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Posted by Thomas on 2/14/2007, 8:49 am Morgenröthe or Morgenröte simply means "dawn" and making it "rosy" gives the text a kitsch tone that it does not have. All ideas welcome!
90.24.132.X
WHEN Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the lake of his home, and went into the mountains. There he enjoyed his spirit and his solitude, and for ten years did not weary of it. But finally he had a change of heart - and rising one morning with the dawn, he went before the sun, and spoke thus to it:
"Oh great star! What would your happiness be if you did not have us to shine for?
"For ten years you have climbed here to my cave: you would have become weary of shining and of the journey, had it not been for me, my eagle, and my serpent.
"But we waited for you every morning, took from you your overflow, and blessed you for it.
"Behold! I am weary of my wisdom, like the bee that has gathered too much honey; I need hands outstretched to take it from me. I wish to spread it and bestow it, until the wise have once more become joyous in their folly, and the poor happy in their riches.
"For that I must descend into the depths, as you do in the evening when you go below the sea and bring light also to the underworld, you superabundant star!
"Like you, I must descend - as the men, to whom I shall go, call it.
"So bless me then, you tranquil eye that can behold even the greatest happiness without envy!
"Bless the cup that is about to overflow, that the water may flow golden out of it, and carry everywhere the reflection of your bliss!
"Behold! This cup wants to become empty again, and Zarathustra wants to be a man again.
Thus began Zarathustra's descent.
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First of all I found this translation (does anyone know which one it is?) at Wikisource http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Thus_Spake_Zarathustra ; I find it better than the Thomas Common one. First of all it is less archaic, and it is closer to the original, for example:
"und eines Morgens stand er mit der Morgenröthe"
is here:
"and rising one morning with the dawn"
Common has:
"and rising one morning with the rosy dawn"
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The first phrase of the Zarathustra is a biblical allusion (notes of the Critical Edition KSA):
Luke 3:23: "Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry."
To me that is really essential, because if God is dead, by what light will we live? I'm convinced that Nietzsche has seen a new light, a new sun rising and that's the story he's going to tell us. He's using a biblical style to tell his readers: fear not, there is just as much meaning to life after the death of God. Meaning as strong as a biblical text.
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Symbols:
"my eagle, and my serpent": the eagle is the symbol of St John the evangelist, and so of rising, of spirit. The serpent is course form Genesis and represents Christian Evil. Translated is Nietzsche's terms the eagle would be the Apollinian (as the Sun is the god Apollo too) and the serpent the Dionysian aspects of life (as the bees, symbols of Demeter, goddess of the underworld http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_(mythology) ) . Dionysus (as Iacchus) was the son of Demeter in the Greek Eleusian mystery cults.
"For that I must descend into the depths" also is Dionysian, in contrast to the Sun.
Thomas
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