The Lying Poets (Pt. 2)

The Fool

We also know too little, and are bad learners: so we are obliged to lie. And which of us poets has not adulterated his wine? Many a poisonous hotchpotch has evolved in our cellars: many an indescribable thing has there been done. And because we know little, therefore are we pleased from the heart with the poor in spirit, especially when they are young women! And even of those things are we desirous, which old women tell one another in the evening. This do we call the eternally feminine in us. And as if there were a special secret access to knowledge, which chokes up for those who learn anything, so do we believe in the people and in their “wisdom.” This, however, do all poets believe: that whoever pricks up his ears when lying in the grass or on lonely slopes, learns something of the things that are between heaven and earth. And if there come to them tender emotions, then do the poets always think that nature herself is in love with them: And that she steals to their ear to whisper secrets into it, and amorous flatteries: of this do they plume and pride themselves, before all mortals!

from: Thus Spoke Zarathustra by F. Nietzsche (Ed: Bill Chapko)

The Lying Poets (Pt. 1)

Jun20

London after Midnight

“Since I have known the body better” – said Zarathustra to one of his disciples – “the spirit has only been to me symbolically spirit; and all the ‘imperishable’ – that is also but a simile.”

“So have I heard you say once before,” answered the disciple, ” and then you added: ‘But the poets lie too much.’ Why didst you say that the poets lie too much?”

“Why?” said Zarathustra. “you ask why? I do not belong to those who may be asked after their Why. Is my experience but of yesterday? It is long ago that I experienced the reasons for my opinions. Should I not have to be a cask of memory, if I also wanted to have my reasons with me? It is already too much for me even to retain my opinions; and many a bird flies away. And sometimes, also, do I find a fugitive creature in my dovecote, which is alien to me, and trembles when I lay my hand upon it. But what did Zarathustra once say to you? That the poets lie too much? – But Zarathustra also is a poet. Do you believe that he there spoke the truth? Why do you believe it?”

The disciple answered: “I believe in Zarathustra.” But Zarathustra shook his head and smiled.
“Belief does not sanctify me”, said he, “least of all the belief in myself. But granting that someone did say in all seriousness that the poets lie too much: he was right – we do lie too much.”

from: Thus Spoke Zarathustra by F. Nietzsche (Ed: Bill Chapko)

Zarathustra’s Stately Idol

Jun17

Diana of Ephesus1

Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not where we live, my brothers:
here there are states. State? What is that? Well then, open your ears to me,
for now I shall speak to you about the death of peoples.

State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters.
Coldly it tells lies too; and this lie crawls out of its mouth:
I, the state, am the people.
That is a lie! It was creators who created peoples
and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served life.

It is annihilators who set traps for the many and call them state:
they hang a sword and a hundred appetites over them.

Where there is still a people, it does not understand the state
and hates it as the evil eye and the sin against customs and rights.

This sign I give you: every people speaks its tongue of good and evil, which the neighbor does not understand. It has invented its own language of customs and rights. But the state tells lies in all the tongues of good and evil; and whatever it says it lies—and whatever it has it has stolen. Everything about it is false; it bites with stolen teeth, and bites easily. Even its entrails are false. Confusion of tongues of good and evil: this sign I give you as the sign of the state. Verily, this sign signifies the will to death. Verily, it beckons to the preachers of death.