Aftersong

Aftersong

by Friedrich Nietzsche

O noon of life! A time to celebrate! 

Oh garden of summer! 

Restless happiness in standing, gazing, waiting:—

I wait for friends, ready day and night.

You friends, where are you? Come! It's time! It's time! 

Was it not for you that the glacier's grayness

today decked itself with roses? 

The stream is seeking you, and wind and clouds

with yearning push themselves higher into the blue today

to look for you from the furthest bird's eye view.

For you my table has been set at the highest point.

Who lives so near the stars? 

Who's so near the furthest reaches of the bleak abyss? 

My realm—what realm has stretched so far? 

And my honey—who has tasted that? ...

There you are, my friends! —Alas, so I'm not the man,

not the one you're looking for? 

You hesitate, surprised! —Ah, your anger would be better! 

Am I no more the one? A changed hand, pace, and face? 

And what am I—for you friends am I not the one? 

Have I become another? A stranger to myself? 

Have I sprung from myself? 

A wrestler who overcame himself so often? 

Too often pulling against his very own power,

wounded and checked by his own victory? 

I looked where the wind blows most keenly? 

I learned to live

where no one lives, in deserted icy lands,

forgot men and god, curse and prayer? 

Became a ghost that moves over the glaciers? 

—You old friends! Look! Now your gaze is pale,

full of love and horror! 

No, be off! Do not rage! You can't live here:

here between the furthest realms of ice and rock—

here one must be a hunter, like a chamois.

I've become a wicket hunter! See, how deep

my bow extends! 

It was the strongest man who made such a pull—

Woe betide you! The arrow is dangerous—

like no arrow—away from here! For your own good! ...

You're turning around? —O heart, you deceive enough,

your hopes stayed strong:

hold your door open for new friends! 

Let the old ones go! Let go the memory! 

Once you were young, now—you are even younger! 

What bound us then, a band of one hope—

who reads the signs,

love once etched there—still pale? 

I compare it to parchment which the hand

fears to touch—like that discoloured, burned.

No more friends—they are... But how can I name that? —

Just friendly ghosts! 

That knocks for me at night on my window and my heart,

that looks at me and says, 'But we were friends? '—

—O shrivelled word, once fragrant as a rose! 

O youthful longing which misunderstands itself! 

Those yearned for,

whom I imagined changed to my own kin,

they have grown old, have exiled themselves.

Only the one who changes stays in touch with me.

O noon of life! A second youthful time! 

O summer garden! 

Restless happiness in standing, gazing, waiting! 

I wait for friends, ready day and night.

You friends, where are you? Come! It's time! It's time

The song is done—the sweet cry of yearning

died in my mouth:

A magician did it, a friend at the right hour,

a noontime friend—no! Do not ask who it might be—

it was at noon when one turned into two....

Now we celebrate, certain of victory, united,

the feast of feasts:

friend Zarathustra came, the guest of guests! 

Now the world laughs, the horror curtain splits,

the wedding came for light and darkness.... 

Parable Of The Madman 

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning

hours,

ran to the market place, and cried incessantly:

'I seek God! I seek God!'

As many of those who did not believe in God

were standing around just then,

he provoked much laughter.

Has he got lost? asked one.

Did he lose his way like a child? asked another.

Or is he hiding?

Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?

Thus they yelled and laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes.

'Whither is God?' he cried; 'I will tell you.

We have killed him--you and I.

All of us are his murderers.

But how did we do this?

How could we drink up the sea?

Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon?

What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun?

Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving?

Away from all suns?

Are we not plunging continually?

Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions?

Is there still any up or down?

Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing?

Do we not feel the breath of empty space?

Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?

Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?

Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers

who are burying God?

Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition?

Gods, too, decompose.

God is dead.

God remains dead.

And we have killed him.

'How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?

What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled

to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?

What water is there for us to clean ourselves?

What festivals of atonement, what sacred gamesshall we have to invent?

Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?

Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us -

For the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all

history hitherto.'

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners;

and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment.

At last he threw his lantern on the ground,

and it broke into pieces and went out.

'I have come too early,' he said then; 'my time is not yet.

This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering;

it has not yet reached the ears of men.

Lightning and thunder require time;

the light of the stars requires time;

deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard.

This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars -

and yet they have done it themselves.

It has been related further that on the same day

the madman forced his way into several churches

and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo.

Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing

but:

'What after all are these churches now

if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?