when both of them had thus silently
composed and strengthened themselves, they gave each other the hand, as
a token that they wanted once more to recognise each other.

"Welcome hither," said Zarathustra, "thou soothsayer of the great
weariness, not in vain shalt thou once have been my messmate and guest.
Eat and drink also with me to-day, and forgive it that a cheerful old
man sitteth with thee at table! "--"A cheerful old man? " answered the
soothsayer, shaking his head, "but whoever thou art, or wouldst be, O
Zarathustra, thou hast been here aloft the longest time,--in a little
while thy bark shall no longer rest on dry land! "--"Do I then rest
on dry land? "--asked Zarathustra, laughing. --"The waves around thy
mountain," answered the soothsayer, "rise and rise, the waves of great
distress and affliction: they will soon raise thy bark also and carry
thee away. "--Thereupon was Zarathustra silent and wondered. --"Dost thou
still hear nothing? " continued the soothsayer: "doth it not rush and
roar out of the depth? "--Zarathustra was silent once more and listened:
then heard he a long, long cry, which the abysses threw to one another
and passed on; for none of them wished to retain it: so evil did it
sound.

"Thou ill announcer," said Zarathustra at last, "that is a cry of
distress, and the cry of a man; it may come perhaps out of a black sea.
But what doth human distress matter to me! My last sin which hath been
reserved for me,--knowest thou what it is called? "

--"PITY! " answered the soothsayer from an overflowing heart, and raised
both his hands aloft--"O Zarathustra, I have come that I may seduce thee
to thy last sin! "--

And hardly had those words been uttered when there sounded the cry
once more, and longer and more alarming than before--also much nearer.
"Hearest thou? Hearest thou, O Zarathustra? " called out the soothsayer,
"the cry concerneth thee, it calleth thee: Come, come, come; it is time,
it is the highest time! "--

Zarathustra was silent thereupon, confused and staggered; at last he
asked, like one who hesitateth in himself: "And who is it that there
calleth me? "

"But thou knowest it, certainly," answered the soothsayer warmly, "why
dost thou conceal thyself? It is THE HIGHER MAN that crieth for thee! "

"The higher man? " cried Zarathustra, horror-stricken: "what wanteth HE?
What wanteth HE? The higher man! What wanteth he here? "--and his skin
covered with perspiration.

The soothsayer, however, did not heed Zarathustra's alarm, but listened
and listened in the downward direction. When, however, it had been still
there for a long while, he looked behind, and saw Zarathustra standing
trembling.

"O Zarathustra," he began, with sorrowful voice, "thou dost not stand
there like one whose happiness maketh him giddy: thou wilt have to dance
lest thou tumble down!

But although thou shouldst dance before me, and leap all thy side-leaps,
no one may say unto me: 'Behold, here danceth the last joyous man! '

In vain would any one come to this height who sought HIM here: caves
would he find, indeed, and back-caves, hiding-places for hidden ones;
but not lucky mines, nor treasure-chambers, nor new gold-veins of
happiness.

Happiness--how indeed could one find happiness among such buried-alive
and solitary ones! Must I yet seek the last happiness on the Happy
Isles, and far away among forgotten seas?

But all is alike, nothing is worth while, no seeking is of service,
there are no longer any Happy Isles! "--

Thus sighed the soothsayer; with his last sigh, however, Zarathustra
again became serene and assured, like one who hath come out of a deep
chasm into the light. "Nay! Nay! Three times Nay! " exclaimed he with a
strong voice, and stroked his beard--"THAT do I know better! There are
still Happy Isles! Silence THEREON, thou sighing sorrow-sack!

Cease to splash THEREON, thou rain-cloud of the forenoon! Do I not
already stand here wet with thy misery, and drenched like a dog?

Now do I shake myself and run away from thee, that I may again become
dry: thereat mayest thou not wonder! Do I seem to thee discourteous?
Here however is MY court.

But as regards the higher man: well! I shall seek him at once in those
forests: FROM THENCE came his cry. Perhaps he is there hard beset by an
evil beast.

He is in MY domain: therein shall he receive no scath! And verily, there
are many evil beasts about me. "--

With those words Zarathustra turned around to depart. Then said the
soothsayer: "O Zarathustra, thou art a rogue!

I know it well: thou wouldst fain be rid of me! Rather wouldst thou run
into the forest and lay snares for evil beasts!

But what good will it do thee? In the evening wilt thou have me again:
in thine own cave will I sit, patient and heavy like a block--and wait
for thee! "

"So be it! " shouted back Zarathustra, as he went away: "and what is mine
in my cave belongeth also unto thee, my guest!

Shouldst thou however find honey therein, well! just lick it up, thou
growling bear, and sweeten thy soul! For in the evening we want both to
be in good spirits;

--In good spirits and joyful, because this day hath come to an end! And
thou thyself shalt dance to my lays, as my dancing-bear.

Thou dost not believe this? Thou shakest thy head? Well! Cheer up, old
bear! But I also--am a soothsayer. "

Thus spake Zarathustra.




LXIII. TALK WITH THE KINGS.

1.

Ere Zarathustra had been an hour on his way in the mountains and
forests, he saw all at once a strange procession. Right on the path
which he was about to descend came two kings walking, bedecked with
crowns and purple girdles, and variegated like flamingoes: they drove
before them a laden ass. "What do these kings want in my domain? " said
Zarathustra in astonishment to his heart, and hid himself hastily behind
a thicket. When however the kings approached to him, he said half-aloud,
like one speaking only to himself: "Strange! Strange! How doth this
harmonise? Two kings do I see--and only one ass! "

Thereupon the two kings made a halt; they smiled and looked towards the
spot whence the voice proceeded, and afterwards looked into each other's
faces. "Such things do we also think among ourselves," said the king on
the right, "but we do not utter them. "

The king on the left, however, shrugged his shoulders and answered:
"That may perhaps be a goat-herd. Or an anchorite who hath lived too
long among rocks and trees. For no society at all spoileth also good
manners. "

"Good manners? " replied angrily and bitterly the other king: "what
then do we run out of the way of? Is it not 'good manners'? Our 'good
society'?

Better, verily, to live among anchorites and goat-herds, than with
our gilded, false, over-rouged populace--though it call itself 'good
society. '

--Though it call itself 'nobility. ' But there all is false and foul,
above all the blood--thanks to old evil diseases and worse curers.

The best and dearest to me at present is still a sound peasant, coarse,
artful, obstinate and enduring: that is at present the noblest type.

The peasant is at present the best; and the peasant type should be
master! But it is the kingdom of the populace--I no longer allow
anything to be imposed upon me. The populace, however--that meaneth,
hodgepodge.

Populace-hodgepodge: therein is everything mixed with everything, saint
and swindler, gentleman and Jew, and every beast out of Noah's ark.

Good manners! Everything is false and foul with us. No one knoweth any
longer how to reverence: it is THAT precisely that we run away from.
They are fulsome obtrusive dogs; they gild palm-leaves.

This loathing choketh me, that we kings ourselves have become false,
draped and disguised with the old faded pomp of our ancestors,
show-pieces for the stupidest, the craftiest, and whosoever at present
trafficketh for power.

We ARE NOT the first men--and have nevertheless to STAND FOR them: of
this imposture have we at last become weary and disgusted.

From the rabble have we gone out of the way, from all those bawlers and
scribe-blowflies, from the trader-stench, the ambition-fidgeting, the
bad breath--: fie, to live among the rabble;

--Fie, to stand for the first men among the rabble! Ah, loathing!
Loathing! Loathing! What doth it now matter about us kings! "--

"Thine old sickness seizeth thee," said here the king on the left, "thy
loathing seizeth thee, my poor brother. Thou knowest, however, that some
one heareth us. "

Immediately thereupon, Zarathustra, who had opened ears and eyes to this
talk, rose from his hiding-place, advanced towards the kings, and thus
began:

"He who hearkeneth unto you, he who gladly hearkeneth unto you, is
called Zarathustra.

I am Zarathustra who once said: 'What doth it now matter about kings!
'
Forgive me; I rejoiced when ye said to each other: 'What doth it matter
about us kings! '

Here, however, is MY domain and jurisdiction: what may ye be seeking in
my domain? Perhaps, however, ye have FOUND on your way what _I_ seek:
namely, the higher man. "

When the kings heard this, they beat upon their breasts and said with
one voice: "We are recognised!

With the sword of thine utterance severest thou the thickest darkness of
our hearts. Thou hast discovered our distress; for lo! we are on our way
to find the higher man--

--The man that is higher than we, although we are kings. To him do we
convey this ass. For the highest man shall also be the highest lord on
earth.

There is no sorer misfortune in all human destiny, than when the mighty
of the earth are not also the first men. Then everything becometh false
and distorted and monstrous.

And when they are even the last men, and more beast than man, then
riseth and riseth the populace in honour, and at last saith even the
populace-virtue: 'Lo, I alone am virtue! '"--

What have I just heard? answered Zarathustra. What wisdom in kings! I
am enchanted, and verily, I have already promptings to make a rhyme
thereon:--

--Even if it should happen to be a rhyme not suited for every one's
ears. I unlearned long ago to have consideration for long ears. Well
then! Well now!

(Here, however, it happened that the ass also found utterance: it said
distinctly and with malevolence, Y-E-A. )

'Twas once--methinks year one of our blessed Lord,--Drunk without wine,
the Sybil thus deplored:--"How ill things go! Decline! Decline! Ne'er
sank the world so low! Rome now hath turned harlot and harlot-stew,
Rome's Caesar a beast, and God--hath turned Jew!

2.

With those rhymes of Zarathustra the kings were delighted; the king on
the right, however, said: "O Zarathustra, how well it was that we set
out to see thee!

For thine enemies showed us thy likeness in their mirror: there lookedst
thou with the grimace of a devil, and sneeringly: so that we were afraid
of thee.

But what good did it do! Always didst thou prick us anew in heart and
ear with thy sayings. Then did we say at last: What doth it matter how
he look!

We must HEAR him; him who teacheth: 'Ye shall love peace as a means to
new wars, and the short peace more than the long! '

No one ever spake such warlike words: 'What is good? To be brave is
good. It is the good war that halloweth every cause. '

O Zarathustra, our fathers' blood stirred in our veins at such words: it
was like the voice of spring to old wine-casks.

When the swords ran among one another like red-spotted serpents, then
did our fathers become fond of life; the sun of every peace seemed to
them languid and lukewarm, the long peace, however, made them ashamed.

How they sighed, our fathers, when they saw on the wall brightly
furbished, dried-up swords! Like those they thirsted for war. For a
sword thirsteth to drink blood, and sparkleth with desire. "--

--When the kings thus discoursed and talked eagerly of the happiness of
their fathers, there came upon Zarathustra no little desire to mock at
their eagerness: for evidently they were very peaceable kings whom he
saw before him, kings with old and refined features. But he restrained
himself. "Well! " said he, "thither leadeth the way, there lieth the
cave of Zarathustra; and this day is to have a long evening! At present,
however, a cry of distress calleth me hastily away from you.

It will honour my cave if kings want to sit and wait in it: but, to be
sure, ye will have to wait long!

Well! What of that! Where doth one at present learn better to wait
than at courts? And the whole virtue of kings that hath remained unto
them--is it not called to-day: ABILITY to wait? "

Thus spake Zarathustra.




LXIV. THE LEECH.

And Zarathustra went thoughtfully on, further and lower down, through
forests and past moory bottoms; as it happeneth, however, to every one
who meditateth upon hard matters, he trod thereby unawares upon a man.
And lo, there spurted into his face all at once a cry of pain, and two
curses and twenty bad invectives, so that in his fright he raised his
stick and also struck the trodden one. Immediately afterwards, however,
he regained his composure, and his heart laughed at the folly he had
just committed.

"Pardon me," said he to the trodden one, who had got up enraged, and had
seated himself, "pardon me, and hear first of all a parable.

As a wanderer who dreameth of remote things on a lonesome highway,
runneth unawares against a sleeping dog, a dog which lieth in the sun:

--As both of them then start up and snap at each other, like deadly
enemies, those two beings mortally frightened--so did it happen unto us.

And yet! And yet--how little was lacking for them to caress each other,
that dog and that lonesome one! Are they not both--lonesome ones! "

--"Whoever thou art," said the trodden one, still enraged, "thou
treadest also too nigh me with thy parable, and not only with thy foot!

Lo! am I then a dog? "--And thereupon the sitting one got up, and pulled
his naked arm out of the swamp. For at first he had lain outstretched
on the ground, hidden and indiscernible, like those who lie in wait for
swamp-game.

"But whatever art thou about! " called out Zarathustra in alarm, for he
saw a deal of blood streaming over the naked arm,--"what hath hurt thee?
Hath an evil beast bit thee, thou unfortunate one? "

The bleeding one laughed, still angry, "What matter is it to thee! " said
he, and was about to go on. "Here am I at home and in my province.
Let him question me whoever will: to a dolt, however, I shall hardly
answer. "

"Thou art mistaken," said Zarathustra sympathetically, and held him
fast; "thou art mistaken. Here thou art not at home, but in my domain,
and therein shall no one receive any hurt.

Call me however what thou wilt--I am who I must be. I call myself
Zarathustra.

Well! Up thither is the way to Zarathustra's cave: it is not far,--wilt
thou not attend to thy wounds at my home?

It hath gone badly with thee, thou unfortunate one, in this life: first
a beast bit thee, and then--a man trod upon thee! "--

When however the trodden one had heard the name of Zarathustra he was
transformed. "What happeneth unto me! " he exclaimed, "WHO preoccupieth
me so much in this life as this one man, namely Zarathustra, and that
one animal that liveth on blood, the leech?

For the sake of the leech did I lie here by this swamp, like a fisher,
and already had mine outstretched arm been bitten ten times, when there
biteth a still finer leech at my blood, Zarathustra himself!

O happiness! O miracle! Praised be this day which enticed me into the
swamp! Praised be the best, the livest cupping-glass, that at present
liveth; praised be the great conscience-leech Zarathustra! "--

Thus spake the trodden one, and Zarathustra rejoiced at his words and
their refined reverential style. "Who art thou? " asked he, and gave
him his hand, "there is much to clear up and elucidate between us, but
already methinketh pure clear day is dawning. "

"I am THE SPIRITUALLY CONSCIENTIOUS ONE," answered he who was asked,
"and in matters of the spirit it is difficult for any one to take it
more rigorously, more restrictedly, and more severely than I, except him
from whom I learnt it, Zarathustra himself.

Better know nothing than half-know many things! Better be a fool on
one's own account, than a sage on other people's approbation! I--go to
the basis:

--What matter if it be great or small? If it be called swamp or sky?
A handbreadth of basis is enough for me, if it be actually basis and
ground!

--A handbreadth of basis: thereon can one stand. In the true
knowing-knowledge there is nothing great and nothing small. "

"Then thou art perhaps an expert on the leech? " asked Zarathustra; "and
thou investigatest the leech to its ultimate basis, thou conscientious
one? "

"O Zarathustra," answered the trodden one, "that would be something
immense; how could I presume to do so!

That, however, of which I am master and knower, is the BRAIN of the
leech:--that is MY world!

And it is also a world! Forgive it, however, that my pride here findeth
expression, for here I have not mine equal. Therefore said I: 'here am I
at home. '

How long have I investigated this one thing, the brain of the leech, so
that here the slippery truth might no longer slip from me! Here is MY
domain!

--For the sake of this did I cast everything else aside, for the sake of
this did everything else become indifferent to me; and close beside my
knowledge lieth my black ignorance.

My spiritual conscience requireth from me that it should be so--that I
should know one thing, and not know all else: they are a loathing unto
me, all the semi-spiritual, all the hazy, hovering, and visionary.

Where mine honesty ceaseth, there am I blind, and want also to be blind.
Where I want to know, however, there want I also to be honest--namely,
severe, rigorous, restricted, cruel and inexorable.

Because THOU once saidest, O Zarathustra: 'Spirit is life which itself
cutteth into life';--that led and allured me to thy doctrine. And
verily, with mine own blood have I increased mine own knowledge! "

--"As the evidence indicateth," broke in Zarathustra; for still was the
blood flowing down on the naked arm of the conscientious one. For there
had ten leeches bitten into it.

"O thou strange fellow, how much doth this very evidence teach
me--namely, thou thyself! And not all, perhaps, might I pour into thy
rigorous ear!

Well then! We part here! But I would fain find thee again. Up thither is
the way to my cave: to-night shalt thou there be my welcome guest!

Fain would I also make amends to thy body for Zarathustra treading upon
thee with his feet: I think about that. Just now, however, a cry of
distress calleth me hastily away from thee. "

Thus spake Zarathustra.




LXV. THE MAGICIAN.

1.

When however Zarathustra had gone round a rock, then saw he on the same
path, not far below him, a man who threw his limbs about like a maniac,
and at last tumbled to the ground on his belly. "Halt! " said then
Zarathustra to his heart, "he there must surely be the higher man, from
him came that dreadful cry of distress,--I will see if I can help him. "
When, however, he ran to the spot where the man lay on the ground,
he found a trembling old man, with fixed eyes; and in spite of all
Zarathustra's efforts to lift him and set him again on his feet, it was
all in vain. The unfortunate one, also, did not seem to notice that some
one was beside him; on the contrary, he continually looked around with
moving gestures, like one forsaken and isolated from all the world.
At last, however, after much trembling, and convulsion, and
curling-himself-up, he began to lament thus:

Who warm'th me, who lov'th me still?
Give ardent fingers!
Give heartening charcoal-warmers!
Prone, outstretched, trembling,
Like him, half dead and cold, whose feet one warm'th--
And shaken, ah! by unfamiliar fevers,
Shivering with sharpened, icy-cold frost-arrows,
By thee pursued, my fancy!
Ineffable! Recondite! Sore-frightening!
Thou huntsman 'hind the cloud-banks!
Now lightning-struck by thee,
Thou mocking eye that me in darkness watcheth:
--Thus do I lie,
Bend myself, twist myself, convulsed
With all eternal torture,
And smitten
By thee, cruellest huntsman,
Thou unfamiliar--GOD. . .

Smite deeper!
Smite yet once more!
Pierce through and rend my heart!
What mean'th this torture
With dull, indented arrows?
Why look'st thou hither,
Of human pain not weary,
With mischief-loving, godly flash-glances?
Not murder wilt thou,
But torture, torture?
For why--ME torture,
Thou mischief-loving, unfamiliar God? --

Ha! Ha!
Thou stealest nigh
In midnight's gloomy hour? . . .
What wilt thou?
Speak!
Thou crowdst me, pressest--
Ha! now far too closely!
Thou hearst me breathing,
Thou o'erhearst my heart,
Thou ever jealous one!
--Of what, pray, ever jealous?
Off! Off!
For why the ladder?
Wouldst thou GET IN?
To heart in-clamber?
To mine own secretest
Conceptions in-clamber?
Shameless one! Thou unknown one! --Thief!
What seekst thou by thy stealing?
What seekst thou by thy hearkening?
What seekst thou by thy torturing?
Thou torturer!
Thou--hangman-God!
Or shall I, as the mastiffs do,
Roll me before thee?
And cringing, enraptured, frantical,
My tail friendly--waggle!

In vain!
Goad further!
Cruellest goader!
No dog--thy game just am I,
Cruellest huntsman!
Thy proudest of captives,
Thou robber 'hind the cloud-banks. . .
Speak finally!
Thou lightning-veiled one! Thou unknown one! Speak!
What wilt thou, highway-ambusher, from--ME?
What WILT thou, unfamiliar--God?
What?
Ransom-gold?
How much of ransom-gold?
Solicit much--that bid'th my pride!
And be concise--that bid'th mine other pride!

Ha! Ha!
ME--wantst thou?