01 - Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thus spake Zarathustra by Frederic Nietzsche, translated by Thomas Common,
Part one, Chapter one, The Three Metamorphoses Three metamorphoses of
the Spirit. Do I designate to you how the Spirit
becometh a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion

(00:24):
alast a child. Many heavy things are there for the spirit,
the strong, load bearing spirit, in which reverence dwelleth for
the heavy and the heaviest. Longeth is strength. What is heavy?
So asketh the load bearing Spirit? Then kneeleth it down
like the camel, and wanteth to be well laden? What

(00:47):
is the heaviest thing? Ye heroes, asketh the load bearing Spirit,
that I might take it upon me and rejoice in
my strength. Is it not this to humiliate one's self
in order more rorify one's pride, to exhibit one's folly,
in order to mock at one's wisdom. Or is it

(01:08):
this to desert our cause when it celebrateth its triumph,
to ascend high mountains to tempt the tempter? Or is
it this to feed on the acorns and grass of
knowledge and for the sake of truth, to suffer hunger
of soul? Or is it this to be sick and
dismiss comforters, and make friends of the death who never

(01:29):
hear thy requests. Or is it this to go into
foul water when it is the water of truth, not
disclaim cold frogs and hot toads? Or is it this
to love those who despise us and give one's hand
to the phantom when it is going to frighten us?
All these heaviest things, the load bearing spirit taketh upon itself.

(01:53):
And like the camel, which, when laden hasteneth into the wilderness,
so hasteneth the Spirit into it wilderness. But in the
loneliest wilderness happeneth the second metamorphosis. Here the spirit becometh
a lion. Freedom will capture it, and lordship and its
own wilderness its last lord. It here seeketh hostile. Will

(02:15):
it be to him and to last God for victory
will struggle with the great Dragon. What is the great dragon?
Which is spirit? Is no longer inclined to call Lord
and God? Thou shalt is the great dragon called, But
the spirit of the lion saith I will thou shalt
lieth in its path, sparkling with gold, a scale covered beast,

(02:37):
and on every scale glittereth golden, Thou shalt the values
of a thousand years glitter on those scales, And thus
speaketh the mightiest of all dragons. All the values of
things glitter on me. All values have already been created,
And all created values do I represent? Verily, Thou shall

(02:57):
be no my will anymore us speaketh to dragon, my brethren.
Wherefore is the need of the lion in the spirit?
Why sufficeth not the beast of burden, which renounceth and
is reverent to create new values that even the lion
cannot yet accomplish, But to create it self freedom for

(03:20):
new creating, that can the might of the lion do,
to create it self freedom and give a holy nay
even unto duty. For that, my brethren, there is need
of a lion to assume the right to new values.
That is the most formidable assumption for load bearing and
reverent spirit. Verily into such a spirit as praying and

(03:43):
the work of a beast of prey as its holiest
at once loved thou shalt, and now it is forced
to find illusion and arbitrariness even in the holiest things
that may capture freedom from its love. The lion is
needeth for this capture. But tell me, my brother, what
the child can do, which even the lion could not do.

(04:06):
Why hath the praying lions still to become a child?
Innocence is the child, and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a game,
a self rolling wheel, a first movement, a holy ya
aye for the game of creating, My brethren, there is needed,
a holy yay unto life its own will willeth. Now

(04:28):
the spirit his own world winneth the world's outcast. Three
metamorphoses of the Spirit have I designated to you How
the Spirit became a camel, the camel a lion, and
the lion a last a child. Thus spake Zarathustra. And
at the time he abode in a town which is

(04:49):
called the Pied Cow. End of Chapter one.