查拉图斯特拉如是说 英文版 Thus Spake Zarathustra
尼采 Friedrich Nietzsche
LV. The Spirit of Gravity.
1.
My mouthpiece--is of the people: too coarsely and cordially do I talk forAngora rabbits. And still stranger soundeth my word unto all ink-fish andpen-foxes.
My hand--is a fool's hand: woe unto all tables and walls, and whateverhath room for fool's sketching, fool's scrawling!
My foot--is a horse-foot; therewith do I trample and trot over stick andstone, in the fields up and down, and am bedevilled with delight in allfast 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 ofbird-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!
Thereof could I sing a song--and WILL sing it: though I be alone in anempty house, and must sing it to mine own ears.
Other singers are there, to be sure, to whom only the full house maketh thevoice soft, the hand eloquent, the eye expressive, the heart wakeful:--those do I not resemble.--
2.
who have only one choice: either to becomeevil.
He who one day teacheth men to fly will have shifted all landmarks; to himwill all landmarks themselves fly into the air; the earth will he christenanew--as "the light body."
The ostrich runneth faster than the fastest horse, but it also thrustethits head heavily into the heavy earth: thus is it with the man who cannotyet 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 themstinketh even self-love!
One must learn to love oneself--thus do I teach--with a wholesome andhealthy love: that one may endure to be with oneself, and not go rovingabout.
Such roving about christeneth itself "brotherly love"; with these wordshath there hitherto been the best lying and dissembling, and especially bythose who have been burdensome to every one.
And verily, it is no commandment for to-day and to-morrow to LEARN to loveoneself. Rather is it of all arts the finest, subtlest, last andpatientest.
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 areforgiven for living.
And therefore suffereth one little children to come unto one, to forbidthem 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 hecarrieth too many extraneous things on his shoulders. Like the camelkneeleth he down, and letteth himself be well laden.
Especially the strong load-bearing man in whom reverence resideth. Toomany EXTRANEOUS heavy words and worths loadeth he upon himself--thenseemeth life to him a desert!
And verily! Many a thing also that is OUR OWN is hard to bear! And manyinternal things in man are like the oyster--repulsive and slippery and hardto grasp;-
So that an elegant shell, with elegant adornment, must plead for them. Butthis art also must one learn: to HAVE a shell, and a fine appearance, andsagacious blindness!
Again, it deceiveth about many things in man, that many a shell is poor andpitiable, and too much of a shell. Much concealed goodness and power isnever 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; oftenlieth 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 worldthe best of all. Those do I call the all-satisfied.
All-satisfiedness, which knoweth how to taste everything,--that is not thebest 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 allcolours. He, however, who whitewasheth his house, betrayeth unto me awhitewashed soul.
With mummies, some fall in love; others with phantoms: both alike hostileto all flesh and blood--oh, how repugnant are both to my taste! For I loveblood.
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 mostrepugnant animal of man that I found, did I christen "parasite": it wouldnot love, and would yet live by love.
Unhappy do I call all those who have only one choice: either to becomeevil beasts, or evil beast-tamers. Amongst such would I not build mytabernacle.
Unhappy do I also call those who have ever to WAIT,--they are repugnant tomy taste--all the toll-gatherers and traders, and kings, and otherlandkeepers and shopkeepers.
Verily, I learned waiting also, and thoroughly so,--but only waiting forMYSELF. And above all did I learn standing and walking and running andleaping and climbing and dancing.
This however is my teaching: he who wisheth one day to fly, must firstlearn standing and walking and running and climbing and dancing:--one dothnot fly into flying!
With rope-ladders learned I to reach many a window, with nimble legs did Iclimb high masts: to sit on high masts of perception seemed to me no smallbliss;--
--To flicker like small flames on high masts: a small light, certainly,but a great comfort to cast-away sailors and ship-wrecked ones!
By divers ways and wendings did I arrive at my truth; not by one ladder didI 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, onemust 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 longereither shame or secrecy.
"This--is now MY way,--where is yours?" Thus did I answer those who askedme "the way." For THE way--it doth not exist!
Thus spake Zarathustra.