Thus Spake Zarathustra - Penn State University

Friedrich Nietzschethus:nondescript grasped at a corner of his garment and begananew to gurgle and seek for words. “Stay,” said he at“Zarathustra! Zarathustra! Read my riddle! Say, say! Whatis the revenge on the witness?last—I entice thee back; here is smooth ice! See to it, see to —”Stay! Do not pass by! I have divined what axe itit, that thy pride do not here break its legs!was that struck thee to the ground: hail to thee, OThou thinkest thyself wise, thou proud Zarathustra! Read Zarathustra, that thou art again upon thy feet!then the riddle, thou hard nut-cracker,—the riddle that I Thou hast divined, I know it well, how the man feeletham! Say then: who am I!”who killed him,—the murderer of God. Stay! Sit down—When however Zarathustra had heard these words,— here beside me; it is not to no purpose.what think ye then took place in his soul? Pity overcame To whom would I go but unto thee? Stay, sit down! Dohim; and he sank down all at once, like an oak that hath not however look at me! Honour thus—mine ugliness!long withstood many tree-fellers,—heavily, suddenly, to They persecute me: now art thou my last refuge. notthe terror even of those who meant to fell it. But immediatelyhe got up again from the ground, and his countesecutionwould I mock at, and be proud and cheerful!with their hatred, not with their bailiffs;—Oh, such pernancebecame stern.Hath not all success hitherto been with the well-persecutedones? And he who persecuteth well learneth readily“I know thee well,” said he, with a brazen voice, “Thouart the murder of God! Let me go.to be obsequent—when once he is—put behind! But it isThou couldst not endure him who beheld thee,—who their pity—ever beheld thee through and through, thou ugliest man. —Their pity is it from which I flee away and flee toThou tookest revenge on this witness!”thee. O Zarathustra, protect me, thou, my last refuge,Thus spake Zarathustra and was about to go; but the thou sole one who divinedst me:237