--- title: "Thus Spake Zarathustra" author: "Friedrich Nietzsche" translator: "Thomas Common" languages: [en] shelf: "Philosophy" section: 72 of 95 url: https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/72/ cite: "Friedrich Nietzsche, tr. Thomas Common, Thus Spake Zarathustra, section 72. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/72/" --- # Thus Spake Zarathustra *Friedrich Nietzsche, tr. Thomas Common* A prophet comes down from his mountain to teach the overman, in sermons and songs. ## 72. LX. The Seven Seals Source: https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/72/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/nietzsche-zarathustra/72/#p-N [¶0] (OR THE YE-A AND AMEN LAY.) ### 1 [¶2] If I be a diviner and full of the divining spirit which wandereth on high mountain-ridges, ‘twixt two seas,— [¶3] Wandereth ‘twixt the past and the future as a heavy cloud—hostile to sultry plains, and to all that is weary and can neither die nor live: [¶4] Ready for lightning in its dark bosom, and for the redeeming flash of light, charged with lightnings which say Yea! which laugh Yea! ready for divining flashes of lightning:— [¶5] —Blessed, however, is he who is thus charged! And verily, long must he hang like a heavy tempest on the mountain, who shall one day kindle the light of the future!— [¶6] Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity and for the marriage-ring of rings—the ring of the return? [¶7] Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity! [¶8] FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY! ### 2 [¶10] If ever my wrath hath burst graves, shifted landmarks, or rolled old shattered tables into precipitous depths: [¶11] If ever my scorn hath scattered mouldered words to the winds, and if I have come like a besom to cross-spiders, and as a cleansing wind to old charnel-houses: [¶12] If ever I have sat rejoicing where old Gods lie buried, world-blessing, world-loving, beside the monuments of old world-maligners:— [¶13] —For even churches and Gods’—graves do I love, if only heaven looketh through their ruined roofs with pure eyes; gladly do I sit like grass and red poppies on ruined churches— [¶14] Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings—the ring of the return? [¶15] Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity! [¶16] FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY! ### 3 [¶18] If ever a breath hath come to me of the creative breath, and of the heavenly necessity which compelleth even chances to dance star-dances: [¶19] If ever I have laughed with the laughter of the creative lightning, to which the long thunder of the deed followeth, grumblingly, but obediently: [¶20] If ever I have played dice with the Gods at the divine table of the earth, so that the earth quaked and ruptured, and snorted forth fire-streams:— [¶21] —For a divine table is the earth, and trembling with new creative dictums and dice-casts of the Gods: [¶22] Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings—the ring of the return? [¶23] Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity! [¶24] FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY! ### 4 [¶26] If ever I have drunk a full draught of the foaming spice- and confection-bowl in which all things are well mixed: [¶27] If ever my hand hath mingled the furthest with the nearest, fire with spirit, joy with sorrow, and the harshest with the kindest: [¶28] If I myself am a grain of the saving salt which maketh everything in the confection-bowl mix well:— [¶29] —For there is a salt which uniteth good with evil; and even the evilest is worthy, as spicing and as final over-foaming:— [¶30] Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings—the ring of the return? [¶31] Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity! [¶32] FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY! ### 5 [¶34] If I be fond of the sea, and all that is sealike, and fondest of it when it angrily contradicteth me: [¶35] If the exploring delight be in me, which impelleth sails to the undiscovered, if the seafarer’s delight be in my delight: [¶36] If ever my rejoicing hath called out: “The shore hath vanished,—now hath fallen from me the last chain— [¶37] The boundless roareth around me, far away sparkle for me space and time,—well! cheer up! old heart!”— [¶38] Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings—the ring of the return? [¶39] Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity! [¶40] FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY! ### 6 [¶42] If my virtue be a dancer’s virtue, and if I have often sprung with both feet into golden-emerald rapture: [¶43] If my wickedness be a laughing wickedness, at home among rose-banks and hedges of lilies: [¶44] —For in laughter is all evil present, but it is sanctified and absolved by its own bliss:— [¶45] And if it be my Alpha and Omega that everything heavy shall become light, every body a dancer, and every spirit a bird: and verily, that is my Alpha and Omega!— [¶46] Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings—the ring of the return? [¶47] Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity! [¶48] FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY! ### 7 [¶50] If ever I have spread out a tranquil heaven above me, and have flown into mine own heaven with mine own pinions: [¶51] If I have swum playfully in profound luminous distances, and if my freedom’s avian wisdom hath come to me:— [¶52] —Thus however speaketh avian wisdom:—“Lo, there is no above and no below! Throw thyself about,—outward, backward, thou light one! Sing! speak no more! [¶53] —Are not all words made for the heavy? Do not all words lie to the light ones? Sing! speak no more!”— [¶54] Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings—the ring of the return? [¶55] Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love: for I love thee, O Eternity! [¶56] FOR I LOVE THEE, O ETERNITY!