Fame and Eternity

1

How long will you sit
on your misfortune?
Watch out! You hatch me yet
Another egg,
A basilisk-egg
Out of your long misery.

Why did Zarathustra sneak along the mountains? —

Distrustful, ulcerous, gloomy,
One who long lies in wait —
But suddenly, lightning,
Bright, terrible, a blast
Heavenwards out of the abyss:
The mountains themselves shake from
The bowels of the earth ...

Where hate and lightning-flash
Become one, a curse —
Now Zarathustra's wrath cuts across the mountains,
A storm-cloud creeps along its way.

Sneak off, one who has a last cover!
Into bed with you, you weakling!
Now rolling thunder over the vaults,
Then shaking, as the beams and wall,
Then flickering lightning and sulphur-yellow truths —
Zarathustra curses ...

2

This coin, with which
All the world pays,
Fame —
I grasp this coin with gloves,
With disgust I trample it under me.

Who wants to be paid?
Those for sale ...
Whoever is for sale, seizes
With sticky hands
All the world's coin-jingle-jangle fame!

— You want to buy them?
They're all for sale.
But offer much!
Jingle with a full purse!
— Otherwise you fortify them,
You fortify their virtue ...

They are all virtuous.
Fame and virtue—it rhymes. ["Ruhm und Tugend—das reimt sich."]
As long as the world lives,
It will pay virtue-prattling
With fame-rattling —
The world lives on this noise ...

Before all the virtuous
I want to be guilty,
Called guilty of each great offence!
Before all fame-trumpets
My ambition will become a worm —
Among those I desire
To be the lowest ...

This coin, with which
All the world pays,
Fame —
I grasp this coin with gloves,
With disgust I trample it under me.

3

Hush! —
From great things—I see a great deal! —
One should keep silent
Or speak greatly:
Speak greatly, my delighted wisdom!

Up there I see —
Rolling seas of light:
— Oh night, oh silence, oh deathly silent uproar! ...

I see a sign —
From the distant beyond
A glittering constellation slowly sinks towards me ...

4

Supreme star of being!
Tablet of eternal forms!
You come towards me? —
Why hasn't anyone beheld
Your mute beauty —
Why doesn't it escape my gaze?

Sign of necessity!
Tablet of eternal forms!
— But of course you know it:
What everyone hates,
What I alone love,
That you are eternal!
That you are necessary!
My love is ever ignited
Only through necessity.

Sign of necessity!
Supreme star of being! —
That no desire attains,
That no No desecrates,
Eternal Yes of being,
Eternally I am your Yes:
For I love you, O eternity! — —