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Zarathustra
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UNIVERSITY PRESS
 First Part Thus Spoke Zarathustra

To them our footsteps sound too lonely in the lanes. And if at night What is the ape to a human? A laughing stock or a painful embarrass­
lying in their beds they hear a man walking outside, long before the sun ment. And that is precisely what the human shall be to the overman; a
rises, they probably ask themselves: where is the thief going.? laughing stock or a painful embarrassment.
Do not go to mankind and stay in the woods! Go even to the animals You have made your way from worm to human, and much in you is
instead! Why do you not want to be like me — a bear among bears, a bird still worm. Once you were apes, and even now a human is still more ape
among birds.?" than any ape.
"And what does the saint do in the woods.?" asked Zarathustra. But whoever is wisest among you is also just a conflict and a cross
The saint answered: "I make songs and sing them, and when I make j_between plant and ghost. But do I implore you to become ghosts or plants?
songs I laugh, weep and growl: thus I praise God. Behold, I teach you the overman!
With singing, weeping,.laughing and growling I praise the god who is The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman
my god. But tell me, what do you bring us as a gift.?" shall be the meaning of the earth!
When Zarathustra had heard these words he took his leave of the saint I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth and do not
and spoke: "What would I have to give you! But let me leave quickly before believe those who speak to you of extraterrestrial hopes! They are mixers
1 take something from you!" ­ And so they parted, the oldster and the of poisons whether they know it or not.
man, laughing like two boys laugh. They are despisers of life, dying off and self­poisoned, of whom the
But when Zarathustra was alone he spoke thus to his heart: "Could it earth is weary: so let them fade away!
be possible! This old saint in his woods has not yet heard the news that ^ Once the sacrilege against God was the greatest sacrilege, but God
God is deadV ­ died, and then all these desecrators died. Now to desecrate the earth is
^ the most terrible thing, and to esteem the bowels of the unfathomable
3 higher than the meaning of the earth!
When Zarathustra came into the nearest town lying on the edge of the Once the soul gazed contemptuously at the body, and then such con­
forest, he found many people gathered in the market place, for it had been tempt was the highest thing: it wanted the body gaunt, ghastly, starved.
promised that a tightrope walker would perform. And Zarathustra spoke Thus it intended to escape the body and the earth.
thus to the people: Oh this soul was gaunt, ghastly and starved, and cruelty was the lust
"/ teach you the overman.'^ Human being is something that must be of this soul!
overcome. What have you done to overcome him? But you, too, my brothers, tell me: what does your body prodaim
All creatures so far created something bevond themselves: and you about your soul? Is your soul not poverty and filth and a pitiful content­
want to be the ebb of this great flood and would even rather go back to ment?
animals than overcome humans? Truly, mankind is a polluted stream. One has to be a sea to take in a
polluted stream without becoming unclean.
 3 "Ich lehre euch den Ubermenschen." Just as Mensch means human, human being, Ubermensch
means superhuman, which I render throughout as overman, though I use human being, mankind, Behold, I teach you the overman: he is this sea, in him your great
pe9ple, and humanity to avoid the gendered and outmoded use of "man." Two things are achieved contempt can go under
by using this combination. First, using "human being" and other species­indicating expressions
makes it clear that Nietzsche is concerned ecumenically with humans as a species, not merely with
What is the greatest thing that you can experience? It is the hour of
males. Secondly, expanding beyond the use of "man" puts humans in art EMofeiVal context; for your great contempt. The hour in which even your happiness turns to
Zarathustra to claim that "the overman shall be the meaning of the earth" is to argue for a new
nausea and likewise your reason and your virtue.
relationship between humans and nature, between humans and the earth. Overman is preferred
to superhuman for two basic reasons; first, it preserves the word play Nietzsche intends with his The hour in which you say: 'What matters my happiness? It is poverty
consMnt references to going under and going over, and secondly, the comic book associations called
and filth, and a pitiful contentment. But my happiness ought to justify
to mind by "superman" and super­heroes generally tend to reflect negatively, and frivolously, on
the term superhuman. existence itself!'

6
 First Part Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The hour in which you say: 'What matters my reason? Does it crave I love those who do not first seek behind the stars for a reason to go
knowledge Hke the lion its food? It is poverty and filth and a pitiful under and be a sacrifice, who instead sacrifice themselves for the earth, so
contentment!' that the earth may one day become the overman's.
The hour in which you say: 'What matters my virtue? It has not yet I love the one who lives in order to know, and who wants to know so
made me rage. How weary I am of my good and my evil! That is all^joverty that one day the overman mav li­Ve. And so he wants his going under.
and filth and a pitiful contentment!' I love the one who works and invents in order to build a house for the
The hour in which you say: 'What matters my justice? I do not see that overman and to prepare earth, animals and plants for him: for thus he
I am ember and coal. But the just person is ember and coal!' wants his going under.
The hour in which you say: 'What matters my pity? Is pity not the cross I love the one who loves his virtue: for virtue is the will to going under
on which he is nailed who loves humans? But my pity is no crucifixion.' and an arrow of longing.
Have you yet spoken thus? Have you yet cried out thus? Oh that I might I love the one who does not hold back a single drop of spirit for himself,
have heard you cry out thus! but wants instead to be entirely the spirit of his virtue: thus he strides as
Not your sin ­ your modesty cries out to high heaven, your stinginess spirit over the bridge.
even in sinning cries out to high heaven! I love the one who makes of his virtue his desire and his doom: thus
Where is the lightning that would lick you with its tongue? Where is for the sake of his virtue he wants to live on and to live no more.
the madness with which you should be inoculated? I love the one who does not want to have too many virtues. One virtue
Behold, I teach you the overman: he is this lightning, he is this is more virtue than two, because it is more of a hook on which his doom
madness! may hang.
When Zarathustra had spoken thus someone from the crowd cried out: I love the one whose soul squanders itself, who wants no thanks and
"We have heard enough already about the tightrope walker, now let us gives none back: for he always gives and does not want to preserve
see him too!" And all the people laughed at Zarathustra. But the tightrope himself
walker, believing that these words concerned him, got down to his work. I love the one who is ashamed when the dice fall to his fortune and who
then asks: am I a cheater.? ­ For he wants to perish.
I love the one who casts golden words before his deeds and always does
4 even more than he promises: for he wants his going under
Now Zarathustra looked at the people and he was amazed. Then he spoke I love the one who justifies people of the future and redeems those of
thus: the past: for he wants to perish of those in the present.
"Mankind is a rope fastened between animal and overman ­ a rope over I love the one who chastises his god, because he loves his god: for he
an abyss. must perish of the wrath of his god.
A dangerous crossing, a dangerous on­the­way, a dangerous looking I love the one whose soul is deep even when wounded, and who can
back, a dangerous shuddering and standing still. perish of a small experience: thus he goes gladly over the bridge.
I love the one whose soul is overfull, so that he forgets himself, and all
What is great about human beings is that they are a bridge and not a"*
purpose: what is lovable about human beings is that they are a crossing things are in him: thus all things become his going under.
over and a going under. ' ^ + See Luke 17:33. Thisis the first of approximately 135 direct allusions to the Bible, in which Nietzsche
I love those who do not know how to live unless by going under, for typically applies Christ's words to Zarathustra's task, or inverts Christ's words in order to achieve
a life­ and earth­affirming effect. Whenever possible, these passages will be translated using the
they are the ones who cross over. phrasing of the Bible. For drafts and alternative versions of the various chapters, biblical references,
I love the great despisers, because they are the great venerators and and other references see vol. xiv of the Kritische Studienausgahe, which provides commentary to
vols, i­xin and treats TSZ on pp. 279­344.
arrows of longing for the other shore. ^

7
 First Part Thus Spoke Zarathustra

I love the one who is free of spirit and heart: thus his head is only the 'What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?' —
entrails of his heart, but his heart drivesTiim to his going under. thus asks the last human being, blinking.
I love all those who are like heavy drops falling individually from the Then the earth has become small, and on it hops the last human being,
dark cloud that hangs over humanity: they herald the coming of the who makes evervthing small. His kind is ineradicable, like the flea beetle;
lightning, and as heralds they perish. the last human being lives longest.
Behold, I am a herald of the lightning and a heavy drop from the cloud: 'We invented happiness' ­ say the last human beings, blinking.
but this lightning is called overman. ^ They abandoned the regions where it was hard to live: for one needs
warmth. One still loves one's neighbor and rubs up against him: for one
needs warmth.
5 Becoming ill and being mistrustful are considered sinful by them:
When Zarathustra had spoken these words he looked again at the people one proceeds with caution. A fool who still stumbles over stones or
and fell silent. "There they stand," he said to his heart, "they laugh, they humans!
do not understand me, I_am Mt the mouth for these ears. A bit of poison once in a while; that makes for pleasant dreams. And
Must one first smash their ears so that they learn to hear with their much poison at the end, for a pleasant death.
eyes? Must one rattle like kettle drums and penitence preachers? Or do One still works, for work is a form of entertainment. But one sees to it
they believe only a stutterer? that the entertainment is not a strain.
They have something of which they are proud. And what do they call One no longer becomes poor and rich: both are too burdensome. Who
that which makes them proud? Education they call it, it distinguishes wants to rule anymore? Who wants to obey anymore? Both are too bur­
them from goatherds. densome.
For that reason they hate to hear the word 'contempt' applied to them. No shepherd and one herd! Each wants the same, each is the same, and
So I shall address their pride instead. ^ whoever feels differently goes voluntarily into the insane asylum.
Thus I shall speak to them of the most contemptible person: but he is 'Formerly the whole world was insane' ­ the finest ones say, blinking.
the last human being. One is clever and knows everything that has happened, and so there is
And thus spoke Zarathustra to the people: no end to their mockery. People still quarrel but they reconcile quickly ­
"It is time that mankind set themselves a goal. It is time that mankind otherwise it is bad for the stomach.
plant the seed of their highest hope. One has one's little pleasure for the day and one's little pleasure for the
Their soil is still rich enough for this. But one day this soil will be poor night: but one honors health.
and tame, and no tall tree will be able to grow from it anymore. 'We invented happiness' say the last human beings, and they blink."
Beware! The time approaches when human beings no longer launch And here ended the first speech of Zarathustra, which is also called
the arrow of their longing beyond the human, and the string of their bow "The Prologue," for at this point he was interrupted by the yelling and
will have forgotten how to whir! merriment of the crowd. "Give us this last human being, oh Zarathustra" ­
I say to you: one must still have chaos in oneself in order to give birth thus they cried ­ "make us into these last human beings! Then we will
,|o a dancing star I say to you: you still have chaos in you. make you a gift of the overman!" And all the people jubilated and clicked
^ Beware! The time approaches when human beings will no longer give their tongues. But Zarathustra grew sad and said to his heart:
lirth to a dancing star Beware! The time of the most contemptible "They do not understand me. I am not the mouth for these ears.
' uman is coming, the one who can no Innfrer have contempt for Too long apparently I lived in the mountains, too much I listened to
mself brooks and trees: now I speak to them as to goatherds.
Behold! I show you the last human being.

10
9
 First Part Thus Spoke Zarathustra

My soul is calm and bright as the morning mountains. But they believe And if some day my wisdom abandons me ­ oh it loves to fly away! ­
I am cold, that I jeer, that I deal in terrible jests. may my pride then fly away with my folly!"
And now they look at me and laugh, and in laughing they hate me too. ­ Thus began Zarathustra's going under.
There is ice in their laughter."

6 The Speeches of Zarathustra

Then, however, something happened that struck every mouth silent and On the Three Metamorphoses
forced all eyes to stare. For in the meantime the tightrope walker had Three metamorphoges of the spirit I name for you: how the spirit becomes
begun his work; he had emerged from a little door and was walking across a camel, and the camel a lion, and finally the lion a child.
the rope stretched between two towers, such that it hung suspended To the spirit there is much that is heavy; to the strong, carrying
over the market place and the people. Just as he was at the midpoint of his spirit imbued with reverence. Its strength demands what is heavy and
way, the little door opened once again and a colorful fellow resembling heaviest.
a jester leaped forth and hurried after the first man with quick steps. What is heavy? thus asks the carrying spirit. It kneels down like a camel
"Forward, sloth, smuggler, pale face! Or Fll tickle you with my heel! What and wants to be well loaded.
business have you here between the towers? You belong in the tower, you What is heaviest, you heroes? thus asks the carrying spirit, so that I
should be locked away in the tower, for you block the way for one who is might take it upon myself and rejoice in my strength.
better than you!" And with each word he came closer and closer to him. Is it not this: lowering oneself in order to hurt one's pride? Letting
But when he was only one step behind him, the terrifying thing occurred one's foolishness glow in order to mock one's wisdom?
that struck every mouth silent and forced all eyes to stare: ­he let out a yell Or is it this: abandoning our cause when it celebrates victory? Climbing
like a devil and leaped over the man who was in his way. This man, seeing high mountains in order to tempt the tempter?
his rival triumph in this manner, lost his head and the rope. He threw Or is it this: feeding on the acorns and grass of knowledge and for the
away his pole and plunged into the depths even faster than his pole, like a sake of truth suffering hunger in one's soul?
whirlwind of arms and legs. The market place and the people resembled Or is it this: being ill and sending the comforters home and making
the sea when a storm charges in: everyone fled apart and into one another, friends with the deaf who never hear what you want?
and especially in the spot where the body had to impact. Or is it this: wading into dirty water when it is the water of truth, and
But Zarathustra stood still and the body landed right beside him, badly not shrinking away from cold frogs and hot toads?
beaten and broken, but not yet dead. After a while the shattered man Or is it this: loving those who despise us, and extending a hand to the
regained consciousness and saw Zarathustra kneeling beside him. "What ghost when it wants to frighten us?
are you doing here?" he said finally. "Pve known for a long time that the All of these heaviest things the carrying spirit takes upon itself, like
devil would trip me up. Now he is going to drag me off to hell: are you a loaded camel that hurries into the desert, thus it hurries into its
going to stop him?" desert.
"By my honor, friend!" answered Zarathustra. "All that you are talking But in the loneliest desert the second metamorphosis occurs. Here the
about does not exist. There is no devil and no hell. Your soul will be dead spirit becomes lion, it wants to hunt down its freedom and be master in
even sooner than your body ­ fear no more!" its own desert.
The man looked up mistrustfully. "If you speak the truth," he said, Here it seeks its last master, and wants to fight him and its last god. For
"then I lose nothing when I lose my life. I am not much more than an victory it wants to battle the great dragon.
animal that has been taught to dance by blows and little treats."

II i6
 First Part Second Petri

Who is the great dragon whom the spirit no longer wants to call master Away from God and gods this will lured me; what would there be to
and god? "Thou shalt" is the name of the great dragon. But the spirit of create, after all, if there were gods?
the lion says "I will." But I am always driven anew to human beings by my ardent will to
"Thou shalt" stands in its way, gleaming golden, a scaly animal, and create; thus the hammer is driven toward the stone.
upon every scale "thou shalt!" gleams like gold. Oh you human beings, in the stone sleeps an image, the image of my
The values of millennia gleam on these scales, and thus speaks the most images! A shame it must sleep in the hardest, ugliest stone!
powerful of all dragons: "the value of all things ­ it gleams in me. Now my hammer rages cruelly against its prison. Shards shower from
All value has already been created, and the value of all created things — the stone: what do I care?
that am 1. Indeed, there shall be no more 'I will!"' Thus speaks the I want to perfect it, for a shadow came to me ­ the stillest and lightest
dragon. of all things once came to me!
My brothers, why is the lion required by the spirit? Why does the beast The overman's beauty came to me as a shadow. Oh, my brothers! Of
of burden, renouncing and reverent, not suffice? what concern to me anymore ­ are gods! ­
To create new values ­ not even the lion is capable of that; but to create
freedom for itself for new creation ­ that is within the power of the lion. Thus spoke Zarathustra.
To create freedom for oneself and also a sacred No to duty: for that,
my brothers, the lion is required. ~ On the Pitying
To take the right to new values ­ that is the most terrible taking for My friends, a gibe was told to your friend; "Just look at Zarathustra! Does
a carrying and reverent spirit. Indeed, it is preying, and the work of a he not wander among us like we were animals?"
predatory animal. But it is better said this way: "The seeker of knowledge wanders among
Once it loved "thou shalt" as its most sacred, now it must find delusion human beings as among animals."
and despotism even in what is most sacred to it, in order to wrest freedom Human beings themselves, however, the seeker of knowledge calls: the
from its love by preying. The lion is required for this preying. animal that has red cheeks.
But tell me, my brothers, of what is the child capable that even the lion How did this happen? Is it not because they have had to be ashamed so
is not? Why must the preying lion still become a child? often?
The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a wheel Oh my friends! Thus speaks the seeker of knowledge: Shame, shame,
rolling out of itself, a first movement, a sacred yes­saying. shame ­ that is the history of human be^s!
Yes, for the game of creation my brothers a sacred yes­saying is required. And that is why the noble person commands himself not to shame;
The spirit wants its will, the one lost to the world n(w wins its own world. shame he demands of himself before all sufferers.
Three metamorphoses of the spirit I named for you: how the spirit Indeed, I do not like them, the merciful who are blissful in their pitying;
became a camel, and the camel a lion, and finally the lion a child. ­ they lack too much in shame.
If I must be pitying, then I certainly do not want to be called such; and
Thus spoke Zarathustra. And then he sojourned in the town which is
if I am, then preferably from a distance.
called The Motley Cow.
Gladly would I cover my head and flee before I am recognized, and
 » .r ­ ,
thus I bid you do as well, my friends!
On the Teachers of Virtue
May my destiny always lead those like you, who do not suffer, across
A wise man was praised to Zarathustra who could speak well of sleep and my path, and those with whom I may share hope and meal and honey!
of virtue. For this he was much honored and rewarded, and all the youths Indeed, I probably did this and that for sufferers, but I always seemed
to do myself better when I learned to enjoy myself better.

17 67
 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Second Part
Ever since there have been humans, the human being has enjoyed
himself too little: That alone, my brothers, is our original sin! And we are not most unfair toward those who are repugnant to us, but
And if we learn to enjoy ourselves better, then we forget best how to toward those who do not at all concern us.
hurt others and plot hurt for them. But if you havea suffering friend, then be a resting place to his suffering,
Therefore I wash the hand that helped the sufferer, therefore too I wipe yet at the same time a hard bed, a camp bed: thus you will be most useful
even my soul. to him.
For inasmuch as I saw the sufferer suffering, I was ashamed for the sake And if a friend does evil to you, then say: "I forgive you what you
of his sharne; and when I helped him I severelv violated his pride. have done to me; but that you did it to yourself ­ how could I forgive
Great indebtedness does not make people thankful, but vengeful that!"
instead; and if the small kindness is not forgotten then it will become Thus speaks all greatlove; itmercomes even forgiveness and pitying.
a gnawing worm. One should Jiold on firmly to one's heart, for if one lets it go, how
"Be cold in accepting! Let your accepting serve to distinguish!" ­ Thus quickly one then loses one's head!
I counsel those who have nothing to give away. Oh, where in the world has greater folly occurred than among the
pitying.' And what in the world causes more suffering than the folly of
I, however, am a bestower. Gladly I bestow as friend to friends. But
the pitying?
strangers and poor people may pluck the fruit from my tree themselves:
Woe to all lovers who do not yet have an elevation that is above their
that way there is less shame.
pitying!
But beggars should be abolished completely! Indeed, one is angered in
Thus the devil once spoke to me; "Even God has his hell; it is his love
giving and angered in not giving to them.
for mankind."
And the same for sinners and bad consciences! Believe me, my friends,
And recently I heard him say these words: "God is dead; God died of
bites of conscience teach people to bite.
his pity for mankind."
Worst, however, are petty thoughts. Indeed, better to do evil than to
Thus I warn you against pity: from it a heavy cloud is coming to
think small!
mankind! Indeed, I understand weather forecasting!
You say, to be sure: "Pleasure in small mischief saves us many a great
But note these words too: all great love is above even all its pitying, for
evil deed." But here one should not want to save.
it still wants to create the beloved!
An evil deed is like a sore: it itches and scratches and ruptures — it
"I offer myself to my love, and my neighbor as myself — thus it is said
speaks honestly.
of all creators.
"Behold, I am sickness" ­ thus speaks the evil deed, that is its honesty.
But all creators are hard. ­
But a petty thought is like a fungus; it creeps and crouches and does
not want to be anywhere ­ until the whole body is rotten and wilted with Thus spoke Zarathustra.
little fungi.
To the one who is possessed by the devil, however, I whisper these On Priests
words in his ear: "Better to raise your devil until it is big! Even for you And once Zarathustra gave a sign to his disciples and spoke these ^ords
there is still a way to greatness!" ­ to them;
Oh my brothers! One knows a bit toomuch about everyone! And though "Here are priests, and though they are my enemies, go quietly past
some become transparent to us, we can by no means pass through them them and with sleeping swords!
on that account. Among them too there are heroes; many of them suffered too much, so
It is difficult to live with people because remaining silent is so difficult. they want to make others suffer.

68 69
 Thus Spoke Zarathustra Second Part

My heart, upon which my summer burns, the brief, hot, melancholy, Therefore I tear at your web, so that your rage might lure you from
superblissful summer; how my summer heart yearns for your coolness! your lie­hole lair, and your revenge might spring forth from behind your
Gone the hesitating gloom of my spring! Gone the mahce of my word "justice." For that mankind be redeemed from revenge­, that to me is
snowflakes in June! I have become summer and summer noon entirely! the bridge to the highest hope and a rainbow after long thunderstorms. ^
A summer in the highest regions with cold springs and blissful silence: But the tarantulas want it otherwise, to be sure. "That the world become
Oh come, my friends, and let the silence become even more bhssful! full of the thunderstorms of our revenge, precisely that we would regard
For it is our height and our homeland; too high and steep we live here as justice," ­ thus they speak with one another.
for all the unclean and their thirst. "We want to exact revenge and heap insult on all whose equals we are
Cast your pure eyes into the wellspring of my joy, you friends! How not" ­ thus vow the tarantula hearts.
could it become murky from that! It shall laugh back at you with its purity. "And 'will to equality' ­ that itself from now on shall be the name for
We build our nest in the tree called future; eagles shall bring us solitary virtue; and against everything that has power we shall raise our clamor!" ^
ones food in their beaks! You preachers of equality, the tyrant's madness of impotence cries thus
Truly, no food in which the unclean are allowed to share! They would out of you for "equality": your secret tyrant's cravings mask themselves
think they were devouring fire and burn their snouts! thus in your words of virtue!
Truly, we keep no homesteads ready here for the unclean! To their Aggrieved conceit, repressed envy, perhaps the conceit and envy of
bodies and to their minds our happiness would seem a cave of ice! your fathers: it erupts from you like a flame and the madness of revenge.
And like strong winds we want to live above them, neighbors to eagles, What is silent in the father learns to speak in the son; and often I found
neighbors to snow, neighbors to the sun: thus live strong winds. the son to be the father's exposed secret.
And some day I want to blow among them like a wind and steal their They resemble the inspired, but it is not the heart that inspires them ­
breath away with my spirit: thus my future wills it. but revenge. And when they are refined and cold, it is not the spirit but
Indeed, Zarathustra is a strong wind to all lowlands; and this counsel envy that makes them refined and cold.
he gives to his enemies and to everything that spits and spews: "Beware Their jealousy even leads them along the thinkers' path; and this is the
of spitting against the wind!" mark of their jealousy ­ they always go too far, such that their exhaustion
Thus spoke Zarathustra. must ultimately lay itself to sleep in snow.
From each of their laments revenge sounds, in each of their praisings
On the Tarantulas there is harm, and being the judge is bliss to them.
But thus I counsel you my friends: mistrust all in whom the drive to
Look here, this is the hole of the tarantula! Do you want to see the tarantula punish is strong!
itself? Its web hangs here; touch it, make it tremble. Those are~people of bad kind and kin; in their faces the hangman and
Here it comes, willingly — welcome, tarantula! On your back your tri­ the bloodhound are visible.
angle and mark sits in black; and I know too what sits in your soul. Mistrust all those who speak much of their justice! Indeed, their souls
Revenge sits in your soul: wherever you bite, there black scabs grow; are lacking not only honey.
your poison makes the soul whirl with revenge! And when they call themselves *'the good and the just," then do not
r" So I speak to you in parables, you Who cause the souls to whirl, you forget that all they lack to be pharisees is ­ power!
preachers of equalityl Tarantulas you are to me and hidden avengers! My friends, I do not want not be mixed in with and mistaken for others.
But I want to expose your hiding places to the light; therefore I laugh There are those who preach my doctrine of Hfe, and at the same time
into your face my laughter of the heights. they are preachers of equality and tarantulas. ^

76 77
 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Second Part

They speak in favor of life, these poisonous spiders, even though they "Punishment and justice must be" — thus it thinks. Not for nothing
are sitting in their holes and have turned against life, because they want
shall he sing his songs in honor of hostility here!"
to do harm. Yes, it has avenged itself! And alas! Now it will also make my soul whirl
They want to harm those who hold power today, for among them the
with revenge!
sermon on death is still most at home. But so that I do not whirl, my friends, bind me fast to this pillar here.
If it were otherwise, then the tarantulas would teach otherwise; and they
I would rather be a stylite than a whirlwind of revenge!
after all were formerly the best world slanderers and burners of heretics. Indeed, Zarathustra is no tornado or whirlwind; and if he is a dancer,
I do not want to be mixed in with and mistaken for these preachers of
nevermore a tarantella dancer! ­
equality. For thus justice speaks to me­, "humans are not equal."
And thev shnnldn't herome so either! What would my love for the Thus spoke Zarathustra.
overman be if I spoke otherwise.?
On a thousand bridges and paths they shall throng to the future, and On the Famous Wise Men
ever more war and inequality shall be set between them: thus my great The people you have served and the people's superstition, all you famous
love commands me to speak! wise men! ­ and not the truth! And precisely on that account you were
Inventors of images and ghosts shall they become in their hostihty, and
accorded respect.
with their images and ghosts they shall yet fight the highest fight against And for this reason too they tolerated your lack of faith, because it was
each other! a joke and a jog to the people. Thus does the master allow his slaves to
Good and evil, and rich and poor, and high and trifling, and all the have their way, deUghting all the while in their frolicking.
names of values: they shall be weapons and clanging signs that hfe must But whoever is despised by the people like a wolf by dogs; this is the
overcome itself again and again! free spirit, the foe of fetters, the non­adorer, the one who houses in the
Life itself wants to build itself into the heights with pillars and steps; it
woods.
wants to gaze into vast distances and out upon halcyon beauties—therefore Hunting him out of his lair ­ to the people this has always meant' a
it needs height! sense of what is right." On him the people have always sicced their dogs
And because it needs height, it needs steps and contradiction between
with the sharpest teeth.
steps and climbers! Life wants to climb and to overcome itself by climbing. "For the truth is here if only the people are here! Woe, woe to the
And look here, my friends! Here, where the tarantula's hole is, the ruins seekers!" ­ Thus it has echoed for all time.
of an ancient temple are rising ­ look here now with enlightened eyes! You wanted to justify your people's reverence; that is what you called
Indeed, the one who once heaped his thoughts skyward here in "will to truth," you famous wise men!
stone ­ he knew the secret of all life like the most wise! And your heart always said to itself: "From the people I came: from
That struggle and inequality and war for power and supremacy are there too God's voice came to me."
found even in beauty: he teaches us that here in the clearest parable. As advocates of the people you were always stiff­necked and clever, like
How divinely the vault and the arch bend and break each other as they asses.
wrestle; how they struggle against each other.with light and shadow, these And many a powerful t)ne wJio wanted to travel well with the people
divinely struggling ones ­ harnessed a little ass in front of his horses, a famous wise man.
In this manner sure and beautiful let us also be enemies, my friends! And now, you famous wise men, I wish you would finally throw off the
Divinely let us struggle against each other! lion skin completely!
Alas! Then the tarantula bit me, my old enemy! Divinely sure and The mottled skin of the predator, and the mane of the explorer, the
beautiful it bit me on the finger! searcher, the conqueror!

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 Second Part Thus Spoke Zarathustra

a genius. But I have never believed the people when they speak of great
On Redemption
human beings — and I maintained my belief that it was an inverse cripple
As Zarathustra crossed over the great bridge one day, the cripples and the who had too little of everything and too much of one thing."
beggars surrounded him and a hunchback spoke thus to him: When Zarathustra had spoken thus to the hunchback and to those for
"Behold, Zarathustra! The people too learn from you and are gaining whom he had served as mouthpiece and advocate, he turned deeply upset
faith in your teaching; but in order to believe you completely, they need to his disciples and said:
one more thing ­ you must first persuade us cripples! Here you have a fine "Truly, my friends, I walk among human beings as among the fragments
selection and truly, an opportunity with more than one scruff! You can and limbs of human beings!
heal the blind and make the lame walk; and for the one who has too much This is what is most frightening to my eyes, that I find mankind in
behind him, you could surely take a bit away — that, I believe, would be ruins and scattered about as if on a battle field or a butcher field.
the right way to make the cripples believe in Zarathustra!" And if my gaze flees from the now to the past; it always finds the same:
Zarathustra, however, responded to the speaker thus: "If one takes the fragments and limbs and grisly accidents ­ but no human beings!
hump from the hunchback, then one takes his spirit too ­ thus teach the The now and the past on earth ­ alas, my friends ­ that is what is most
people. And if one gives the blind man his eyesight, then he sees too many unbearable to me. And I would not know how to live if I were not also a
bad things on earth, such that he curses the one who healed him. But the seer of that which must come.
one who makes the lame walk causes him.the greatest harm, for scarcely A seer, a wilier, a"^ator,_a future himself and a bridge to the future. ­
does he begin to walk when his vices run away with him ­ thus teach the ^ and alas, at the same time a cripple at this bridge: all that is Zarathustra.
people about cripples. And why should Zarathustra not learn also from And you too asked yourselves often: 'Who is Zarathustra to us.? How
the people, if the people learn from Zarathustra? shall he be known to us.?' And like me you gave yourselves questions for
But it is the least thing to me, since I have been among human beings, answers.
when I see 'This one is missing an eye and That one an ear and the Third Is he a promiser.? Or a fulfiller.? A conqueror.? Or an inheritor.? An
one a leg, and there are Others who lost their tongue or their nose or their autumn.? Or a plow.? A physician.? Or a convalescent.?
Is he a poet? Or a truthful man? A liberator? Or a tamer? A good man?
head.'
Or an evil man?
I see and have seen worse, and some of it so hideous that I do not want~^
I walk among human beings as among the fragments of the future; that
to speak of everything, and of a few things I do not even want to remain
future that I see.
silent; namely human beings who were missing everything except the one
And all my creating and striving amounts to this, that I create and
thing they have too much of ­ human beings who are nothing more than
piece together into one, what is now fragment and riddle and grisly
one big eye, or one big maw or one big belly or some other big thing —
1 accident.
inverse cripples I call such types. __
And how could I bear to be a human being if mankind were not also
And as I came out of my solitude and crossed over this bridge the first
creator and solver of riddles and redeemer of accident?
time, then I didn't believe my eyes and I looked and I looked again and
To redeem those who are the past and to recreate all 'it was' into 'thus
said at last: 'That is an ear! An ear as big as a person!' And I looked
I willed it!' ­ only that would I call redemption!
more closely, and really, beneath the ear something was moving that was
Will ­ thus the liberator and iov bringer is called: thus I taught you, my
pitifully small and pathetic and thin. And, in truth, the gigantic ear sat
friends! And now learn this in addition: the will itself is still a prisoner.
upon a httle slender stalk ­ but the stalk was a human being! If one used a
Willing liberates, but what is that called, which claps even the liberator
magnifying glass one could even recognize a tiny, envious miniature face;
in chains?
even a bloated little soul dangling on the stalk. But the people told me
that the big ear was not only a human being, but a great human being,
no
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 Second Part Thus Spoke Zarathustra

'It was': thus is called­the will's gnashing of teeth and loneliest 'Can there be redemption, if there is eternal justice? Alas, the stone "it
misery. Impotent against that which has been ­ it is an angry specta­ was" is unmoveable; all punishments too must be eternal!' Thus preached
tor of everything past. madness.
The will cannot will backward; that it cannot break time and time's 'No deed can be annihilated; how could it be undone through
greed ­ that is the will's loneliest misery. punishment? This, this is what is eternal about the punishment called
Willing liberates; what does willing plan in order to rid itself of its existence, that existence must also eternally be deed and guilt again!
misery and mock its dungeon? Unless the will were to finally redeem itself and willing became not­
Alas, every prisoner becomes a fool! Foolishly as well the imprisoned willing ­'; but my brothers, you know this fable song of madness!
will redeems itself. Away from these fable songs I steered you when I taught you: 'The will
That time does not run backward, that is its wrath. 'That which is a creator.'
was' ­ thus the stone is called, which it cannot roll aside. All 'it was' is a fragment, a riddle, a grisly accident ­ until the creating
And so it rolls stones around out of wrath and annoyance, and will says to it: 'But I will it thus! I shall will it thus!'
wreaks revenge on that which does not feel wrath and annoyance as it But has it ever spoken thus? And when will this happen? Is the will
does. already unharnessed from its own folly?
Thus the will, the liberator, became a doer of harm; and on every­ Has the will already become its own redeemer and joy bringer? Has it
thing that is capable of suffering it avenges itself for not being able to go unlearned the spirit of revenge and all gnashing of teeth?
back. And who taught it reconciliation with time, and what is higher than
This, yes this alone is revenge itself; the will's unwillingness toward any reconciliation?
time and time's 'it was.' That will which is the will to power must will something higher than
Indeed, a great folly lives in our will; and it became the curse of all any reconciliation ­
humankind that this folly acquired spirit! but how shall this happen? Who would teach it to also will backward?"
The spirit of revenge', my friends, that so far has been what mankind ­ But at this point in his speech Zarathustra suddenly bTok^ETand
contemplate best; and wherever there was suffering, punishment was looked entirely like one who is appalled in the extreme. Appalled he
looked at his disciples, his eyes penetrated their thoughts and their secret
always supposed to be there as well.
thoughts as if with arrows. But after a little while he laughed again and
For 'punishment' is what revenge calls itself; with a lying word it hypo­
critically asserts its good conscience. said, more calmly:
"It's difficult to live with people because keeping silent is so hard.
And because in willing itself there is suffering, based on its inability to
will backward ­ thus all willing itself and all living is supposed to be ­ Especially for someone who is talkative." ­
Thus spoke Zarathustra. The hunchback meanwhile had listened to
punishment!
the conversation with his face covered, but when he heard Zarathustra
And now cloud upon cloud rolled in over the spirit, until at last madness
preached: 'Everything passes away, therefore everything deserves to pass laugh he looked up inquisitively and slowly said:
"But why does Zarathustra speak otherwise to us than to his disciples?"
away!
Zarathustra answered: "What's to wonder about in that! One is allowed
And this itself is justice, this law of time that it must devour its own
to speak hunched with hunchbacks!"
children' ­ thus preached madness.
"Good," said the hunchback, "and with pupils one may tell tales out
'All things are ordained ethically according to justice and punishment.
Alas, where is redemption from the flux of things and from the punishment of school.
But why does Zarathustra speak otherwise to his pupils ­ than to
called existence?' Thus preached madness.
himself?" ­

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