Thus Spake Zarathustra — Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche · License: Public domain · Source

• And a thousand caricatures of children, angels, owls, fools, and child-sized butterflies laughed and mocked, and roared at me. ¶1748
• Fearfully was I terrified thereby: it prostrated me. And I cried with horror as I ne'er cried before. ¶1749
• But mine own crying awoke me:--and I came to myself.-- ¶1750
• Thus did Zarathustra relate his dream, and then was silent: for as yet he knew not the interpretation thereof. But the disciple whom he loved most arose quickly, seized Zarathustra's hand, and said: ¶1751
• "Thy life itself interpreteth unto us this dream, O Zarathustra! ¶1752
• Art thou not thyself the wind with shrill whistling, which bursteth open the gates of the fortress of Death? ¶1753
• Art thou not thyself the coffin full of many-hued malices and angel-caricatures of life? ¶1754
• Verily, like a thousand peals of children's laughter cometh Zarathustra into all sepulchres, laughing at those night-watchmen and grave-guardians, and whoever else rattleth with sinister keys. ¶1755
• With thy laughter wilt thou frighten and prostrate them: fainting and recovering will demonstrate thy power over them. ¶1756
• And when the long twilight cometh and the mortal weariness, even then wilt thou not disappear from our firmament, thou advocate of life! ¶1757
• New stars hast thou made us see, and new nocturnal glories: verily, laughter itself hast thou spread out over us like a many-hued canopy. ¶1758
• Now will children's laughter ever from coffins flow; now will a strong wind ever come victoriously unto all mortal weariness: of this thou art thyself the pledge and the prophet! ¶1759
• Verily, THEY THEMSELVES DIDST THOU DREAM, thine enemies: that was thy sorest dream. ¶1760
• But as thou awokest from them and camest to thyself, so shall they awaken from themselves--and come unto thee!" ¶1761
• "Well! this hath just its time; but see to it, my disciples, that we have a good repast; and without delay! Thus do I mean to make amends for bad dreams! ¶1763
• The soothsayer, however, shall eat and drink at my side: and verily, I will yet show him a sea in which he can drown himself!"-- ¶1764
• Thus spake Zarathustra. Then did he gaze long into the face of the disciple who had been the dream-interpreter, and shook his head.-- ¶1765
• When Zarathustra went one day over the great bridge, then did the cripples and beggars surround him, and a hunchback spake thus unto him: ¶1767
• It is, however, the smallest thing unto me since I have been amongst men, to see one person lacking an eye, another an ear, and a third a leg, and that others have lost the tongue, or the nose, or the head. ¶1770
• When Zarathustra had spoken thus unto the hunchback, and unto those of whom the hunchback was the mouthpiece and advocate, then did he turn to his disciples in profound dejection, and said: ¶1773
• Verily, my friends, I walk amongst men as amongst the fragments and limbs of human beings! ¶1774
• This is the terrible thing to mine eye, that I find man broken up, and scattered about, as on a battle- and butcher-ground. ¶1775
• And when mine eye fleeth from the present to the bygone, it findeth ever the same: fragments and limbs and fearful chances--but no men! ¶1776
• The present and the bygone upon earth--ah! my friends--that is MY most unbearable trouble; and I should not know how to live, if I were not a seer of what is to come. ¶1777
• A seer, a purposer, a creator, a future itself, and a bridge to the future--and alas! also as it were a cripple on this bridge: all that is Zarathustra. ¶1778
• And ye also asked yourselves often: "Who is Zarathustra to us? What shall he be called by us?" And like me, did ye give yourselves questions for answers. ¶1779
• Is he a promiser? Or a fulfiller? A conqueror? Or an inheritor? A harvest? Or a ploughshare? A physician? Or a healed one? ¶1780
• Is he a poet? Or a genuine one? An emancipator? Or a subjugator? A good one? Or an evil one? ¶1781
• I walk amongst men as the fragments of the future: that future which I contemplate. ¶1782
• And it is all my poetisation and aspiration to compose and collect into unity what is fragment and riddle and fearful chance. ¶1783
• And how could I endure to be a man, if man were not also the composer, and riddle-reader, and redeemer of chance! ¶1784
• To redeem what is past, and to transform every "It was" into "Thus would I have it!"--that only do I call redemption! ¶1785
• Will--so is the emancipator and joy-bringer called: thus have I taught you, my friends! But now learn this likewise: the Will itself is still a prisoner. ¶1786
• Willing emancipateth: but what is that called which still putteth the emancipator in chains? ¶1787
• "It was": thus is the Will's teeth-gnashing and lonesomest tribulation called. Impotent towards what hath been done--it is a malicious spectator of all that is past. ¶1788
• Not backward can the Will will; that it cannot break time and time's desire--that is the Will's lonesomest tribulation. ¶1789
• Willing emancipateth: what doth Willing itself devise in order to get free from its tribulation and mock at its prison? ¶1790
• Ah, a fool becometh every prisoner! Foolishly delivereth itself also the imprisoned Will. ¶1791
• That time doth not run backward--that is its animosity: "That which was": so is the stone which it cannot roll called. ¶1792
• And thus doth it roll stones out of animosity and ill-humour, and taketh revenge on whatever doth not, like it, feel rage and ill-humour. ¶1793

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