Chapter 43 Visions and Mysteries Part Three

When the sailors knew that Zarathustra was on board—because at the same time another person from the Isle of Happiness was also crossing in this boat—they all had a great anticipation and curiosity.But Zarathustra did not speak for two days, he was frozen and silenced by sorrow; he neither responded to glances nor answered questions.Till the next night, though he was still silent, his ears were reopened: for there were many strange adventures to hear on this ship that came from far and went farther.Zarathustra is the friend of all those who love long-distance travel and those who live with danger.look!As he was listening, his tongue finally loosened, and the ice in his heart finally thawed.So he began to say thus:

You brave seekers and explorers, you who sail with cunning sails on the dreadful sea— You who are drunk with mystery and lovers of twilight, you who let the flute lure your soul to treacherous bays:— For you would not take a thread with cowardly hands and grope; for if you could guess, you would never generalize. —— Only to you would I tell the riddle I have seen, - vision of the loneliest man - I've been biting my lip a bit melancholy lately walking in the gray dusk.Many suns have sunk for me. My way rises stubbornly through the denuded earth, a maliciously lonely grassless path: a mountain path that screams under my defiant footsteps.

My foot hoarsely walks over the mocking rustle of stones, crushing the stones that make it slippery: so it forces itself up. Upwards:—resisting dragged it down, to the spirit of the abyss, this severe spirit, my devil and mortal enemy. Upwards:--Though the severe spirit half-dwarf, half-mole sat upon me like a mole, and made my limbs feeble; while he poured drops of lead into my ears, and thoughts of lead drops into my brain. "O Zarathustra," he sneered bitterly, "you stone of wisdom! Throw yourself high into the air,—but every stone that is thrown must fall! O Zarathustra, you stone of wisdom, thrown stone, destroyer of planets!You throw yourself high into the air,—but every stone that is thrown must fall.

O Zarathustra, you are condemned to be struck down by your own stone: you throw the stone far away - but it falls on your own head! " Then the dwarf fell silent; and for a long time said nothing.The silence weighed on me; verily, though he and I were two, it was lonelier than if I were alone! I climbed, climbed, dreamed, thought,—but everything weighed on me.I am like a sick man who has just fallen asleep tired out of his bad pains, only to be awakened by a bad dream. —— But there is one thing in me called bravery: it has always been the slayer of disappointment.The brave bid me stop at last, and said: "Dwarf! You or I!"—

For bravery, bravery in attack, is the best slayer; in every attack there is joy in battle. But man is the bravest beast: so he overcomes all other beasts.He overcame all pain while the music of war played; but human pain is the deepest pain. Bravery also kills the dizziness beside the ravine: Where is man not beside the ravine?Didn't he just look -- and see the valley? Courage is the best slayer: it also slays mercy.Pity is the deepest abyss: one sees as deeply into pain as one sees into life. Courage, courage in attack, is the best slayer: it also slays death; Because it says, "Was this ever life? Well! Let's start again!"

In this maxim, the joys of battle are many.Let those who have ears hear. ——