Also what ye omit weaveth at the web of all the human future; even your naught is a cobweb, and a spider that liveth on the blood of the future.


And when ye take, then is it like stealing, ye small virtuous ones; but even among knaves HONOUR saith that "one shall only steal when one cannot rob."


"It giveth itself"—that is also a doctrine of submission. But I say unto you, ye comfortable ones, that IT TAKETH TO ITSELF, and will ever take more and more from you!


Ah, that ye would renounce all HALF-willing, and would decide for idleness as ye decide for action!


Ah, that ye understood my word: "Do ever what ye will—but first be such as CAN WILL.


Love ever your neighbour as yourselves—but first be such as LOVE THEMSELVES—


—Such as love with great love, such as love with great contempt!" Thus speaketh Zarathustra the godless.—


But why talk I, when no one hath MINE ears! It is still an hour too early for me here.


Mine own forerunner am I among this people, mine own cockcrow in dark lanes.


But THEIR hour cometh! And there cometh also mine! Hourly do they become smaller, poorer, unfruitfuller,—poor herbs! poor earth!


And SOON shall they stand before me like dry grass and prairie, and verily, weary of themselves—and panting for FIRE, more than for water!


O blessed hour of the lightning! O mystery before noontide!—Running fires will I one day make of them, and heralds with flaming tongues:—


—Herald shall they one day with flaming tongues: It cometh, it is nigh, THE GREAT NOONTIDE!


Winter, a bad guest, sitteth with me at home; blue are my hands with his friendly hand-shaking.


I honour him, that bad guest, but gladly leave him alone. Gladly do I run away from him; and when one runneth WELL, then one escapeth him!


With warm feet and warm thoughts do I run where the wind is calm—to the sunny corner of mine olive-mount.


There do I laugh at my stern guest, and am still fond of him; because he cleareth my house of flies, and quieteth many little noises.


For he suffereth it not if a gnat wanteth to buzz, or even two of them; also the lanes maketh he lonesome, so that the moonlight is afraid there at night.


A hard guest is he,—but I honour him, and do not worship, like the tenderlings, the pot-bellied fire-idol.


Better even a little teeth-chattering than idol-adoration!—so willeth my nature. And especially have I a grudge against all ardent, steaming, steamy fire-idols.


Him whom I love, I love better in winter than in summer; better do I now mock at mine enemies, and more heartily, when winter sitteth in my house.


Heartily, verily, even when I CREEP into bed—: there, still laugheth and wantoneth my hidden happiness; even my deceptive dream laugheth.


I, a—creeper? Never in my life did I creep before the powerful; and if ever I lied, then did I lie out of love. Therefore am I glad even in my winter-bed.


A poor bed warmeth me more than a rich one, for I am jealous of my poverty. And in winter she is most faithful unto me.


With a wickedness do I begin every day: I mock at the winter with a cold bath: on that account grumbleth my stern house-mate.


Also do I like to tickle him with a wax-taper, that he may finally let the heavens emerge from ashy-grey twilight.


For especially wicked am I in the morning: at the early hour when the pail rattleth at the well, and horses neigh warmly in grey lanes:—


Impatiently do I then wait, that the clear sky may finally dawn for me, the snow-bearded winter-sky, the hoary one, the whitehead,—


—The winter-sky, the silent winter-sky, which often stifleth even its sun!


Did I perhaps learn from it the long clear silence? Or did it learn it from me? Or hath each of us devised it himself?


Of all good things the origin is a thousandfold,—all good roguish things spring into existence for joy: how could they always do so—for once only!


A good roguish thing is also the long silence, and to look, like the winter-sky, out of a clear, round-eyed countenance:—


—Like it to stifle one's sun, and one's inflexible solar will: verily, this art and this winter-roguishness have I learnt WELL!


My best-loved wickedness and art is it, that my silence hath learned not to betray itself by silence.


Clattering with diction and dice, I outwit the solemn assistants: all those stern watchers, shall my will and purpose elude.


That no one might see down into my depth and into mine ultimate will—for that purpose did I devise the long clear silence.


Many a shrewd one did I find: he veiled his countenance and made his water muddy, that no one might see therethrough and thereunder.


But precisely unto him came the shrewder distrusters and nut-crackers: precisely from him did they fish his best-concealed fish!


But the clear, the honest, the transparent—these are for me the wisest silent ones: in them, so PROFOUND is the depth that even the clearest water doth not—betray it.—


Thou snow-bearded, silent, winter-sky, thou round-eyed whitehead above me! Oh, thou heavenly simile of my soul and its wantonness!


And MUST I not conceal myself like one who hath swallowed gold—lest my soul should be ripped up?


MUST I not wear stilts, that they may OVERLOOK my long legs—all those enviers and injurers around me?


Those dingy, fire-warmed, used-up, green-tinted, ill-natured souls—how COULD their envy endure my happiness!


Thus do I show them only the ice and winter of my peaks—and NOT that my mountain windeth all the solar girdles around it!


They hear only the whistling of my winter-storms: and know NOT that I also travel over warm seas, like longing, heavy, hot south-winds.


They commiserate also my accidents and chances:—but MY word saith: "Suffer the chance to come unto me: innocent is it as a little child!"


How COULD they endure my happiness, if I did not put around it accidents, and winter-privations, and bear-skin caps, and enmantling snowflakes!


—If I did not myself commiserate their PITY, the pity of those enviers and injurers!


—If I did not myself sigh before them, and chatter with cold, and patiently LET myself be swathed in their pity!


This is the wise waggish-will and good-will of my soul, that it CONCEALETH NOT its winters and glacial storms; it concealeth not its chilblains either.


To one man, lonesomeness is the flight of the sick one; to another, it is the flight FROM the sick ones.


Let them HEAR me chattering and sighing with winter-cold, all those poor squinting knaves around me! With such sighing and chattering do I flee from their heated rooms.


Let them sympathise with me and sigh with me on account of my chilblains: "At the ice of knowledge will he yet FREEZE TO DEATH!"—so they mourn.


Meanwhile do I run with warm feet hither and thither on mine olive-mount: in the sunny corner of mine olive-mount do I sing, and mock at all pity.—


Thus slowly wandering through many peoples and divers cities, did Zarathustra return by round-about roads to his mountains and his cave. And behold, thereby came he unawares also to the gate of the GREAT CITY. Here, however, a foaming fool, with extended hands, sprang forward to him and stood in his way. It was the same fool whom the people called "the ape of Zarathustra:" for he had learned from him something of the expression and modulation of language, and perhaps liked also to borrow from the store of his wisdom. And the fool talked thus to Zarathustra:


O Zarathustra, here is the great city: here hast thou nothing to seek and everything to lose.


Why wouldst thou wade through this mire? Have pity upon thy foot! Spit rather on the gate of the city, and—turn back!


Here is the hell for anchorites' thoughts: here are great thoughts seethed alive and boiled small.


Here do all great sentiments decay: here may only rattle-boned sensations rattle!


Smellest thou not already the shambles and cookshops of the spirit? Steameth not this city with the fumes of slaughtered spirit?


Seest thou not the souls hanging like limp dirty rags?—And they make newspapers also out of these rags!


Hearest thou not how spirit hath here become a verbal game? Loathsome verbal swill doth it vomit forth!—And they make newspapers also out of this verbal swill.


They hound one another, and know not whither! They inflame one another, and know not why! They tinkle with their pinchbeck, they jingle with their gold.


They are cold, and seek warmth from distilled waters: they are inflamed, and seek coolness from frozen spirits; they are all sick and sore through public opinion.


All lusts and vices are here at home; but here there are also the virtuous; there is much appointable appointed virtue:—


Much appointable virtue with scribe-fingers, and hardy sitting-flesh and waiting-flesh, blessed with small breast-stars, and padded, haunchless daughters.


There is here also much piety, and much faithful spittle-licking and spittle-backing, before the God of Hosts.


"From on high," drippeth the star, and the gracious spittle; for the high, longeth every starless bosom.


The moon hath its court, and the court hath its moon-calves: unto all, however, that cometh from the court do the mendicant people pray, and all appointable mendicant virtues.


"I serve, thou servest, we serve"—so prayeth all appointable virtue to the prince: that the merited star may at last stick on the slender breast!


But the moon still revolveth around all that is earthly: so revolveth also the prince around what is earthliest of all—that, however, is the gold of the shopman.


The God of the Hosts of war is not the God of the golden bar; the prince proposeth, but the shopman—disposeth!


By all that is luminous and strong and good in thee, O Zarathustra! Spit on this city of shopmen and return back!


Here floweth all blood putridly and tepidly and frothily through all veins: spit on the great city, which is the great slum where all the scum frotheth together!


Spit on the city of compressed souls and slender breasts, of pointed eyes and sticky fingers—


—On the city of the obtrusive, the brazen-faced, the pen-demagogues and tongue-demagogues, the overheated ambitious:—


Where everything maimed, ill-famed, lustful, untrustful, over-mellow, sickly-yellow and seditious, festereth pernicious:—


—Spit on the great city and turn back!—


Here, however, did Zarathustra interrupt the foaming fool, and shut his mouth.—


Stop this at once! called out Zarathustra, long have thy speech and thy species disgusted me!


Why didst thou live so long by the swamp, that thou thyself hadst to become a frog and a toad?


Floweth there not a tainted, frothy, swamp-blood in thine own veins, when thou hast thus learned to croak and revile?


Why wentest thou not into the forest? Or why didst thou not till the ground? Is the sea not full of green islands?


I despise thy contempt; and when thou warnedst me—why didst thou not warn thyself?


Out of love alone shall my contempt and my warning bird take wing; but not out of the swamp!—


They call thee mine ape, thou foaming fool: but I call thee my grunting-pig,—by thy grunting, thou spoilest even my praise of folly.


What was it that first made thee grunt? Because no one sufficiently FLATTERED thee:—therefore didst thou seat thyself beside this filth, that thou mightest have cause for much grunting,—


—That thou mightest have cause for much VENGEANCE! For vengeance, thou vain fool, is all thy foaming; I have divined thee well!


But thy fools'-word injureth ME, even when thou art right! And even if Zarathustra's word WERE a hundred times justified, thou wouldst ever—DO wrong with my word!


Thus spake Zarathustra. Then did he look on the great city and sighed, and was long silent. At last he spake thus:


I loathe also this great city, and not only this fool. Here and there— there is nothing to better, nothing to worsen.


Woe to this great city!—And I would that I already saw the pillar of fire in which it will be consumed!


For such pillars of fire must precede the great noontide. But this hath its time and its own fate.—


This precept, however, give I unto thee, in parting, thou fool: Where one can no longer love, there should one—PASS BY!—


Thus spake Zarathustra, and passed by the fool and the great city.


Ah, lieth everything already withered and grey which but lately stood green and many-hued on this meadow! And how much honey of hope did I carry hence into my beehives!


Those young hearts have already all become old—and not old even! only weary, ordinary, comfortable:—they declare it: "We have again become pious."


Of late did I see them run forth at early morn with valorous steps: but the feet of their knowledge became weary, and now do they malign even their morning valour!


Verily, many of them once lifted their legs like the dancer; to them winked the laughter of my wisdom:—then did they bethink themselves. Just now have I seen them bent down—to creep to the cross.


Around light and liberty did they once flutter like gnats and young poets. A little older, a little colder: and already are they mystifiers, and mumblers and mollycoddles.


Did perhaps their hearts despond, because lonesomeness had swallowed me like a whale? Did their ear perhaps hearken yearningly-long for me IN VAIN, and for my trumpet-notes and herald-calls?


—Ah! Ever are there but few of those whose hearts have persistent courage and exuberance; and in such remaineth also the spirit patient. The rest, however, are COWARDLY.


The rest: these are always the great majority, the common-place, the superfluous, the far too many—those all are cowardly!—


Him who is of my type, will also the experiences of my type meet on the way: so that his first companions must be corpses and buffoons.


His second companions, however—they will call themselves his BELIEVERS,—will be a living host, with much love, much folly, much unbearded veneration.


To those believers shall he who is of my type among men not bind his heart; in those spring-times and many-hued meadows shall he not believe, who knoweth the fickly faint-hearted human species!


COULD they do otherwise, then would they also WILL otherwise. The half-and-half spoil every whole. That leaves become withered,—what is there to lament about that!


Let them go and fall away, O Zarathustra, and do not lament! Better even to blow amongst them with rustling winds,—


—Blow amongst those leaves, O Zarathustra, that everything WITHERED may run away from thee the faster!—


"We have again become pious"—so do those apostates confess; and some of them are still too pusillanimous thus to confess.


Unto them I look into the eye,—before them I say it unto their face and unto the blush on their cheeks: Ye are those who again PRAY!


It is however a shame to pray! Not for all, but for thee, and me, and whoever hath his conscience in his head. For THEE it is a shame to pray!


Thou knowest it well: the faint-hearted devil in thee, which would fain fold its arms, and place its hands in its bosom, and take it easier:—this faint-hearted devil persuadeth thee that "there IS a God!"


THEREBY, however, dost thou belong to the light-dreading type, to whom light never permitteth repose: now must thou daily thrust thy head deeper into obscurity and vapour!


And verily, thou choosest the hour well: for just now do the nocturnal birds again fly abroad. The hour hath come for all light-dreading people, the vesper hour and leisure hour, when they do not—"take leisure."


I hear it and smell it: it hath come—their hour for hunt and procession, not indeed for a wild hunt, but for a tame, lame, snuffling, soft-treaders', soft-prayers' hunt,—


—For a hunt after susceptible simpletons: all mouse-traps for the heart have again been set! And whenever I lift a curtain, a night-moth rusheth out of it.


Did it perhaps squat there along with another night-moth? For everywhere do I smell small concealed communities; and wherever there are closets there are new devotees therein, and the atmosphere of devotees.


They sit for long evenings beside one another, and say: "Let us again become like little children and say, 'good God!'"—ruined in mouths and stomachs by the pious confectioners.


Or they look for long evenings at a crafty, lurking cross-spider, that preacheth prudence to the spiders themselves, and teacheth that "under crosses it is good for cobweb-spinning!"


Or they sit all day at swamps with angle-rods, and on that account think themselves PROFOUND; but whoever fisheth where there are no fish, I do not even call him superficial!


Or they learn in godly-gay style to play the harp with a hymn-poet, who would fain harp himself into the heart of young girls:—for he hath tired of old girls and their praises.


Or they learn to shudder with a learned semi-madcap, who waiteth in darkened rooms for spirits to come to him—and the spirit runneth away entirely!


Or they listen to an old roving howl- and growl-piper, who hath learnt from the sad winds the sadness of sounds; now pipeth he as the wind, and preacheth sadness in sad strains.


And some of them have even become night-watchmen: they know now how to blow horns, and go about at night and awaken old things which have long fallen asleep.


Five words about old things did I hear yester-night at the garden-wall: they came from such old, sorrowful, arid night-watchmen.


"For a father he careth not sufficiently for his children: human fathers do this better!"—


"He is too old! He now careth no more for his children,"—answered the other night-watchman.


"HATH he then children? No one can prove it unless he himself prove it! I have long wished that he would for once prove it thoroughly."


"Prove? As if HE had ever proved anything! Proving is difficult to him; he layeth great stress on one's BELIEVING him."


"Ay! Ay! Belief saveth him; belief in him. That is the way with old people! So it is with us also!"—


—Thus spake to each other the two old night-watchmen and light-scarers, and tooted thereupon sorrowfully on their horns: so did it happen yester-night at the garden-wall.


To me, however, did the heart writhe with laughter, and was like to break; it knew not where to go, and sunk into the midriff.


Verily, it will be my death yet—to choke with laughter when I see asses drunken, and hear night-watchmen thus doubt about God.


Hath the time not LONG since passed for all such doubts? Who may nowadays awaken such old slumbering, light-shunning things!


With the old Deities hath it long since come to an end:—and verily, a good joyful Deity-end had they!


They did not "begloom" themselves to death—that do people fabricate! On the contrary, they—LAUGHED themselves to death once on a time!


That took place when the unGodliest utterance came from a God himself—the utterance: "There is but one God! Thou shalt have no other Gods before me!"—


—An old grim-beard of a God, a jealous one, forgot himself in such wise:—


And all the Gods then laughed, and shook upon their thrones, and exclaimed: "Is it not just divinity that there are Gods, but no God?"


He that hath an ear let him hear.—


Thus talked Zarathustra in the city he loved, which is surnamed "The Pied Cow." For from here he had but two days to travel to reach once more his cave and his animals; his soul, however, rejoiced unceasingly on account of the nighness of his return home.


O lonesomeness! My HOME, lonesomeness! Too long have I lived wildly in wild remoteness, to return to thee without tears!


Now threaten me with the finger as mothers threaten; now smile upon me as mothers smile; now say just: "Who was it that like a whirlwind once rushed away from me?—


—Who when departing called out: 'Too long have I sat with lonesomeness; there have I unlearned silence!' THAT hast thou learned now—surely?


O Zarathustra, everything do I know; and that thou wert MORE FORSAKEN amongst the many, thou unique one, than thou ever wert with me!


One thing is forsakenness, another matter is lonesomeness: THAT hast thou now learned! And that amongst men thou wilt ever be wild and strange:


—Wild and strange even when they love thee: for above all they want to be TREATED INDULGENTLY!


Here, however, art thou at home and house with thyself; here canst thou utter everything, and unbosom all motives; nothing is here ashamed of concealed, congealed feelings.


Here do all things come caressingly to thy talk and flatter thee: for they want to ride upon thy back. On every simile dost thou here ride to every truth.


Uprightly and openly mayest thou here talk to all things: and verily, it soundeth as praise in their ears, for one to talk to all things—directly!


Another matter, however, is forsakenness. For, dost thou remember, O Zarathustra? When thy bird screamed overhead, when thou stoodest in the forest, irresolute, ignorant where to go, beside a corpse:—


—When thou spakest: 'Let mine animals lead me! More dangerous have I found it among men than among animals:'—THAT was forsakenness!


And dost thou remember, O Zarathustra? When thou sattest in thine isle, a well of wine giving and granting amongst empty buckets, bestowing and distributing amongst the thirsty:


—Until at last thou alone sattest thirsty amongst the drunken ones, and wailedst nightly: 'Is taking not more blessed than giving? And stealing yet more blessed than taking?'—THAT was forsakenness!


And dost thou remember, O Zarathustra? When thy stillest hour came and drove thee forth from thyself, when with wicked whispering it said: 'Speak and succumb!'—


—When it disgusted thee with all thy waiting and silence, and discouraged thy humble courage: THAT was forsakenness!"—


O lonesomeness! My home, lonesomeness! How blessedly and tenderly speaketh thy voice unto me!


We do not question each other, we do not complain to each other; we go together openly through open doors.


For all is open with thee and clear; and even the hours run here on lighter feet. For in the dark, time weigheth heavier upon one than in the light.


Here fly open unto me all being's words and word-cabinets: here all being wanteth to become words, here all becoming wanteth to learn of me how to talk.


Down there, however—all talking is in vain! There, forgetting and passing-by are the best wisdom: THAT have I learned now!


He who would understand everything in man must handle everything. But for that I have too clean hands.


I do not like even to inhale their breath; alas! that I have lived so long among their noise and bad breaths!


O blessed stillness around me! O pure odours around me! How from a deep breast this stillness fetcheth pure breath! How it hearkeneth, this blessed stillness!


But down there—there speaketh everything, there is everything misheard. If one announce one's wisdom with bells, the shopmen in the market-place will out-jingle it with pennies!


Everything among them talketh; no one knoweth any longer how to understand. Everything falleth into the water; nothing falleth any longer into deep wells.


Everything among them talketh, nothing succeedeth any longer and accomplisheth itself. Everything cackleth, but who will still sit quietly on the nest and hatch eggs?


Everything among them talketh, everything is out-talked. And that which yesterday was still too hard for time itself and its tooth, hangeth to-day, outchamped and outchewed, from the mouths of the men of to-day.


Everything among them talketh, everything is betrayed. And what was once called the secret and secrecy of profound souls, belongeth to-day to the street-trumpeters and other butterflies.


O human hubbub, thou wonderful thing! Thou noise in dark streets! Now art thou again behind me:—my greatest danger lieth behind me!


In indulging and pitying lay ever my greatest danger; and all human hubbub wisheth to be indulged and tolerated.


With suppressed truths, with fool's hand and befooled heart, and rich in petty lies of pity:—thus have I ever lived among men.


Disguised did I sit amongst them, ready to misjudge MYSELF that I might endure THEM, and willingly saying to myself: "Thou fool, thou dost not know men!"


One unlearneth men when one liveth amongst them: there is too much foreground in all men—what can far-seeing, far-longing eyes do THERE!


And, fool that I was, when they misjudged me, I indulged them on that account more than myself, being habitually hard on myself, and often even taking revenge on myself for the indulgence.


Stung all over by poisonous flies, and hollowed like the stone by many drops of wickedness: thus did I sit among them, and still said to myself: "Innocent is everything petty of its pettiness!"


Especially did I find those who call themselves "the good," the most poisonous flies; they sting in all innocence, they lie in all innocence; how COULD they—be just towards me!


He who liveth amongst the good—pity teacheth him to lie. Pity maketh stifling air for all free souls. For the stupidity of the good is unfathomable.


To conceal myself and my riches—THAT did I learn down there: for every one did I still find poor in spirit. It was the lie of my pity, that I knew in every one,


—That I saw and scented in every one, what was ENOUGH of spirit for him, and what was TOO MUCH!


Their stiff wise men: I call them wise, not stiff—thus did I learn to slur over words.


The grave-diggers dig for themselves diseases. Under old rubbish rest bad vapours. One should not stir up the marsh. One should live on mountains.


With blessed nostrils do I again breathe mountain-freedom. Freed at last is my nose from the smell of all human hubbub!


With sharp breezes tickled, as with sparkling wine, SNEEZETH my soul— sneezeth, and shouteth self-congratulatingly: "Health to thee!"


In my dream, in my last morning-dream, I stood to-day on a promontory— beyond the world; I held a pair of scales, and WEIGHED the world.


Alas, that the rosy dawn came too early to me: she glowed me awake, the jealous one! Jealous is she always of the glows of my morning-dream.


Measurable by him who hath time, weighable by a good weigher, attainable by strong pinions, divinable by divine nut-crackers: thus did my dream find the world:—


My dream, a bold sailor, half-ship, half-hurricane, silent as the butterfly, impatient as the falcon: how had it the patience and leisure to-day for world-weighing!


Did my wisdom perhaps speak secretly to it, my laughing, wide-awake day-wisdom, which mocketh at all "infinite worlds"? For it saith: "Where force is, there becometh NUMBER the master: it hath more force."


How confidently did my dream contemplate this finite world, not new-fangledly, not old-fangledly, not timidly, not entreatingly:—


—As if a big round apple presented itself to my hand, a ripe golden apple, with a coolly-soft, velvety skin:—thus did the world present itself unto me:—


—As if a tree nodded unto me, a broad-branched, strong-willed tree, curved as a recline and a foot-stool for weary travellers: thus did the world stand on my promontory:—


—As if delicate hands carried a casket towards me—a casket open for the delectation of modest adoring eyes: thus did the world present itself before me to-day:—


—Not riddle enough to scare human love from it, not solution enough to put to sleep human wisdom:—a humanly good thing was the world to me to-day, of which such bad things are said!


How I thank my morning-dream that I thus at to-day's dawn, weighed the world! As a humanly good thing did it come unto me, this dream and heart-comforter!


And that I may do the like by day, and imitate and copy its best, now will I put the three worst things on the scales, and weigh them humanly well.—


He who taught to bless taught also to curse: what are the three best cursed things in the world? These will I put on the scales.


VOLUPTUOUSNESS, PASSION FOR POWER, and SELFISHNESS: these three things have hitherto been best cursed, and have been in worst and falsest repute—these three things will I weigh humanly well.


Well! Here is my promontory, and there is the sea—IT rolleth hither unto me, shaggily and fawningly, the old, faithful, hundred-headed dog-monster that I love!—


Well! Here will I hold the scales over the weltering sea: and also a witness do I choose to look on—thee, the anchorite-tree, thee, the strong-odoured, broad-arched tree that I love!—


On what bridge goeth the now to the hereafter? By what constraint doth the high stoop to the low? And what enjoineth even the highest still—to grow upwards?—


Now stand the scales poised and at rest: three heavy questions have I thrown in; three heavy answers carrieth the other scale.


Voluptuousness: unto all hair-shirted despisers of the body, a sting and stake; and, cursed as "the world," by all backworldsmen: for it mocketh and befooleth all erring, misinferring teachers.


Voluptuousness: to the rabble, the slow fire at which it is burnt; to all wormy wood, to all stinking rags, the prepared heat and stew furnace.


Voluptuousness: to free hearts, a thing innocent and free, the garden-happiness of the earth, all the future's thanks-overflow to the present.


Voluptuousness: only to the withered a sweet poison; to the lion-willed, however, the great cordial, and the reverently saved wine of wines.


Voluptuousness: the great symbolic happiness of a higher happiness and highest hope. For to many is marriage promised, and more than marriage,—


—To many that are more unknown to each other than man and woman:—and who hath fully understood HOW UNKNOWN to each other are man and woman!


Voluptuousness:—but I will have hedges around my thoughts, and even around my words, lest swine and libertine should break into my gardens!—


Passion for power: the glowing scourge of the hardest of the heart-hard; the cruel torture reserved for the cruellest themselves; the gloomy flame of living pyres.


Passion for power: the wicked gadfly which is mounted on the vainest peoples; the scorner of all uncertain virtue; which rideth on every horse and on every pride.


Passion for power: the earthquake which breaketh and upbreaketh all that is rotten and hollow; the rolling, rumbling, punitive demolisher of whited sepulchres; the flashing interrogative-sign beside premature answers.


Passion for power: before whose glance man creepeth and croucheth and drudgeth, and becometh lower than the serpent and the swine:—until at last great contempt crieth out of him—,


Passion for power: the terrible teacher of great contempt, which preacheth to their face to cities and empires: "Away with thee!"—until a voice crieth out of themselves: "Away with ME!"


Passion for power: which, however, mounteth alluringly even to the pure and lonesome, and up to self-satisfied elevations, glowing like a love that painteth purple felicities alluringly on earthly heavens.


Passion for power: but who would call it PASSION, when the height longeth to stoop for power! Verily, nothing sick or diseased is there in such longing and descending!


That the lonesome height may not for ever remain lonesome and self-sufficing; that the mountains may come to the valleys and the winds of the heights to the plains:—


Oh, who could find the right prenomen and honouring name for such longing! "Bestowing virtue"—thus did Zarathustra once name the unnamable.


And then it happened also,—and verily, it happened for the first time!—that his word blessed SELFISHNESS, the wholesome, healthy selfishness, that springeth from the powerful soul:—


—From the powerful soul, to which the high body appertaineth, the handsome, triumphing, refreshing body, around which everything becometh a mirror:


—The pliant, persuasive body, the dancer, whose symbol and epitome is the self-enjoying soul. Of such bodies and souls the self-enjoyment calleth itself "virtue."


With its words of good and bad doth such self-enjoyment shelter itself as with sacred groves; with the names of its happiness doth it banish from itself everything contemptible.


Away from itself doth it banish everything cowardly; it saith: "Bad—THAT IS cowardly!" Contemptible seem to it the ever-solicitous, the sighing, the complaining, and whoever pick up the most trifling advantage.


It despiseth also all bitter-sweet wisdom: for verily, there is also wisdom that bloometh in the dark, a night-shade wisdom, which ever sigheth: "All is vain!"


Shy distrust is regarded by it as base, and every one who wanteth oaths instead of looks and hands: also all over-distrustful wisdom,—for such is the mode of cowardly souls.


Baser still it regardeth the obsequious, doggish one, who immediately lieth on his back, the submissive one; and there is also wisdom that is submissive, and doggish, and pious, and obsequious.


Hateful to it altogether, and a loathing, is he who will never defend himself, he who swalloweth down poisonous spittle and bad looks, the all-too-patient one, the all-endurer, the all-satisfied one: for that is the mode of slaves.


Whether they be servile before Gods and divine spurnings, or before men and stupid human opinions: at ALL kinds of slaves doth it spit, this blessed selfishness!


Bad: thus doth it call all that is spirit-broken, and sordidly-servile—constrained, blinking eyes, depressed hearts, and the false submissive style, which kisseth with broad cowardly lips.


And spurious wisdom: so doth it call all the wit that slaves, and hoary-headed and weary ones affect; and especially all the cunning, spurious-witted, curious-witted foolishness of priests!


The spurious wise, however, all the priests, the world-weary, and those whose souls are of feminine and servile nature—oh, how hath their game all along abused selfishness!


And precisely THAT was to be virtue and was to be called virtue—to abuse selfishness! And "selfless"—so did they wish themselves with good reason, all those world-weary cowards and cross-spiders!


But to all those cometh now the day, the change, the sword of judgment, THE GREAT NOONTIDE: then shall many things be revealed!


And he who proclaimeth the EGO wholesome and holy, and selfishness blessed, verily, he, the prognosticator, speaketh also what he knoweth: "BEHOLD, IT COMETH, IT IS NIGH, THE GREAT NOONTIDE!"


My mouthpiece—is of the people: too coarsely and cordially do I talk for Angora rabbits. And still stranger soundeth my word unto all ink-fish and pen-foxes.


My hand—is a fool's hand: woe unto all tables and walls, and whatever hath room for fool's sketching, fool's scrawling!


My foot—is a horse-foot; therewith do I trample and trot over stick and stone, in the fields up and down, and am bedevilled with delight in all fast racing.


My stomach—is surely an eagle's stomach? For it preferreth lamb's flesh. Certainly it is a bird's stomach.


Nourished with innocent things, and with few, ready and impatient to fly, to fly away—that is now my nature: why should there not be something of bird-nature therein!


And especially that I am hostile to the spirit of gravity, that is bird-nature:—verily, deadly hostile, supremely hostile, originally hostile! Oh, whither hath my hostility not flown and misflown!


Other singers are there, to be sure, to whom only the full house maketh the voice soft, the hand eloquent, the eye expressive, the heart wakeful:—those do I not resemble.—


He who one day teacheth men to fly will have shifted all landmarks; to him will all landmarks themselves fly into the air; the earth will he christen anew—as "the light body."


The ostrich runneth faster than the fastest horse, but it also thrusteth its head heavily into the heavy earth: thus is it with the man who cannot yet fly.


Heavy unto him are earth and life, and so WILLETH the spirit of gravity! But he who would become light, and be a bird, must love himself:—thus do I teach.


Not, to be sure, with the love of the sick and infected, for with them stinketh even self-love!


One must learn to love oneself—thus do I teach—with a wholesome and healthy love: that one may endure to be with oneself, and not go roving about.


Such roving about christeneth itself "brotherly love"; with these words hath there hitherto been the best lying and dissembling, and especially by those who have been burdensome to every one.


And verily, it is no commandment for to-day and to-morrow to LEARN to love oneself. Rather is it of all arts the finest, subtlest, last and patientest.


For to its possessor is all possession well concealed, and of all treasure-pits one's own is last excavated—so causeth the spirit of gravity.


Almost in the cradle are we apportioned with heavy words and worths: "good" and "evil"—so calleth itself this dowry. For the sake of it we are forgiven for living.


And therefore suffereth one little children to come unto one, to forbid them betimes to love themselves—so causeth the spirit of gravity.


And we—we bear loyally what is apportioned unto us, on hard shoulders, over rugged mountains! And when we sweat, then do people say to us: "Yea, life is hard to bear!"


But man himself only is hard to bear! The reason thereof is that he carrieth too many extraneous things on his shoulders. Like the camel kneeleth he down, and letteth himself be well laden.


Especially the strong load-bearing man in whom reverence resideth. Too many EXTRANEOUS heavy words and worths loadeth he upon himself—then seemeth life to him a desert!


And verily! Many a thing also that is OUR OWN is hard to bear! And many internal things in man are like the oyster—repulsive and slippery and hard to grasp;—


So that an elegant shell, with elegant adornment, must plead for them. But this art also must one learn: to HAVE a shell, and a fine appearance, and sagacious blindness!


Again, it deceiveth about many things in man, that many a shell is poor and pitiable, and too much of a shell. Much concealed goodness and power is never dreamt of; the choicest dainties find no tasters!


Women know that, the choicest of them: a little fatter a little leaner— oh, how much fate is in so little!


Man is difficult to discover, and unto himself most difficult of all; often lieth the spirit concerning the soul. So causeth the spirit of gravity.


He, however, hath discovered himself who saith: This is MY good and evil: therewith hath he silenced the mole and the dwarf, who say: "Good for all, evil for all."


Verily, neither do I like those who call everything good, and this world the best of all. Those do I call the all-satisfied.


All-satisfiedness, which knoweth how to taste everything,—that is not the best taste! I honour the refractory, fastidious tongues and stomachs, which have learned to say "I" and "Yea" and "Nay."


To chew and digest everything, however—that is the genuine swine-nature! Ever to say YE-A—that hath only the ass learnt, and those like it!—


Deep yellow and hot red—so wanteth MY taste—it mixeth blood with all colours. He, however, who whitewasheth his house, betrayeth unto me a whitewashed soul.


With mummies, some fall in love; others with phantoms: both alike hostile to all flesh and blood—oh, how repugnant are both to my taste! For I love blood.


And there will I not reside and abide where every one spitteth and speweth: that is now MY taste,—rather would I live amongst thieves and perjurers. Nobody carrieth gold in his mouth.


Still more repugnant unto me, however, are all lickspittles; and the most repugnant animal of man that I found, did I christen "parasite": it would not love, and would yet live by love.


Unhappy do I call all those who have only one choice: either to become evil beasts, or evil beast-tamers. Amongst such would I not build my tabernacle.


Unhappy do I also call those who have ever to WAIT,—they are repugnant to my taste—all the toll-gatherers and traders, and kings, and other landkeepers and shopkeepers.


Verily, I learned waiting also, and thoroughly so,—but only waiting for MYSELF. And above all did I learn standing and walking and running and leaping and climbing and dancing.


This however is my teaching: he who wisheth one day to fly, must first learn standing and walking and running and climbing and dancing:—one doth not fly into flying!


With rope-ladders learned I to reach many a window, with nimble legs did I climb high masts: to sit on high masts of perception seemed to me no small bliss;—


—To flicker like small flames on high masts: a small light, certainly, but a great comfort to cast-away sailors and shipwrecked ones!


By divers ways and wendings did I arrive at my truth; not by one ladder did I mount to the height where mine eye roveth into my remoteness.


And unwillingly only did I ask my way—that was always counter to my taste! Rather did I question and test the ways themselves.


A testing and a questioning hath been all my travelling:—and verily, one must also LEARN to answer such questioning! That, however,—is my taste:


—Neither a good nor a bad taste, but MY taste, of which I have no longer either shame or secrecy.


"This—is now MY way,—where is yours?" Thus did I answer those who asked me "the way." For THE way—it doth not exist!


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.


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?—


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 tables—half-written.


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!


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!—


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.—


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!


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!


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!


"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!


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!"


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!


"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!


"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!—


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!—


"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!


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.—


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!—


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?


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!—


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.


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!


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!


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!


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!


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.—


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?


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!—


"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!—


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!—


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!


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. Everything dieth, everything blossometh forth again; eternally runneth on the year of existence.


Everything breaketh, everything is integrated anew; eternally buildeth itself the same house of existence. All things separate, all things again greet one another; eternally true to itself remaineth the ring of existence.


Every moment beginneth existence, around every 'Here' rolleth the ball 'There.' The middle is everywhere. Crooked is the path of eternity."—


—O ye wags and barrel-organs! answered Zarathustra, and smiled once more, how well do ye know what had to be fulfilled in seven days:—


—And how that monster crept into my throat and choked me! But I bit off its head and spat it away from me.


And ye—ye have made a lyre-lay out of it? Now, however, do I lie here, still exhausted with that biting and spitting-away, still sick with mine own salvation.


AND YE LOOKED ON AT IT ALL? O mine animals, are ye also cruel? Did ye like to look at my great pain as men do? For man is the cruellest animal.


At tragedies, bull-fights, and crucifixions hath he hitherto been happiest on earth; and when he invented his hell, behold, that was his heaven on earth.


When the great man crieth—: immediately runneth the little man thither, and his tongue hangeth out of his mouth for very lusting. He, however, calleth it his "pity."


The little man, especially the poet—how passionately doth he accuse life in words! Hearken to him, but do not fail to hear the delight which is in all accusation!


Such accusers of life—them life overcometh with a glance of the eye. "Thou lovest me?" saith the insolent one; "wait a little, as yet have I no time for thee."


Towards himself man is the cruellest animal; and in all who call themselves "sinners" and "bearers of the cross" and "penitents," do not overlook the voluptuousness in their plaints and accusations!


And I myself—do I thereby want to be man's accuser? Ah, mine animals, this only have I learned hitherto, that for man his baddest is necessary for his best,—


—That all that is baddest is the best POWER, and the hardest stone for the highest creator; and that man must become better AND badder:—


Not to THIS torture-stake was I tied, that I know man is bad,—but I cried, as no one hath yet cried:


"Ah, that his baddest is so very small! Ah, that his best is so very small!"


The great disgust at man—IT strangled me and had crept into my throat: and what the soothsayer had presaged: "All is alike, nothing is worth while, knowledge strangleth."


A long twilight limped on before me, a fatally weary, fatally intoxicated sadness, which spake with yawning mouth.


"Eternally he returneth, the man of whom thou art weary, the small man"—so yawned my sadness, and dragged its foot and could not go to sleep.


A cavern, became the human earth to me; its breast caved in; everything living became to me human dust and bones and mouldering past.


My sighing sat on all human graves, and could no longer arise: my sighing and questioning croaked and choked, and gnawed and nagged day and night:


—"Ah, man returneth eternally! The small man returneth eternally!"


Naked had I once seen both of them, the greatest man and the smallest man: all too like one another—all too human, even the greatest man!


All too small, even the greatest man!—that was my disgust at man! And the eternal return also of the smallest man!—that was my disgust at all existence!


Ah, Disgust! Disgust! Disgust!—Thus spake Zarathustra, and sighed and shuddered; for he remembered his sickness. Then did his animals prevent him from speaking further.


"Do not speak further, thou convalescent!"—so answered his animals, "but go out where the world waiteth for thee like a garden.


Go out unto the roses, the bees, and the flocks of doves! Especially, however, unto the singing birds, to learn SINGING from them!


For singing is for the convalescent; the sound ones may talk. And when the sound also want songs, then want they other songs than the convalescent."


—"O ye wags and barrel-organs, do be silent!" answered Zarathustra, and smiled at his animals. "How well ye know what consolation I devised for myself in seven days!


That I have to sing once more—THAT consolation did I devise for myself, and THIS convalescence: would ye also make another lyre-lay thereof?"


—"Do not talk further," answered his animals once more; "rather, thou convalescent, prepare for thyself first a lyre, a new lyre!


For behold, O Zarathustra! For thy new lays there are needed new lyres.


Sing and bubble over, O Zarathustra, heal thy soul with new lays: that thou mayest bear thy great fate, which hath not yet been any one's fate!


For thine animals know it well, O Zarathustra, who thou art and must become: behold, THOU ART THE TEACHER OF THE ETERNAL RETURN,—that is now THY fate!


That thou must be the first to teach this teaching—how could this great fate not be thy greatest danger and infirmity!


Behold, we know what thou teachest: that all things eternally return, and ourselves with them, and that we have already existed times without number, and all things with us.


Thou teachest that there is a great year of Becoming, a prodigy of a great year; it must, like a sand-glass, ever turn up anew, that it may anew run down and run out:—


—So that all those years are like one another in the greatest and also in the smallest, so that we ourselves, in every great year, are like ourselves in the greatest and also in the smallest.


And if thou wouldst now die, O Zarathustra, behold, we know also how thou wouldst then speak to thyself:—but thine animals beseech thee not to die yet!


Thou wouldst speak, and without trembling, buoyant rather with bliss, for a great weight and worry would be taken from thee, thou patientest one!—


'Now do I die and disappear,' wouldst thou say, 'and in a moment I am nothing. Souls are as mortal as bodies.


But the plexus of causes returneth in which I am intertwined,—it will again create me! I myself pertain to the causes of the eternal return.


I come again with this sun, with this earth, with this eagle, with this serpent—NOT to a new life, or a better life, or a similar life:


—I come again eternally to this identical and selfsame life, in its greatest and its smallest, to teach again the eternal return of all things,—


—To speak again the word of the great noontide of earth and man, to announce again to man the Superman.


I have spoken my word. I break down by my word: so willeth mine eternal fate—as announcer do I succumb!


The hour hath now come for the down-goer to bless himself. Thus—ENDETH Zarathustra's down-going.'"—


When the animals had spoken these words they were silent and waited, so that Zarathustra might say something to them: but Zarathustra did not hear that they were silent. On the contrary, he lay quietly with closed eyes like a person sleeping, although he did not sleep; for he communed just then with his soul. The serpent, however, and the eagle, when they found him silent in such wise, respected the great stillness around him, and prudently retired.


O my soul, I have taught thee to say "to-day" as "once on a time" and "formerly," and to dance thy measure over every Here and There and Yonder.


O my soul, I delivered thee from all by-places, I brushed down from thee dust and spiders and twilight.


O my soul, I washed the petty shame and the by-place virtue from thee, and persuaded thee to stand naked before the eyes of the sun.


With the storm that is called "spirit" did I blow over thy surging sea; all clouds did I blow away from it; I strangled even the strangler called "sin."


O my soul, I gave thee the right to say Nay like the storm, and to say Yea as the open heaven saith Yea: calm as the light remainest thou, and now walkest through denying storms.


O my soul, I restored to thee liberty over the created and the uncreated; and who knoweth, as thou knowest, the voluptuousness of the future?


O my soul, I taught thee the contempt which doth not come like worm-eating, the great, the loving contempt, which loveth most where it contemneth most.


O my soul, I taught thee so to persuade that thou persuadest even the grounds themselves to thee: like the sun, which persuadeth even the sea to its height.


O my soul, I have taken from thee all obeying and knee-bending and homage-paying; I have myself given thee the names, "Change of need" and "Fate."


O my soul, I have given thee new names and gay-coloured playthings, I have called thee "Fate" and "the Circuit of circuits" and "the Navel-string of time" and "the Azure bell."


O my soul, to thy domain gave I all wisdom to drink, all new wines, and also all immemorially old strong wines of wisdom.


O my soul, every sun shed I upon thee, and every night and every silence and every longing:—then grewest thou up for me as a vine.


O my soul, exuberant and heavy dost thou now stand forth, a vine with swelling udders and full clusters of brown golden grapes:—


—Filled and weighted by thy happiness, waiting from superabundance, and yet ashamed of thy waiting.


O my soul, there is nowhere a soul which could be more loving and more comprehensive and more extensive! Where could future and past be closer together than with thee?


O my soul, I have given thee everything, and all my hands have become empty by thee:—and now! Now sayest thou to me, smiling and full of melancholy: "Which of us oweth thanks?—


—Doth the giver not owe thanks because the receiver received? Is bestowing not a necessity? Is receiving not—pitying?"—


O my soul, I understand the smiling of thy melancholy: thine over-abundance itself now stretcheth out longing hands!


Thy fulness looketh forth over raging seas, and seeketh and waiteth: the longing of over-fulness looketh forth from the smiling heaven of thine eyes!


And verily, O my soul! Who could see thy smiling and not melt into tears? The angels themselves melt into tears through the over-graciousness of thy smiling.


Thy graciousness and over-graciousness, is it which will not complain and weep: and yet, O my soul, longeth thy smiling for tears, and thy trembling mouth for sobs.


"Is not all weeping complaining? And all complaining, accusing?" Thus speakest thou to thyself; and therefore, O my soul, wilt thou rather smile than pour forth thy grief—


—Than in gushing tears pour forth all thy grief concerning thy fulness, and concerning the craving of the vine for the vintager and vintage-knife!


But wilt thou not weep, wilt thou not weep forth thy purple melancholy, then wilt thou have to SING, O my soul!—Behold, I smile myself, who foretell thee this:


—Thou wilt have to sing with passionate song, until all seas turn calm to hearken unto thy longing,—


—Until over calm longing seas the bark glideth, the golden marvel, around the gold of which all good, bad, and marvellous things frisk:—


—Also many large and small animals, and everything that hath light marvellous feet, so that it can run on violet-blue paths,—


—Towards the golden marvel, the spontaneous bark, and its master: he, however, is the vintager who waiteth with the diamond vintage-knife,—


—Thy great deliverer, O my soul, the nameless one—for whom future songs only will find names! And verily, already hath thy breath the fragrance of future songs,—


—Already glowest thou and dreamest, already drinkest thou thirstily at all deep echoing wells of consolation, already reposeth thy melancholy in the bliss of future songs!—


O my soul, now have I given thee all, and even my last possession, and all my hands have become empty by thee:—THAT I BADE THEE SING, behold, that was my last thing to give!


That I bade thee sing,—say now, say: WHICH of us now—oweth thanks?— Better still, however: sing unto me, sing, O my soul! And let me thank thee!—


"Into thine eyes gazed I lately, O Life: gold saw I gleam in thy night-eyes,—my heart stood still with delight:


At my dance-frantic foot, dost thou cast a glance, a laughing, questioning, melting, thrown glance:


Twice only movedst thou thy rattle with thy little hands—then did my feet swing with dance-fury.—


My heels reared aloft, my toes they hearkened,—thee they would know: hath not the dancer his ear—in his toe!


Unto thee did I spring: then fledst thou back from my bound; and towards me waved thy fleeing, flying tresses round!


Away from thee did I spring, and from thy snaky tresses: then stoodst thou there half-turned, and in thine eye caresses.


With crooked glances—dost thou teach me crooked courses; on crooked courses learn my feet—crafty fancies!


I fear thee near, I love thee far; thy flight allureth me, thy seeking secureth me:—I suffer, but for thee, what would I not gladly bear!


For thee, whose coldness inflameth, whose hatred misleadeth, whose flight enchaineth, whose mockery—pleadeth:


—Who would not hate thee, thou great bindress, inwindress, temptress, seekress, findress! Who would not love thee, thou innocent, impatient, wind-swift, child-eyed sinner!


Whither pullest thou me now, thou paragon and tomboy? And now foolest thou me fleeing; thou sweet romp dost annoy!


I dance after thee, I follow even faint traces lonely. Where art thou? Give me thy hand! Or thy finger only!


Here are caves and thickets: we shall go astray!—Halt! Stand still! Seest thou not owls and bats in fluttering fray?


Thou bat! Thou owl! Thou wouldst play me foul? Where are we? From the dogs hast thou learned thus to bark and howl.


Thou gnashest on me sweetly with little white teeth; thine evil eyes shoot out upon me, thy curly little mane from underneath!


This is a dance over stock and stone: I am the hunter,—wilt thou be my hound, or my chamois anon?


Now beside me! And quickly, wickedly springing! Now up! And over!—Alas! I have fallen myself overswinging!


Oh, see me lying, thou arrogant one, and imploring grace! Gladly would I walk with thee—in some lovelier place!


—In the paths of love, through bushes variegated, quiet, trim! Or there along the lake, where gold-fishes dance and swim!


Thou art now aweary? There above are sheep and sun-set stripes: is it not sweet to sleep—the shepherd pipes?


Thou art so very weary? I carry thee thither; let just thine arm sink! And art thou thirsty—I should have something; but thy mouth would not like it to drink!—


—Oh, that cursed, nimble, supple serpent and lurking-witch! Where art thou gone? But in my face do I feel through thy hand, two spots and red blotches itch!


I am verily weary of it, ever thy sheepish shepherd to be. Thou witch, if I have hitherto sung unto thee, now shalt THOU—cry unto me!


To the rhythm of my whip shalt thou dance and cry! I forget not my whip?—Not I!"—


Then did Life answer me thus, and kept thereby her fine ears closed:


"O Zarathustra! Crack not so terribly with thy whip! Thou knowest surely that noise killeth thought,—and just now there came to me such delicate thoughts.


We are both of us genuine ne'er-do-wells and ne'er-do-ills. Beyond good and evil found we our island and our green meadow—we two alone! Therefore must we be friendly to each other!


And even should we not love each other from the bottom of our hearts,—must we then have a grudge against each other if we do not love each other perfectly?


And that I am friendly to thee, and often too friendly, that knowest thou: and the reason is that I am envious of thy Wisdom. Ah, this mad old fool, Wisdom!


If thy Wisdom should one day run away from thee, ah! then would also my love run away from thee quickly."—


Thereupon did Life look thoughtfully behind and around, and said softly: "O Zarathustra, thou art not faithful enough to me!


Thou lovest me not nearly so much as thou sayest; I know thou thinkest of soon leaving me.


There is an old heavy, heavy, booming-clock: it boometh by night up to thy cave:—


—When thou hearest this clock strike the hours at midnight, then thinkest thou between one and twelve thereon—


—Thou thinkest thereon, O Zarathustra, I know it—of soon leaving me!"—


"Yea," answered I, hesitatingly, "but thou knowest it also"—And I said something into her ear, in amongst her confused, yellow, foolish tresses.


"Thou KNOWEST that, O Zarathustra? That knoweth no one—"


And we gazed at each other, and looked at the green meadow o'er which the cool evening was just passing, and we wept together.—Then, however, was Life dearer unto me than all my Wisdom had ever been.—


What saith deep midnight's voice indeed?


Three!


"And deeper than the day could read.


"Joy—deeper still than grief can be:


"Woe saith: Hence! Go!


"But joys all want eternity—


"Want deep profound eternity!"


If I be a diviner and full of the divining spirit which wandereth on high mountain-ridges, 'twixt two seas,—


Wandereth 'twixt the past and the future as a heavy cloud—hostile to sultry plains, and to all that is weary and can neither die nor live:


Ready for lightning in its dark bosom, and for the redeeming flash of light, charged with lightnings which say Yea! which laugh Yea! ready for divining flashes of lightning:—


—Blessed, however, is he who is thus charged! And verily, long must he hang like a heavy tempest on the mountain, who shall one day kindle the light of the future!—


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!


If ever my wrath hath burst graves, shifted landmarks, or rolled old shattered tables into precipitous depths:


If ever my scorn hath scattered mouldered words to the winds, and if I have come like a besom to cross-spiders, and as a cleansing wind to old charnel-houses:


If ever I have sat rejoicing where old Gods lie buried, world-blessing, world-loving, beside the monuments of old world-maligners:—


—For even churches and Gods'-graves do I love, if only heaven looketh through their ruined roofs with pure eyes; gladly do I sit like grass and red poppies on ruined churches—


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


If ever a breath hath come to me of the creative breath, and of the heavenly necessity which compelleth even chances to dance star-dances:


If ever I have laughed with the laughter of the creative lightning, to which the long thunder of the deed followeth, grumblingly, but obediently:


If ever I have played dice with the Gods at the divine table of the earth, so that the earth quaked and ruptured, and snorted forth fire-streams:—


—For a divine table is the earth, and trembling with new creative dictums and dice-casts of the Gods:


If ever I have drunk a full draught of the foaming spice- and confection-bowl in which all things are well mixed:


If ever my hand hath mingled the furthest with the nearest, fire with spirit, joy with sorrow, and the harshest with the kindest:


If I myself am a grain of the saving salt which maketh everything in the confection-bowl mix well:—


—For there is a salt which uniteth good with evil; and even the evilest is worthy, as spicing and as final over-foaming:—


If I be fond of the sea, and all that is sealike, and fondest of it when it angrily contradicteth me:


If the exploring delight be in me, which impelleth sails to the undiscovered, if the seafarer's delight be in my delight:


If ever my rejoicing hath called out: "The shore hath vanished,—now hath fallen from me the last chain—


The boundless roareth around me, far away sparkle for me space and time,—well! cheer up! old heart!"—


If my virtue be a dancer's virtue, and if I have often sprung with both feet into golden-emerald rapture:


If my wickedness be a laughing wickedness, at home among rose-banks and hedges of lilies:


—For in laughter is all evil present, but it is sanctified and absolved by its own bliss:—


And if it be my Alpha and Omega that everything heavy shall become light, every body a dancer, and every spirit a bird: and verily, that is my Alpha and Omega!—


If ever I have spread out a tranquil heaven above me, and have flown into mine own heaven with mine own pinions:


If I have swum playfully in profound luminous distances, and if my freedom's avian wisdom hath come to me:—


—Thus however speaketh avian wisdom:—"Lo, there is no above and no below! Throw thyself about,—outward, backward, thou light one! Sing! speak no more!


—Are not all words made for the heavy? Do not all words lie to the light ones? Sing! speak no more!"—


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


—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!