Existentialism
Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844 - 1900)
Thus Spake Zarathustra
|
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) |
65.Old
and New Tables
1.
HERE do I sit and wait, old
broken tables around me and also new half-written tables.
When cometh mine hour?
-The hour of my descent, of
my down-going: for once more will I go unto men.
For that hour do I now wait:
for first must the signs come unto me that it is mine hour-
namely, the laughing lion with the flock of doves.
Meanwhile do I talk to myself
as one who hath time. No one telleth me anything new, so I
tell myself mine own story.
2.
When I came unto men, then
found I them resting on an old infatuation: all of them thought
they had long known what was good and bad for men.
An old wearisome business seemed
to them all discourse about virtue; and he who wished to sleep
well spake of "good" and "bad" ere retiring
to rest.
This somnolence did I disturb
when I taught that no one yet knoweth what is good and bad:-
unless it be the creating one!
-It is he, however, who createth
man's goal, and giveth to the earth its meaning and its future:
he only effecteth it that aught is good or bad.
And I bade them upset their
old academic chairs, and wherever that old infatuation had
sat; I bade them laugh at their great moralists, their saints,
their poets, and their saviours.
At their gloomy sages did I
bid them laugh, and whoever had sat admonishing as a black
scarecrow on the tree of life.
On their great grave-highway
did I seat myself, and even beside the carrion and vultures-
and I laughed at all their bygone and its mellow decaying
glory.
Verily, like penitential preachers
and fools did I cry wrath and shame on all their greatness
and smallness. Oh, that their best is so very small! Oh, that
their worst is so very small! Thus did I laugh.
Thus did my wise longing, born
in the mountains, cry and laugh in me; a wild wisdom, verily!-
my great pinion-rustling longing.
And oft did it carry me off
and up and away and in the midst of laughter; then flew I
quivering like an arrow with sun-intoxicated rapture:
-Out into distant futures,
which no dream hath yet seen, into warmer souths than ever
sculptor conceived,- where gods in their dancing are ashamed
of all clothes:
(That I may speak in parables
and halt and stammer like the poets: and verily I am ashamed
that I have still to be a poet!)
Where all becoming seemed to
me dancing of gods, and wantoning of gods, and the world unloosed
and unbridled and fleeing back to itself:-As an eternal self-fleeing
and re-seeking of one another of many gods, as the blessed
self-contradicting, recommuning, and refraternising with one
another of many gods:Where all time seemed to me a blessed
mockery of moments, where necessity was freedom itself, which
played happily with the goad of freedom:Where I also found
again mine old devil and arch-enemy, the spirit of gravity,
and all that it created: constraint, law, necessity and consequence
and purpose and will and good and evil:For must there not
be that which is danced over, danced beyond? Must there not,
for the sake of the nimble, the nimblest,- be moles and clumsy
dwarfs?
3.
There was it also where I picked
up from the path the word "Superman," and that man
is something that must be surpassed.
-That man is a bridge and not
a goal- rejoicing over his noontides and evenings, as advances
to new rosy dawns:
-The Zarathustra word of the
great noontide, and whatever else I have hung up over men
like purple evening-afterglows.
Verily, also new stars did
I make them see, along with new nights; and over cloud and
day and night, did I spread out laughter like a gay-coloured
canopy.
I taught them all my poetisation
and aspiration: to compose and collect into unity what is
fragment in man, and riddle and fearful chance;-As composer,
riddle-reader, and redeemer of chance, did I teach them to
create the future, and all that hath been- to redeem by creating.
The past of man to redeem,
and every "It was" to transform, until the Will
saith: "But so did I will it! So shall I will it-"
-This did I call redemption;
this alone taught I them to call redemption.- Now do I await
my redemption- that I may go unto them for the last time.
For once more will I go unto
men: amongst them will my sun set; in dying will I give them
my choicest gift!
From the sun did I learn this,
when it goeth down, the exuberant one: gold doth it then pour
into the sea, out of inexhaustible riches,-So that the poorest
fisherman roweth even with golden oars! For this did I once
see, and did not tire of weeping in beholding it.- Like the
sun will also Zarathustra go down: now sitteth he here and
waiteth, old broken tables around him, and also new tableshalf-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, no -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: forwhere 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 wry-heads and guy-heads 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
thresh 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 "thresheth straw,"
why should he be allowed to rail at threshing! 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 afilthy monster." or 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 ountain-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 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 worldlywish still
sitteth thereon! And in your eye- floateth there not a cloudlet
of unforgotten earthly bliss? There are on the earth many
good inventions, someuseful, 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 today- 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 today, 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 over-reaching! 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!
- Omy 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 seasickness. 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
noon-tide: 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.
Ce
qu'on fait n'est jamais compris mais seulement loué ou blâmé.
Nietzsche, Gay Science |
