- from Kaufmann’s translation
of Beyond Good and Evil -
At home in many continents of the spirit –
having retreated again and again
from youth, age, prejudice, preference, people, books,
escaped the allure of money, office, renown –
grateful to need and vacillating health,
to god, devil, sheep, worm, saint, tyrant within us –
curious to a vice, with uninhibited
fingers for what is not to be fathomed
and stomachs for what is not to be digested –
with foregrounds and backgrounds whose reaches, whose climates
no foot, no step will easily explore –
economical in learning and forgetting –
now pedants, now night owls of work in broad daylight,
born, sworn, envious friends of solitude…
That is precisely what we are – we free spirits!
[Previous: The Naming of Cats]
[Next: Before Breaking the Bread]