查拉图斯特拉如是说 英文版 Thus Spake Zarathustra
尼采 Friedrich Nietzsche
APPENDIX. Page 5
The figure of Christ has been introduced often enough into fiction, andmany scholars have undertaken to write His life according to their ownlights, but few perhaps have ever attempted to present Him to us bereft ofall those characteristics which a lack of the sense of harmony has attachedto His person through the ages in which His doctrines have been taught.Now Nietzsche disagreed entirely with Renan's view, that Christ was "legrand maitre en ironie"; in Aphorism 31 of "The Antichrist", he says thathe (Nietzsche) always purged his picture of the Humble Nazarene of allthose bitter and spiteful outbursts which, in view of the struggle thefirst Christians went through, may very well have been added to theoriginal character by Apologists and Sectarians who, at that time, couldill afford to consider nice psychological points, seeing that what theyneeded, above all, was a wrangling and abusive deity. These twoconflicting halves in the character of the Christ of the Gospels, which nosound psychology can ever reconcile, Nietzsche always kept distinct in hisown mind; he could not credit the same man with sentiments sometimes sonoble and at other times so vulgar, and in presenting us with this newportrait of the Saviour, purged of all impurities, Nietzsche renderedmilitary honours to a foe, which far exceed in worth all that His mostardent disciples have ever claimed for Him. In verse 26 we are vividlyreminded of Herbert Spencer's words "'Le mariage de convenance' islegalised prostitution."
times nay! Always more, always better ones of your typeshall succumb--for ye.
Chapter LXIX. The Shadow.
Here we have a description of that courageous and wayward spirit thatliterally haunts the footsteps of every great thinker and every greatleader; sometimes with the result that it loses all aims, all hopes, andall trust in a definite goal. It is the case of the bravest and mostbroad-minded men of to-day. These literally shadow the most daringmovements in the science and art of their generation; they completely losetheir bearings and actually find themselves, in the end, without a way, agoal, or a home. "On every surface have I already sat!...I become thin, Iam almost equal to a shadow!" At last, in despair, such men do indeed cryout: "Nothing is true; all is permitted," and then they become merewreckage. "Too much hath become clear unto me: now nothing mattereth tome any more. Nothing liveth any longer that I love,--how should I stilllove myself! Have I still a goal? Where is MY home?" Zarathustrarealises the danger threatening such a man. "Thy danger is not small, thoufree spirit and wanderer," he says. "Thou hast had a bad day. See that astill worse evening doth not overtake thee!" The danger Zarathustra refersto is precisely this, that even a prison may seem a blessing to such a man.At least the bars keep him in a place of rest; a place of confinement, atits worst, is real. "Beware lest in the end a narrow faith capture thee,"says Zarathustra, "for now everything that is narrow and fixed seduceth andtempteth thee."
Chapter LXX. Noontide.
At the noon of life Nietzsche said he entered the world; with him man cameof age. We are now held responsible for our actions; our old guardians,the gods and demi-gods of our youth, the superstitions and fears of ourchildhood, withdraw; the field lies open before us; we lived through ourmorning with but one master--chance--; let us see to it that we MAKE ourafternoon our own (see Note XLIX., Part III.).
Chapter LXXI. The Greeting.
Here I think I may claim that my contention in regard to the purpose andaim of the whole of Nietzsche's philosophy (as stated at the beginning ofmy Notes on Part IV.) is completely upheld. He fought for "all who do notwant to live, unless they learn again to HOPE--unless THEY learn (from him)the GREAT hope!" Zarathustra's address to his guests shows clearly enoughhow he wished to help them: "I DO NOT TREAT MY WARRIORS INDULGENTLY," hesays: "how then could ye be fit for MY warfare?" He rebukes and spurnsthem, no word of love comes from his lips. Elsewhere he says a man shouldbe a hard bed to his friend, thus alone can he be of use to him. Nietzschewould be a hard bed to higher men. He would make them harder; for, inorder to be a law unto himself, man must possess the requisite hardness."I wait for higher ones, stronger ones, more triumphant ones, merrier ones,for such as are built squarely in body and soul." He says in par. 6 of"Higher Man":--
"Ye higher men, think ye that I am here to put right what ye have putwrong? Or that I wished henceforth to make snugger couches for yousufferers? Or show you restless, miswandering, misclimbing ones new andeasier footpaths?"
"Nay! Nay! Three times nay! Always more, always better ones of your typeshall succumb--for ye shall always have it worse and harder."
Chapter LXXII. The Supper.
In the first seven verses of this discourse, I cannot help seeing a gentleallusion to Schopenhauer's habits as a bon-vivant. For a pessimist, be itremembered, Schopenhauer led quite an extraordinary life. He ate well,loved well, played the flute well, and I believe he smoked the best cigars.What follows is clear enough.
Chapter LXXIII. The Higher Man. Par. 1.
Nietzsche admits, here, that at one time he had thought of appealing to thepeople, to the crowd in the market-place, but that he had ultimately toabandon the task. He bids higher men depart from the market-place.
Par. 3.
Here we are told quite plainly what class of men actually owe all theirimpulses and desires to the instinct of self-preservation. The strugglefor existence is indeed the only spur in the case of such people. To themit matters not in what shape or condition man be preserved, provided onlyhe survive. The transcendental maxim that "Life per se is precious" is theruling maxim here.
Par. 4.
In the Note on Chapter LVII. (end) I speak of Nietzsche's elevation of thevirtue, Courage, to the highest place among the virtues. Here he tellshigher men the class of courage he expects from them.
Pars. 5, 6.
These have already been referred to in the Notes on Chapters LVII. (end)and LXXI.
Par. 7.
I suggest that the last verse in this paragraph strongly confirms the viewthat Nietzsche's teaching was always meant by him to be esoteric and forhigher man alone.
Par. 9.
In the last verse, here, another shaft of light is thrown upon theImmaculate Perception or so-called "pure objectivity" of the scientificmind. "Freedom from fever is still far from being knowledge." Where aman's emotions cease to accompany him in his investigations, he is notnecessarily nearer the truth. Says Spencer, in the Preface to hisAutobiography:--"In the genesis of a system of thought, the emotionalnature is a large factor: perhaps as large a factor as the intellectualnature" (see pages 134, 141 of Vol. I., "Thoughts out of Season").
Pars. 10, 11.
When we approach Nietzsche's philosophy we must be prepared to beindependent thinkers; in fact, the greatest virtue of his works is perhapsthe subtlety with which they impose the obligation upon one of thinkingalone, of scoring off one's own bat, and of shifting intellectually foroneself.
Par. 13.
"I am a railing alongside the torrent; whoever is able to grasp me, maygrasp me! Your crutch, however, I am not." These two paragraphs are anexhortation to higher men to become independent.
Par. 15.
Here Nietzsche perhaps exaggerates the importance of heredity. As,however, the question is by no means one on which we are all agreed, whathe says is not without value.
A very important principle in Nietzsche's philosophy is enunciated in thefirst verse of this paragraph. "The higher its type, always the seldomerdoth a thing succeed" (see page 82 of "Beyond Good and Evil"). Those who,like some political economists, talk in a business-like way about theterrific waste of human life and energy, deliberately overlook the factthat the waste most to be deplored usually occurs among higher individuals.Economy was never precisely one of nature's leading principles. All thissentimental wailing over the larger proportion of failures than successesin human life, does not seem to take into account the fact that it is therarest thing on earth for a highly organised being to attain to the fullestdevelopment and activity of all its functions, simply because it is sohighly organised. The blind Will to Power in nature therefore stands inurgent need of direction by man.
Pars. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
These paragraphs deal with Nietzsche's protest against the democraticseriousness (Pobelernst) of modern times. "All good things laugh," hesays, and his final command to the higher men is, "LEARN, I pray you--tolaugh." All that is GOOD, in Nietzsche's sense, is cheerful. To be ableto crack a joke about one's deepest feelings is the greatest test of theirvalue. The man who does not laugh, like the man who does not make faces,is already a buffoon at heart.
"What hath hitherto been the greatest sin here on earth? Was it not theword of him who said: 'Woe unto them that laugh now!' Did he himself findno cause for laughter on the earth? Then he sought badly. A child evenfindeth cause for it."
Chapter LXXIV. The Song of Melancholy.
Par. 3....of believing, as such, usually manifestthe change in their outlook by falling.
After his address to the higher men, Zarathustra goes out into the open torecover himself. Meanwhile the magician (Wagner), seizing the opportunityin order to draw them all into his net once more, sings the Song ofMelancholy.
Chapter LXXV. Science.
The only one to resist the "melancholy voluptuousness" of his art, is thespiritually conscientious one--the scientific specialist of whom we read inthe discourse entitled "The Leech". He takes the harp from the magicianand cries for air, while reproving the musician in the style of "The Caseof Wagner". When the magician retaliates by saying that the spirituallyconscientious one could have understood little of his song, the latterreplies: "Thou praisest me in that thou separatest me from thyself." Thespeech of the scientific man to his fellow higher men is well worthstudying. By means of it, Nietzsche pays a high tribute to the honesty ofthe true specialist, while, in representing him as the only one who canresist the demoniacal influence of the magician's music, he elevates him ata stroke, above all those present. Zarathustra and the spirituallyconscientious one join issue at the end on the question of the proper placeof "fear" in man's history, and Nietzsche avails himself of the opportunityin order to restate his views concerning the relation of courage tohumanity. It is precisely because courage has played the most importantpart in our development that he would not see it vanish from among ourvirtues to-day. "...courage seemeth to me the entire primitive history ofman."
Chapter LXXVI. Among the Daughters of the Desert.
This tells its own tale.
Chapter LXXVII. The Awakening.
In this discourse, Nietzsche wishes to give his followers a warning. Hethinks he has so far helped them that they have become convalescent, thatnew desires are awakened in them and that new hopes are in their arms andlegs. But he mistakes the nature of the change. True, he has helped them,he has given them back what they most need, i.e., belief in believing--theconfidence in having confidence in something, but how do they use it? Thisbelief in faith, if one can so express it without seeming tautological, hascertainly been restored to them, and in the first flood of their enthusiasmthey use it by bowing down and worshipping an ass! When writing thispassage, Nietzsche was obviously thinking of the accusations which werelevelled at the early Christians by their pagan contemporaries. It is wellknown that they were supposed not only to be eaters of human flesh but alsoass-worshippers, and among the Roman graffiti, the most famous is the onefound on the Palatino, showing a man worshipping a cross on which issuspended a figure with the head of an ass (see Minucius Felix, "Octavius"IX.; Tacitus, "Historiae" v. 3; Tertullian, "Apologia", etc.). Nietzsche'sobvious moral, however, is that great scientists and thinkers, once theyhave reached the wall encircling scepticism and have thereby learned torecover their confidence in the act of believing, as such, usually manifestthe change in their outlook by falling victims to the narrowest and mostsuperstitious of creeds. So much for the introduction of the ass as anobject of worship.
Now, with regard to the actual service and Ass-Festival, no reader whohappens to be acquainted with the religious history of the Middle Ages willfail to see the allusion here to the asinaria festa which were by no meansuncommon in France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe during the thirteenth,fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.
Chapter LXXVIII. The Ass-Festival.
At length, in the middle of their feast, Zarathustra bursts in upon themand rebukes them soundly. But he does not do so long; in the Ass-Festival,it suddenly occurs to him, that he is concerned with a ceremony that maynot be without its purpose, as something foolish but necessary--arecreation for wise men. He is therefore highly pleased that the highermen have all blossomed forth; they therefore require new festivals,--"Alittle valiant nonsense, some divine service and ass-festival, some oldjoyful Zarathustra fool, some blusterer to blow their souls bright."
He tells them not to forget that night and the ass-festival, for "suchthings only the convalescent devise! And should ye celebrate it again," heconcludes, "do it from love to yourselves, do it also from love to me! Andin remembrance of ME!"
Chapter LXXIX. The Drunken Song.
It were the height of presumption to attempt to fix any particularinterpretation of my own to the words of this song. With what has gonebefore, the reader, while reading it as poetry, should be able to seek andfind his own meaning in it. The doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence appearsfor the last time here, in an art-form. Nietzsche lays stress upon thefact that all happiness, all delight, longs for repetitions, and just as achild cries "Again! Again!" to the adult who happens to be amusing him; sothe man who sees a meaning, and a joyful meaning, in existence must alsocry "Again!" and yet "Again!" to all his life.
Chapter LXXX. The Sign.
In this discourse, Nietzsche disassociates himself finally from the highermen, and by the symbol of the lion, wishes to convey to us that he has wonover and mastered the best and the most terrible in nature. That greatpower and tenderness are kin, was already his belief in 1875--eight yearsbefore he wrote this speech, and when the birds and the lion come to him,it is because he is the embodiment of the two qualities. All that isterrible and great in nature, the higher men are not yet prepared for; forthey retreat horror-stricken into the cave when the lion springs at them;but Zarathustra makes not a move towards them. He was tempted to them onthe previous day, he says, but "That hath had its time! My suffering andmy fellow suffering,--what matter about them! Do I then strive afterHAPPINESS? I strive after my work! Well! the lion hath come, my childrenare nigh. Zarathustra hath grown ripe. MY day beginneth: ARISE NOW,ARISE, THOU GREAT NOONDAY!"
...
The above I know to be open to much criticism. I shall be grateful to allthose who will be kind enough to show me where and how I have gone wrong;but I should like to point out that, as they stand, I have not given tothese Notes by any means their final form.
ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.
London, February 1909.