Ecce Homo Complete Works, Volume Seventeen · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
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What language will such a spirit speak, when he speaks unto his soul? The language of the _dithyramb._ I am the inventor of the dithyramb. Hearken unto the manner in which Zarathustra speaks to his soul _Before Sunrise_ (iii. 48). Before my time such emerald joys and divine tenderness had found no tongue. Even the profoundest melancholy of such a Dionysus takes shape as a dithyramb. As an example of this I take "The Night-Song,"--the immortal plaint of one who, thanks to his superabundance of light and power, thanks to the sun within him, is condemned never to love. "It is night: now do all gushing springs raise their voices. And my soul too is a gushing spring. "It is night: now only do all lovers burst into song. And my soul too is the song of a lover. "Something unquenched and unquenchable is within me, that would raise its voice. A craving for love is within me, which itself speaketh the language of love. "Light am I: would that I were night! But this is my loneliness, that I am begirt with light. "Alas, why am I not dark and like unto the night! How joyfully would I then suck at the breasts of light! "And even you would I bless, ye twinkling starlets and glow-worms on high! and be blessed in the gifts of your light.
"But in mine own light do I live, ever back into myself do I drink the flames I send forth. "I know not the happiness of the hand stretched forth to grasp; and oft have I dreamt that stealing must be more blessed than taking. "Wretched am I that my hand may never rest from giving: an envious fate is mine that I see expectant eyes and nights made bright with longing. "Oh, the wretchedness of all them that give! Oh, the clouds that cover the face of my sun! That craving for desire! that burning hunger at the end of the feast! "They take what I give them; but do I touch their soul? A gulf is there 'twixt giving and taking; and the smallest gulf is the last to be bridged. "An appetite is born from out my beauty: would that I might do harm to them that I fill with light; would that I might rob them of the gifts I have given:--thus do I thirst for wickedness. "To withdraw my hand when their hand is ready stretched forth like the waterfall that wavers, wavers even in its fall:--thus do I thirst for wickedness. "For such vengeance doth my fulness yearn: to such tricks doth my loneliness give birth. "My joy in giving died with the deed. By its very fulness did my virtue grow weary of itself.
"He who giveth risketh to lose his shame; he that is ever distributing groweth callous in hand and heart therefrom. "Mine eyes no longer melt into tears at the sight of the suppliant's shame; my hand hath become too hard to feel the quivering of laden hands. "Whither have ye fled, the tears of mine eyes and the bloom of my heart? Oh, the solitude of all givers! Oh, the silence of all beacons! "Many are the suns that circle in barren space; to all that is dark do they speak with their light--to me alone are they silent. "Alas, this is the hatred of light for that which shineth: pitiless it runneth its course. "Unfair in its inmost heart to that which shineth; cold toward suns,--thus doth every sun go its way. "Like a tempest do the suns fly over their course: for such is their way. Their own unswerving will do they follow: that is their coldness. "Alas, it is ye alone, ye creatures of gloom, ye spirits of the night, that take your warmth from that which shineth. Ye alone suck your milk and comfort from the udders of light. "Alas, about me there is ice, my hand burneth itself against ice! "Alas, within me is a thirst that thirsteth for your thirst! "It is night: woe is me, that I must needs be light! And thirst after darkness! And loneliness! "It is night: now doth my longing burst forth like a spring,--for speech do I long. "It is night: now do all gushing springs raise their voices. And my soul too is a gushing spring. "It is night: now only do all lovers burst into song. And my soul too is the song of a lover."
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.