Ecce Homo Complete Works, Volume Seventeen · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
VENICE
ON the bridge I stood, Mellow was the night, Music came from far-- Drops of gold outpoured On the shimmering waves. Song, gondolas, light, Floated a-twinkling out into the dusk. The chords of my soul, moved By unseen impulse, throbbed Secretly into a gondola song, With thrills of bright-hued ecstasy. Had I a listener there? He who cannot laugh at this had better not start reading; For if he read and do not laugh, physic he'll be needing! With jesters it is good to jest: Who likes to tickle, is tickled best.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.