Existentialism
Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844 - 1900)
|
A
sublime one saw I today, a solemn one, a penitent of the
spirit: Oh, how my soul laughed at his ugliness! (thus
spake zarathustra) |
17.The
Way of the Creating One
WOULDST thou go into isolation,
my brother? Wouldst thou seek the way unto thyself? Tarry
yet a little and hearken unto me.
"He who seeketh may easily get lost
himself. All isolation is wrong": so say the herd. And long didst
thou belong to the herd.
The voice of the herd will still echo in
thee. And when thou sayest, "I have no longer a conscience in common
with you," then will it be a plaint and a pain.
Lo, that pain itself did the same conscience
produce; and the last gleam of that conscience still gloweth on thine
affliction.
But thou wouldst go the way of thine affliction,
which is the way unto thyself? Then show me thine authority and thy strength
to do so!
Art thou a new strength and a new authority?
A first motion? A self-rolling wheel? Canst thou also compel stars to
revolve around thee?
Alas! there is so much lusting for loftiness!
There are so many convulsions of the ambitions! Show me that thou art
not a lusting and ambitious one!
Alas! there are so many great thoughts
that do nothing more than the bellows: they inflate, and make emptier
than ever.
Free, dost thou call thyself? Thy ruling
thought would I hear of, and not that thou hast escaped from a yoke.
Art thou one entitled to escape from a
yoke? Many a one hath cast away his final worth when he hath cast away
his servitude.
Free from what? What doth that matter to
Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall thine eye show unto me: free for
what?
Canst thou give unto thyself thy bad and
thy good, and set up thy will as a law over thee? Canst thou be judge
for thyself, and avenger of thy law?
Terrible is aloneness with the judge and
avenger of one's own law. Thus is a star projected into desert space,
and into the icy breath of aloneness.
To-day sufferest thou still from the multitude,
thou individual; to-day hast thou still thy courage unabated, and thy
hopes.
But one day will the solitude weary thee;
one day will thy pride yield, and thy courage quail. Thou wilt one day
cry: "I am alone!"
One day wilt thou see no longer thy loftiness,
and see too closely thy lowliness; thy sublimity itself will frighten
thee as a phantom. Thou wilt one day cry: "All is false!"
There are feelings which seek to slay the
lonesome one; if they do not succeed, then must they themselves die! But
art thou capable of it- to be a murderer?
Hast thou ever known, my brother, the word
"disdain"? And the anguish of thy justice in being just to those
that disdain thee?
Thou forcest many to think differently
about thee; that, charge they heavily to thine account. Thou camest nigh
unto them, and yet wentest past: for that they never forgive thee.
Thou goest beyond them: but the higher
thou risest, the smaller doth the eye of envy see thee. Most of all, however,
is the flying one hated.
"How could ye be just unto me!"-
must thou say- "I choose your injustice as my allotted portion.
Injustice and filth cast they at the lonesome
one: but, my brother, if thou wouldst be a star, thou must shine for them
none the less on that account!
And be on thy guard against the good and
just! They would fain crucify those who devise their own virtue- they
hate the lonesome ones.
Be on thy guard, also, against holy simplicity!
All is unholy to it that is not simple; fain, likewise, would it play
with the fire- of the fagot and stake.
And be on thy guard, also, against the
assaults of thy love! Too readily doth the recluse reach his hand to any
one who meeteth him.
To many a one mayest thou not give thy
hand, but only thy paw; and I wish thy paw also to have claws.
But the worst enemy thou canst meet, wilt
thou thyself always be; thou waylayest thyself in caverns and forests.
Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way to
thyself! And past thyself and thy seven devils leadeth thy way!
A heretic wilt thou be to thyself, and
a wizard and a soothsayer, and a fool, and a doubter, and a reprobate,
and a villain.
Ready must thou be to burn thyself in thine
own flame; how couldst thou become new if thou have not first become ashes!
Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way of
the creating one: a God wilt thou create for thyself out of thy seven
devils!
Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way of
the loving one: thou lovest thyself, and on that account despisest thou
thyself, as only the loving ones despise.
To create, desireth the loving one, because
he despiseth! What knoweth he of love who hath not been obliged to despise
just what he loved!
With thy love, go into thine isolation,
my brother, and with thy creating; and late only will justice limp after
thee.
With my tears, go into thine isolation,
my brother. I love him who seeketh to create beyond himself, and thus
succumbeth.Thus spake Zarathustra.
Ce
qu'on fait n'est jamais compris mais seulement loué ou blâmé.
Nietzsche, Gay Science |
