When however Zarathustra had gone round a rock, then saw he on the same path, not far below him, a man who threw his limbs about like a maniac1, and at last tumbled to the ground on his belly2. “Halt!” said then Zarathustra to his heart, “he there must surely be the higher man, from him came that dreadful cry of distress3,—I will see if I can help him.” When, however, he ran to the spot where the man lay on the ground, he found a trembling old man, with fixed4 eyes; and in spite of all Zarathustra’s efforts to lift him and set him again on his feet, it was all in vain. The unfortunate one, also, did not seem to notice that some one was beside him; on the contrary, he continually looked around with moving gestures, like one forsaken5 and isolated6 from all the world. At last, however, after much trembling, and convulsion, and curling-himself-up, he began to lament7 thus:
Who warm’th me, who lov’th me still?
Give ardent8 fingers!
Give heartening charcoal-warmers!
Prone9, outstretched, trembling,
Like him, half dead and cold, whose feet one warm’th—
And shaken, ah! by unfamiliar10 fevers,
Shivering with sharpened, icy-cold frost-arrows,
By thee pursued, my fancy!
Ineffable12! Recondite13! Sore-frightening!
Thou huntsman ‘hind the cloud-banks!
Now lightning-struck by thee,
Thou mocking eye that me in darkness watcheth:
—Thus do I lie,
Bend myself, twist myself, convulsed
With all eternal torture,
And smitten14
By thee, cruellest huntsman,
Thou unfamiliar—GOD...
Smite15 deeper!
Smite yet once more!
Pierce through and rend16 my heart!
What mean’th this torture
With dull, indented17 arrows?
Why look’st thou hither,
Of human pain not weary,
With mischief-loving, godly flash-glances?
Not murder wilt18 thou,
But torture, torture?
For why—ME torture,
Thou mischief-loving, unfamiliar God?—
Ha! Ha!
Thou stealest nigh
In midnight’s gloomy hour?...
What wilt thou?
Speak!
Thou crowdst me, pressest—
Ha! now far too closely!
Thou hearst me breathing,
Thou o’erhearst my heart,
Thou ever jealous one!
—Of what, pray, ever jealous?
Off! Off!
For why the ladder?
Wouldst thou GET IN?
To heart in-clamber?
To mine own secretest
Conceptions in-clamber?
Shameless one! Thou unknown one!—Thief!
What seekst thou by thy stealing?
What seekst thou by thy hearkening?
What seekst thou by thy torturing?
Thou torturer!
Thou—hangman-God!
Or shall I, as the mastiffs do,
Roll me before thee?
And cringing19, enraptured20, frantical,
My tail friendly—waggle!
In vain!
Goad21 further!
Cruellest goader!
No dog—thy game just am I,
Cruellest huntsman!
Thy proudest of captives,
Thou robber ‘hind the cloud-banks...
Speak finally!
Thou lightning-veiled one! Thou unknown one! Speak!
What wilt thou, highway-ambusher, from—ME?
What WILT thou, unfamiliar—God?
What?
Ransom-gold?
How much of ransom-gold?
Solicit22 much—that bid’th my pride!
And be concise—that bid’th mine other pride!
Ha! Ha!
ME—wantst thou? me?
—Entire?...
Ha! Ha!
And torturest me, fool that thou art,
Dead-torturest quite my pride?
Give LOVE to me—who warm’th me still?
Who lov’th me still?—
Give ardent fingers
Give heartening charcoal-warmers,
Give me, the lonesomest,
The ice (ah! seven-fold frozen ice
For very enemies,
For foes24, doth make one thirst).
Give, yield to me,
Cruellest foe23,
—THYSELF!—
Away!
There fled he surely,
My final, only comrade,
My greatest foe,
Mine unfamiliar—
My hangman-God!...
—Nay!
Come thou back!
WITH all of thy great tortures!
To me the last of lonesome ones,
Oh, come thou back!
All my hot tears in streamlets trickle25
Their course to thee!
And all my final hearty26 fervour—
Up-glow’th to THEE!
Oh, come thou back,
Mine unfamiliar God! my PAIN!
My final bliss27!
2.
—Here, however, Zarathustra could no longer restrain himself; he took his staff and struck the wailer28 with all his might. “Stop this,” cried he to him with wrathful laughter, “stop this, thou stage-player! Thou false coiner! Thou liar11 from the very heart! I know thee well!
I will soon make warm legs to thee, thou evil magician: I know well how—to make it hot for such as thou!”
—“Leave off,” said the old man, and sprang up from the ground, “strike me no more, O Zarathustra! I did it only for amusement!
That kind of thing belongeth to mine art. Thee thyself, I wanted to put to the proof when I gave this performance. And verily, thou hast well detected me!
But thou thyself—hast given me no small proof of thyself: thou art HARD, thou wise Zarathustra! Hard strikest thou with thy ‘truths,’ thy cudgel forceth from me—THIS truth!”
—“Flatter not,” answered Zarathustra, still excited and frowning, “thou stage-player from the heart! Thou art false: why speakest thou—of truth!
Thou peacock of peacocks, thou sea of vanity; WHAT didst thou represent before me, thou evil magician; WHOM was I meant to believe in when thou wailedst in such wise?”
“THE PENITENT29 IN SPIRIT,” said the old man, “it was him—I represented; thou thyself once devisedst this expression—
—The poet and magician who at last turneth his spirit against himself, the transformed one who freezeth to death by his bad science and conscience.
And just acknowledge it: it was long, O Zarathustra, before thou discoveredst my trick and lie! Thou BELIEVEDST in my distress when thou heldest my head with both thy hands,—
—I heard thee lament ‘we have loved him too little, loved him too little!’ Because I so far deceived thee, my wickedness rejoiced in me.”
“Thou mayest have deceived subtler ones than I,” said Zarathustra sternly. “I am not on my guard against deceivers; I HAVE TO BE without precaution: so willeth my lot.
Thou, however,—MUST deceive: so far do I know thee! Thou must ever be equivocal, trivocal, quadrivocal, and quinquivocal! Even what thou hast now confessed, is not nearly true enough nor false enough for me!
Thou bad false coiner, how couldst thou do otherwise! Thy very malady30 wouldst thou whitewash31 if thou showed thyself naked to thy physician.
Thus didst thou whitewash thy lie before me when thou saidst: ‘I did so ONLY for amusement!’ There was also SERIOUSNESS therein, thou ART something of a penitent-in-spirit!
I divine thee well: thou hast become the enchanter of all the world; but for thyself thou hast no lie or artifice32 left,—thou art disenchanted to thyself!
Thou hast reaped disgust as thy one truth. No word in thee is any longer genuine, but thy mouth is so: that is to say, the disgust that cleaveth unto thy mouth.”—
—“Who art thou at all!” cried here the old magician with defiant33 voice, “who dareth to speak thus unto ME, the greatest man now living?”—and a green flash shot from his eye at Zarathustra. But immediately after he changed, and said sadly:
“O Zarathustra, I am weary of it, I am disgusted with mine arts, I am not GREAT, why do I dissemble! But thou knowest it well—I sought for greatness!
A great man I wanted to appear, and persuaded many; but the lie hath been beyond my power. On it do I collapse34.
O Zarathustra, everything is a lie in me; but that I collapse—this my collapsing35 is GENUINE!”—
“It honoureth thee,” said Zarathustra gloomily, looking down with sidelong glance, “it honoureth thee that thou soughtest for greatness, but it betrayeth thee also. Thou art not great.
Thou bad old magician, THAT is the best and the honestest thing I honour in thee, that thou hast become weary of thyself, and hast expressed it: ‘I am not great.’
THEREIN do I honour thee as a penitent-in-spirit, and although only for the twinkling of an eye, in that one moment wast thou—genuine.
But tell me, what seekest thou here in MY forests and rocks? And if thou hast put thyself in MY way, what proof of me wouldst thou have?—
—Wherein didst thou put ME to the test?”
Thus spake Zarathustra, and his eyes sparkled. But the old magician kept silence for a while; then said he: “Did I put thee to the test? I—seek only.
O Zarathustra, I seek a genuine one, a right one, a simple one, an unequivocal one, a man of perfect honesty, a vessel36 of wisdom, a saint of knowledge, a great man!
Knowest thou it not, O Zarathustra? I SEEK ZARATHUSTRA.”
—And here there arose a long silence between them: Zarathustra, however, became profoundly absorbed in thought, so that he shut his eyes. But afterwards coming back to the situation, he grasped the hand of the magician, and said, full of politeness and policy:
“Well! Up thither37 leadeth the way, there is the cave of Zarathustra. In it mayest thou seek him whom thou wouldst fain find.
And ask counsel of mine animals, mine eagle and my serpent: they shall help thee to seek. My cave however is large.
I myself, to be sure—I have as yet seen no great man. That which is great, the acutest eye is at present insensible to it. It is the kingdom of the populace.
Many a one have I found who stretched and inflated38 himself, and the people cried: ‘Behold; a great man!’ But what good do all bellows39 do! The wind cometh out at last.
At last bursteth the frog which hath inflated itself too long: then cometh out the wind. To prick40 a swollen41 one in the belly, I call good pastime. Hear that, ye boys!
Our to-day is of the populace: who still KNOWETH what is great and what is small! Who could there seek successfully for greatness! A fool only: it succeedeth with fools.
Thou seekest for great men, thou strange fool? Who TAUGHT that to thee? Is to-day the time for it? Oh, thou bad seeker, why dost thou—tempt me?”—
Thus spake Zarathustra, comforted in his heart, and went laughing on his way.
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收听单词发音
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1
maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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2
belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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3
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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4
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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5
Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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6
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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7
lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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8
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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9
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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10
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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11
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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12
ineffable
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| adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的 | |
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13
recondite
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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14
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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15
smite
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| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
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16
rend
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| vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取 | |
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17
indented
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| adj.锯齿状的，高低不平的；缩进排版 | |
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18
wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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19
cringing
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| adj.谄媚，奉承 | |
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20
enraptured
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| v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
goad
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| n.刺棒，刺痛物；激励；vt.激励，刺激 | |
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22
solicit
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| vi.勾引；乞求；vt.请求，乞求；招揽(生意) | |
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23
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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24
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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25
trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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26
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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27
bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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28
wailer
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| 哀悼者，恸哭者 | |
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29
penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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30
malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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31
whitewash
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| v.粉刷，掩饰；n.石灰水，粉刷，掩饰 | |
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32
artifice
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| n.妙计，高明的手段；狡诈，诡计 | |
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33
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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34
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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35
collapsing
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| 压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂 | |
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36
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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37
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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38
inflated
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| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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39
bellows
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| n.风箱；发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的名词复数 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的第三人称单数 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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40
prick
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| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
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41
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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