The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche PDF

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE -eGay Science With a Prelude in Rhymes - - - and an Appendix of Songs TRANSLATED. WITH COMMENTARY. BY Walter Kaufmann  THE GAY SCIENCE with a prelude in rhymes and an appendix of songs Friedrich Nietzsche...

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE -eGay Science With a Prelude in Rhymes - - - and an Appendix of Songs TRANSLATED. WITH COMMENTARY. BY Walter Kaufmann  THE GAY SCIENCE with a prelude in rhymes and an appendix of songs Friedrich Nietzsche Translated, with Commentary~ by WALTER KAUFMANN VINTAGE BOOKS A Division of Random HoJJse NEWYORX  VlNTAGE BOOKS EDlTION, MIITciJ 1974 Copyright © 1974 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York. and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canda Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Random House, Inc., in 1974. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900. The gay science. "This translation is based on the second edition of Die friihliche Wissenschajt, published in 1887." 1. Philosophy. 2. Man. 3. Religion-Philosophy. 4. Power (Philosophy) 5. Ethics. I. Kaufmann, Walter Arnold, tr. II. Title. [B331J.F72E5 1974b] 193 73-10479 ISBN 0-394-71985-9 Manufactured in the United States of America E987654321  A Note on the Text This translation is based on the second edition of Die Frohliche Wissenschajt, published in 1887, which agrees with the first edition of 1882, but contains three substantial additions: an important ten-page Preface, Book V (sections 343-384). and an Appendix of Songs. Nietzsche also changed the title page and replaced the motto from Emerson with a four-liner of his own. When citing the original German in the notes. I have mod- ernized the spelling (changing th to t). The text of the book that appears in various collected German editions is also that of the second edition-except for some small, unacknowledged changes, noted in the commentary. One of these changes is rather serious (in section 370). One collected edition that I refer to occasionally is Gesam- melte Werke, Musarionausgabe, 23 volumes, Musarion Verlag, Munich, 1920-29. Two other German works are quoted anum- ber of times: Friedrich Nietzsches Briefe an Peter Gast, ed. Peter Gast, Insel Verlag, Leipzig, 1908, and Friedrich Nietzsches Briefwechsel mit Franz Overbeck, ed. Richard Oehler and Carl Albrecht Bernoulli. Inset Verlag, Leipzig, 1916.  Abbreviations BWN: Basic Writings of Nietzsche, Translated and Edited, with Commentaries, by Walter Kaufmann. The Modem Li- brary, Random House, New York, 1968. This volume contains The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, The Case of Wagner, and Ecce Homo, as well as additional selections. VPN: The Portable Nietzsche, Selected and Translated, with an Introduction, Prefaces, and Notes by Walter Kauf- mann. The Viking Press, New York, 1954. This volume contains Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Nietzsche contra Wagner, as well as additional selections. Kaufmann: Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychol- ogist, Antichrist. Third Edition. Princeton University Press. Princeton. 1968, and Vintage Books, Random House, New ·York, 1968. Nietzsche Bibliography on pp.477-502. NOTB: Arabic figures after these three abbreviations refer to pages in these editions. The Will to Power, Edited, with Commentary, by Walter Kauf- mann, Vintage Books, Random House, New York, 1968, is cited by referring to the numbers of the 1067 notes.  CONTENTS A Note on the Text vi Abbreviations vii Translator's Introduction 3 Nietzsche's Preface for the Second Edition 32 "Joke, Cunning, and Revenge": Prelude in German Rhymes 39 l. Invitation, 41 16. Up, 47 2. My Happiness, 41 17. The Maxim of the Brute, 3. Undaunted, 41 47 4. Dialogue, 41 18. Narrow Souls, 47 5 To the Virtuous, 43 19. The Involuntary Seducer, 6. Worldly Wisdom, 43 47 7. V ademecum- Vadetecum, 20. For your Consideration, 49 43 21. Against Airs, 49 8. Shedding the Third Skin, 22. Man and Woman, 49 43 23. Interpretation, 49 9. My Roses, 45 24. Medicine for Pessimists. 10. Scorn, 45 49 11. The Proverb Speaks, 45 25. Request, 49 12. To a Light-Lover, 45 26. My Hardness, 5 t 13. For Dancers, 47 27. The Wanderer, 51 14. The Good Man, 47 28. Consolation for Begmners, 15. Rust, 47 51 ix X CONTENTS 29. The Egoism of the Stars, 46. Judgments of the Weary, 53 61 30. The Neighbor, 53 47. Decline, 61 31. The Disguised Saint, 53 48. Against the Laws, 61 32. The Unfree Man. 53 49. The Sage Speaks, 61 33. The Solitary, 53 50. Lost His Head, 63 34. Seneca et hoc genus omne, 51. Pious Wishes, 63 55 52. Writing with One's Feet, 35. Ice, 55 63 36. Juvenilia, 55 53. Human, All Too Human: 37. Caution, 55 ABook,63 18. The Pious Retort, 57 54. To My Reader. 63 39. In the Summer, 57 55. Realistic Painters, 65 40. Without Envy, 57 56. Poet's Vanity, 65 41. Heraclitean, 57 57. Choosy Taste, 65 42. Principle of the Overly Re- 58. A Crooked Nose, 65 fined, 59 59. The Pen is Stubborn, 65 43. Admonition, 59 60. Higher Men, 67 44. The Thorough Who Get to 61. The Skeptic Speaks, 67 the Bottom of Things, 59 62. Ecce Homo, 67 45. Forever, 59 63. Star Morals, 69 BOOKONE 71 1. The teachers of the pur- 8. Unconscious virtues, 82 pose of existence, 73 9. Our eruptions, 83 2. The intellectual conscience, 10. A kind of atavism, 84 76 11. Consciousness, 84 3. Noble and common, 17 12. On the aim of science. 85 4. What preserves the species, 13. On the doctrine of the feel- 79 ing of power, 86 5. Unconditional duties, 80 14. The things people call love, 6. Loss of dignity. 81 88 7. Something for the indus-- 15. From a distance, 89 trious,81 16. Over the footbridge. 90  CONTENTS xi 17. Finding motives for our 37. Owing to three errors, 105 poverty, 90 38. The explosive ones, 106 18. The pride of classical an- 39. Changed taste, 106 tiquity, 91 40. On the lack of noble man- 19. Evil, 91 ners. 107 20. The dignity of fo1ly, 92 41. Against remorse, 108 21. To the teachers of selfish- 42. Work and boredom, 108 ness.92 43. What laws betray, 109 22. L'ordre du jour pour le roi, 44. Supposed motives, 109 95 45. Epicurus, 110 23. The signs of corruption, 96 46. Our amazement, 111 24. Diverse dissatisfaction, 98 47. On the suppression of the 25. Not predestined for knowl- passions, 112 edge, 100 48. Knowledge of misery, 112 26. What is life? 100 49. Magnanimity and related 27. The man of renunciation, matters, 114 100 50. The argument of growing 28. To be harmful with what is solitude, 114 best in us, 101 51 Truthfulness, 115 29. Add lies, 101 52. What others know about 30. The comedy played by the us, 115 famous, 102 53. Where the goad begins, 31. Trade and nobility, 102 115 32. Undes«rable disciples, 103 54. The consciousness of ap- 33. Outside the lecture halL pearance, 116 104 55. The ultimate nobleminded· 34. Historia abscondita, 104 ness, 117 35. Heresy and witchcraft, 104 56. The craving for suffering, 36. Last words, 105 117 BOOKTWO 119 57. To the realists, 121 60. Women and their action at 58. Only as creators! 121 a distance, 123 59. We artists, 122 61. In honor of friendship, 124 xii CONTENTS 62. Love, 124 86. Of th Uieater, 141 63. Woman in music, 124 87. Of the vanity of artists, 142 64. Skeptics, 125 88. Being serious about truth, 65. Devotion, 125 144 66. The strength of the weak, 89. Now and formerly, 144 125 90. Lights and shadows, 144 67. Simulating-oneself, 125 91. Caution, 145 68. Will and willingness, 126 92. Prose and poetry, 145 69. Capacity for revenge, 126 93. But why do you write? 146 · 70. Women who master the 94. Growth after death, 146 masters, 127 95. Chamfort, 148 71. On female chastity, 127 96. Two speakers,149 72. Mothers, 128 97. Of the garrulousness of 73. Holy cruelty, 129 writers, 150 74. Failures, 129 98. In praise of Shakespeare, 75. The third sex, 130 150 76. The greatest danger, 130 99. Schopenhauer's followers, 77. The animal with a good 152 conscience, 131 100. Learning to pay homage, 78. What should win our grati· 156 tude, 132 101. Voltaire, 157 79. The attraction of imperfec- 102. A remark for philologists, tion, 133 157 80. Art and nature, 134 103. Of German music, 158 81. Greek taste, 136 104. Of the sound of the Ger- 82. Esprit as un-Greek, 136 man language, 160 83. Translations, 136 105. The Gennans as artists. 84. On the origin of poetry, 162 138 106. Music as an advocate, 162 85. The good and the beauti- 107. Our ultimate gratitude to ful, 141 art, 163 BOOK THREE 165 108. New struggles, 167 110. Origin of knowledge, 169 109. Let us beware, 167 111. Origin of the logical, 111  CONTENTS x.iii 112. Cause and effect, 172 140. Too Jewish, 190 113. On the doctrine of poisons, 141. Too Oriental, 190 173 142. Frankincense, 191 114. How far the moral sphere 143. The greatest advantage of extends, 173 polytheism, 191 115. The four errors, 174 144. Religious wars, 192 116. Herd instinct, 174 145. Danger for vegetarians, 19l 117. Herd remorse, 175 146. German hopes, 19l 118. Benevolenc.e. 175 147. Question and answer. 194 119. No altruism! 176 148. Where reformations occur, 120. Health of the soul, 176 194 121. Life no argument, t 77 149. The failure of reformations, 122. Moral skepticism in Chris- 194 tianity, 178 150. On the critique of saints, 123. Knowledge as more than a 196 mere means, 17 8 151. Of the origin of religion, 124. In the horizon of the infi- 196 nite, 180 152. The greatest change, 196 125. The madman, 181 1.53. Homo poeta, 197 126. Mystical explanations, 182 154. Different types of danger· 127. Aftereffects of the most an- ous Jives, t 97 cient religiosity, 183 I 55. What we lack, 198 128. The value of prayer, 184 1.56. Who is most influential, 129. The conditions for God, 198 18S 157. Mentiri, 198 130. A dangerous resolve, 185 1.58. An inconvenient trait, 198 131. Christianity and suicide, 159. Every virtue has its age, t8S 198 132. Against Christianity, 186 160. Dealing with virtues, 199 133. Principle, 186 161. To those who love the age, 134. Pessimists as victims, 186 199 135. Origin of sin. 187 162. Egoism, 199 136. The chosen people, 188 t6J. After a great victory, 199 137. Speaking in a parable, 189 164-. Those who seek rest, 199 138. Christ's error, 189 165. The happiness of those 139. The co1or of the passions, who have renounced some>- 189 thing, 199 xiv CONTENTS 166. Always in our own com- 193. Kant's joke, 205 pany,200 194. The "openhearted," 206 167. Misanthropy and love, 200 195. Laughable, 206 168. Of a sick man, 200 196.· Limits of our hearing, 206 169. Open enemies, 201 197. Better watch out! 206 170. With the crowd, 201 198. Chagrin of the proud, 206 171. Fame, 201 199. Liberality, 206 172. Spoiling the taste, 201 200. Laughter, 207 173. Being profound and seem- 201. Applause, 207 ing profound, 201 202. A squanderer, 207 174. Apart, 202 203. Hie niger est, 207 175. Of eloquence, 202 204. Beggars and courtesy, 207 176. Pity, 202 205. Need, 207 177. On "the educational estab- 206. When it rains, 208 lishment," 202 207. The envious, 208 178. On moral enlightenment, 208. Great man, 208 203 209. One way of asking for rea- 179. Thoughts, 203 sons, 208 180. A good age for free spirits, 210, Moderation in industrious. 203 ness, 208 181. Following and walking 211. Secret enemies, 208 ahead,203 212. Not to be deceived, 209 182. In solitude, 203 213. The way to happiness, 209 183. The music of the best fu- 214. Faith makes blessed, 209 ture, 203 215. Ideal and material, 209 184. Justice, 204 216. Danger in the voice, 210 185. Poor, 204 2J 7. Cause and effect, 210 186. Bad conscience, 204 218. My antipathy, 210 187 Offensive presentation, 204 219. The purpose of punish- 188. Work, 204 ment, 210 189. The thinker, 205 220. Sacrifice, 210 190. Against those who praise, 221. Consideration, 210 205 ' 222. Poet and liar, 210 191. Against many a defense, 223. Vicarious senses, 211 205 224. Animals as critics, 21 1 192. The good-natured, 205 225. The natural, 211  CONTENTS XV 226. Mistrust and style, 211 253. Always at home, 216 227. Bad reasoning, bad shot, 254. Against embarrassment, 211 216 228. Against mediators, 212 255. Imitators, 216 229. Obstinacy and faithfulness, 256. Skin-coveredness, 217 212 257. From exp~rience, 217 230. Dearth of silence, 212 258. The denial of chance, 217 231. The "thorough,'' 212 259. From paradise, 218 232. Dreams, 212 260. Multiplication table, 218 233. The most dangerous point 261. Originality, 218 of view, 212 262. Sub specie aeterni, 218 234. A musician's comfort, 213 263. Without vanity, 218 235. Spirit and character, 213 264. What we do, 219 236. To move the crowd, 213 265. Ultimate skepsis, 219 237. Polite, 213 266. Where cruelty is needed, 238. Without envy, 213 219 239. Joyless, 214 267. With a great goal, 219 240. At the sea, 214 268. What makes one heroic? 241. Work and artist, 214 219 242. Suum cuique. 214 269. In what do you believe? 243. Origin of "good" and 219 "bad," 214 270. What does your conscience 244. Thoughts and words, 215 say? 219 245. Praise by choice, 215 271. Where are your greatest 246. Mathematics, 215 dangers? 220 247. Habit, 215 272. What do you Jove in oth- 248. Books, 215 ers? 220 249. The sigh of the search for 273. Whom do you call bad? knowledge, 215 220 250. Guilt, 216 274. What do you consider 251. Misunderstood sufferers, most humane? 220 216 275. What is the seal of liber- 252. Better a debtor, 216 ation? 220 xvi CONTENTS BOOK FOUR: Sanctus Januarius 221 276. For the new year, 223 302. The danger of the happiest. 277. Personal providence, 223 242 278. The thought of death, 224 303. Two who are happy, 243 279. Star friendship, 225 304. By doing we forego, 244 280. Architecture for the search 305. Self-control. 244 for knowledge, 226 306. "stoics and Epicureans, 245 281. Knowing how to end, 227 307. In favor of criticism. 245 282. Gait. 227 308. The history of every day, 283. Preparatory human beings, 246 228 309. From the seventh solitude, 284. Faith in oneseJf, 229 246 285. Excelsior, 229 3t0. Will and wave. 247 286. Interruption, 230 311. Refracted light, 249 287. Delight in blindness, 230 312. My dog, 249 288. Elevated moods. 231 3 t 3. No image of torture. 250 289. Embark! 231 314. New domestic animals, 250 290. One thing is needful, 232 315. On the last hour, 250 291. Genoa, 233 J 16. Prophetic human beings, 292. To those who preach mo- 251 rals, 234 317. Looking back. 252 293. Our air, 235 318. Wisdom in pain, 252 294. Against the slanderers of 319. As interpreters of our ex- nature, 236 periences, 253 295. Brief habits, 236 320. Upon seeing each other 296. A firm reputation, 238 again, 254 297. The ability to contradict, 321. New caution. 254 239 322. Parable, 254 298. Sigh, 239 l23. Good luck in fate, 255 299. What one should team 324. In media vita, 255 from artists, 239 325. What belongs to greatness, 300. Preludes of science, 240 255 lOt. The fancy of the contem- 326. The physicians of the soul platives, 241 and pain, 256  CONTENTS xvii 327. Taking seriously, 257 335. Long live physics! 263 328. To harm stupidity. 258 336. Nature's stinginess, 267 3-29. Leisure and idleness, 258 337. The "humaneness" of the 330. Applause, 260 future, 267 331. Better deaf than deafened, 338. The will to suffer and those 260 who feel pity, 269 332. The evil hour, 261 339. Vita femina, 271 333. The meaning of knowing, 340. The dying Socrates, 272 261 34 L The greatest weight, 273 334. One must Jearn to love. 342. lncipit tragoedia, 274 262 BOOK FIVE: We Fearless Ones 277 343. The meaning of our cheer- 354. On the "genius of the spe- fulness. 279 cies," 297 344. How we. too, are still pt- 355. The origin of our concept ous,280 of "knowledge," 300 345. Morality as a problem, 283 356. How things will become 346. Our question mark, 285 ever more "artistic" in Eu~ 347. Believers and their need to rope.302 believe,287 357. On the old problem: 348 On the origin of scholars. "What is German?" 304 290 358. The peasant rebellion of 349. Once more the origin of the spirit, 310 scholars. 291 359. The revenge against the 350. In honor of the homines spirit and other ulterior religiosi, 292 motives of morality, 314 351. In honor of the priestly 360. Two kinds of causes that type.293 are often confmmded, 31 5 352. How morality is scarcely 361. On the problem of the ac· dispensable, 295 tor, 316 353. On the origin of religions. 362. Our faith that Europe will 296 become more virile, 318 xviii CONTENTS 363. How each sex has its own 373. "Science.. as a prejudice, prejudice about love, 318 334 364. The hermit speaks, 320 374. Our new "infinite," 336 365. The hermit speaks once 375. Why we look like Epicur- more,321 eans,337 366. Faced with a scholarly 376. Our slow periods, 337 book,322 377. We who are homeless, 367. The first distinction to be 338 made regarding works of 378. "And become bright again," art,324 340 368. The cynic speaks, 324 379. The fool interrupts, 341 369. Our side by side, 326 380. "The wanderer'' speaks. 370. What is romanticism? 327 342 371. We incomprehensible ones, 381. On the question of being 331 understandable, 343 372. Why we are no idealists, 382. The great health. 346 332 383. Epilogue, 347 Appendix: Songs of Prince V ogelfrei 349 To Goethe, 351 "Souls that are unsure," 363 The Poet's Call. 351 Fool in Despair, 363 In the South, 355 Rimus remedium, 365 Pious Beppa, 357..My Happiness!, 369 The Mysterious Bark, 359 Toward New Seas, 371 Declaration of Love, 359 Sils Maria, 371 Song of a Theocritical Goat- To the Mistral, 373 herd, 361 Acknowledgments 376 Index 377  Translator"s lntroductiot' 1 The Gay Science is one of Nietzsche's most beautiful and important books. Why then, it may be asked, has it not been made available in English before this, except for a single inade· quate translation published before World War I that even had the title of the book wrong? The.. Prelude in German Rhymes" and the Appendix of nsongs" must have led many a would-be translator to wonder whether they could be done in English, and a look at the old version suggested that they might well be untranslatable. If you give up Nietzsche's meters and rhymes in order to produce a literal version, the whole spirit and tone of this book are betrayed; if you give up Nietzsche's meaning, if only now and then, the reader is led astray; and if you simply omit the Prelude and Appendix, a substantial part of the book is left out. This may help to explain the fate of the book in English, and why the first translator left it to two others to furnish the "poetry versions/' Now that interest in Nietzsche has become widespread, this book can no longer be ignored. Here, then, is a new translation; and in fairness to Nietzsche. the original German rhymes and songs are furnished on facing pages.  z The Title The first English translation was entitled The Joyful Wisdom, which quite misses Nietzsche's meaning. Wissenschaft means science and never wisdom. He himself had called his book: Die jriihliche Wissenschaft. ("la gaya scienza") In my Nietzsche (1950) I therefore referred to the book as The Gay Science. I continued to use this title in subsequent publications; many other Nietzsche scholars followed suit; and by now this is the way the book is generally cited. Meanwhile, the word "gayu has acquired a new meaning, and people are beginning to assume that it has always suggested homosexuality. But even in the early 1960s that connotation was still quite unusual. Standard dictionaries did not list it at all, while Eric Partridge, in the Supplement of A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1961). listed gay boy. A homosexual: Australian: since ea. 1925," with no literary occurrence before 1951-and ' gay girl; gay woman. A prosti- tute... 111 If homosexuality is what now comes to mind first when the word "gay'' is heard or read. the decisive change was brought about only In 1969 by the establishment of the "Gay Liberation Front."2 Under the Circumstances, one might give up the title The Gay Science and resort to "The Cheerful Science:· But in the first place frohlich means gay, while heiter means cheerful-a word that also has a prominent place in the book, but not in its title. Secondly, Nietzsche s subtitle suggests forcibly that The Gay Science is what is wanted. Finally. it is no accident that the 1 Partridge has several entries under "gay , including, noun: "A dupe: Australian ,.." 2 In A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, vol I, A~G (1972), the article on "gay" went to press in 1970 and includes five new listings of which only one deals with what is now widely taken for the only meaning, and that is still designated as "slang."  TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION 5 homosexuals as well as Nietzsche opted for "gay" rather than "cheerful., ''Gay science," unlike "cheerful science/' has over- tones of a light-hearted defiance of convention; it suggests Nietzsche's "immoralism, and his "revaluation of values." Superficially, the parallel extends even further: Nietzsche says some very. unkind things about women, and he extols friendship and the Greeks. But it is to be hoped that the title of this book will not be misconstrued as implying that Nietzsche was homosexual or that the book deals with homosexuality.3 What Nietzsche himself wanted the title to convey was that serious thinking does not have to be stodgy, heavy, dusty, or, in one word, Teutonic. The German Wissenschaft doei not bring to mind only-perhaps not even primarily-the natural sciences but any serious. disciplined, rigorous quest for knowl- edge; and this need not be of the traditional German type or, as Nietzsche is fond of saying in this book. "northern"; it can also be "southern," by which he means Mediterranean-and he refers again and again to Genoa and the Provence. Those who cannot readily understand Nietzsche's feelings for "the south" should think of another Northerner who discovered the Prov- ence at the same time: Van Gogh. It was in the Provence that modem European poetry was born. William IX, Count of Poitiers around 1100 A.D is said to be the poet whose verses are the oldest surviving lyrics in a modem European language. He was followed by other, greater troubadours of which the most famous are probably Bertran de Born (1140-1215) and Amaut Daniel, his contemporary. Both are encountered in Dante's Inferno (Cantos 28f.); Bertran de Bam is also the hero of two remarkable Gennan poems, one by Ludwig Uhland, the other by Heinrich Heine.' The Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) all but destroyed the culture of the troubadours; but in the fourteenth century the gai saber or gaia sciensa was still cultivated in the Provence by lesser poets; and under "gay" The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1955) a On the question whether Nietzsche was homosexual, see Kaufmann, 34n. ' Both poems are included in Twenty German Poets: A Bilingual col- lection. Edited, translated and introduced by Walter Kaufmann. Random House, New York, J962. 6 THE GAY SCIENCE duly lists "The gay science ( == Pr[oven~al] gai saber); the art of poetry... Nietzsche, of course. meant not only the art of poetry; but he definitely meant this, too, and therefore began his book with the "Prelude in Gennan Rhymes"5 and later, in the second edi- tion, added the Appendix of songs. In the last poem we even encounter the· troubadours. It is also of some interest that in Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche says that 'jlave as passion- which is our European specialty-'' was invented by "the Pra- ven~al knight-poets. those magnificent and inventive human beings of the 'gai saber' to whom Europe owes so many things and almost awes itself" (section 260. BWN, 398). In the section on The Gay Science in Ecce Homo, Nietzsche says specifically that the songs in the Appendix, "written for the most part in Sicily," are quite emphatically reminiscent of the Proven~al concept of gaya scienza-that unity of singer. knight, and free spirit which distinguishes the wonderful early culture of the Provencals from all equivocal cultures. The very last poem above all, 'To the Mistral,' an exuberant dancing song in which, if I may say so, one dances right over morality, is a perfect Provem;alism" (BWN, 750). The second section of the second chapter of Ecce Homo is also relevant. After deriding the Germans, Nietzsche says: "List the places where men with esprit are living or have lived, where wit, subtlety. and malice belonged to happiness. where genius found its home almost of necessfty: all of them have excellent dry air. Paris, Provence, Florence, Jerusalem, Athens-these names prove something..... (BWN, 696). 5 "As for the title 'Gay Science/ I thought only of the guya scienza of the troubadours--hence also the little verses," Nietzsche wrote in a letter to his friend Erwin Rohde, in the winter 1882-83. a Nietzsche's Jdyllen aus Messina were published in 1882, but never reprinled. When Nietzsche used these poems in the Appendix, he made many chan~es. Cf. Musarion edition. vol. Xlt, p. 356ff. and above all Erich Podach, Ein Blick in Notizbiicher Ntetzsches, Wolfgang Rothe Verlag, Heidelberg, 1963; pp. 174--83. Regarding Podach's limitations, see Kaufmann. 424-52. In the Kritische Gesamtausgabe of Nietzsche's Werke, Berlin 1967ff., the ldyllen are to appear tn lhe same volume with Die Friihliche Wissenschaft.  TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION 7 Thus the title of the book has polemical overtones: it is meant to be anti-German."~" anti-professorial, anti-academic and goes well with the idea of "the good European., that is encoun- tered in these pages. It is also meant to suggest "light feet," Udancing," 11 biu~ter"-and ridicule of "the Spirit of gravity." 3 Emerson What should be gay is science--not wisdom. "Science: as I have said, suggests seriousness. discipline, and rigor; and these matter to Nietzsche. Consider what he said about Ralph Waldo Emerson in a letter to ·Franz Overbeck, December 22, 1884: ul do not know how much I would give if only I could bring it about, ex post facto, that such a glorious, great nature, rich in soul and spirit, might have gone through some strict discipline, a really scientific education. As it is, in Emerson we have lost a philosopheru (VPN, 441). Emerson was one of Nietzsche's great loves ever since he read him as a schoolboy. But while Nietzsche was at home in Latin and Greek, French and Italian. he read Emerson in Ger- man translations. He not only read him but also copied dozens of passages into notebooks and wrote extensively on the mar- gins and flyleaves of his copy of the Essays. In 1874 he lost a bag with a volume of Emerson in it, but soon bought another copy.8 In 1881, when he wrote The Gay Science, he was re- reading Emerson. and the first edition of The Gay Science actu- ally carried as an epigraph a quotation from Emerson: Dem 1 Cf. the Jetter in which Nietzsche informed his friend Franz Overbeck that The Gay Science was on its way to him: "This book is in every way against German taste and the present; and I myself even more so" (August 22, 1882).. s Cf. Eduard Baumgarten, Der Pragmatismus: R. W. Emerson, W. James, /. Dewey, Frankfurt, l9l8, pp. 81-88 and 396-407, and "Mit- teilungen und Bemerkungen iiber den Einfluss Emersons auf Nietzsche".n /ahrbuch jur Amerikastudien, ed. Walther Fischer, vol I, Heidelberg, 1956, pp. 93-152. See also Stanley Hubbard, Nietzsche und Emerson, Basel. 1958. Much of what follows in the text above is not to be found in any previous study of Nietzsche's relation to Emerson. 8 THE GAY SCIENCE Dichter und Weisen sind aile Dinge befreundet und geweiht, alle Erlebnisse niltzlich, alle Tage heilig, aile Menschen gDttlich. Literally: To the poet and sage, all things are friendly and hal- lowed, all experiences profitable. all days holy. all men divine. Oddly, no edition of Nietzsche nor any of the articles or books on Nietzsche and Emerson that I have seen gives a reference for this quotation and Emerson's original wording. Emerson's OWR. words are found in the thirteenth paragraph of "History/' an essay that had had some influence on Nietzsche's own "un- timely meditation" on history: "To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profit- able, all days holy, all men divine.'J9 Emerson had even called himself "a professor of the Joyous Science/' An entry in his Journals made July 6, 1841. poses a puzzle. It reads: "Ah ye old ghosts! ye builders of dungeons in the air! why do I ever allow you to encroach on me a moment; a moment to win me to your hapless company? In every week there is some hour when I read my commission in every cipher of nature, and know that I was made for another office, a pro- fessor of the Joyous Science [!]. a detector & delineator of occult harmonies & unpublished beauties, a herald of civility, nobility, learning. & wisdom; an affirmer of the One Law. yet as one who should affirm it in music or dancing, a priest of the Soul. yet one who would better love to celebrate it through the beauty of health & harmonious power."10 Nietzsche could not have known the Journals. But on January 20, 1842, Emerson gave a lecture entitled "Prospects" in Bos- ton, and subsequently repeated it elsewhere. In the opening 9 On Christmas day. 1882, Nietzsche wrote Overbeck: "... If I do not discover the alchemists' trick of turning even this-filth into gold. I am lost. -Thus I have the most beautiful opportunity to prove that for me 'all experiences are profitable, all days holy, and all human beings divine'!!!!" For the biographical context, see Kaufmann, 59, where almost the whole letter is quoted-with the comment: "All experiences were useful for Nietzsche, and he turned his torments into his later books..." 10 The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks. vol. VIII: 1841-1843, ed. William H. Gilman and 1- E. Parsons, Cambridge. Mass., 1970, p. 8. A footnote in this edition refers to the other passages I cite.  TRANSLATOR's INTRODUCTION 9 paragraph he made use of his journal entry. changing it slightly: 11 " I am sorry to read the observation of M. De Tocqueville that a cloud always hangs on an American brow. 12 Least of all is it to be pardoned in the literary and speculative class. I hate the builders of dungeons in the air. Ascending souls sing Paean,' said the Magian. Ascending souls congratu- late each other on the admirable harmonies of the world. We read another commission in the cipher of nature: we were made for another office. professors of the Joyous Science...'' From that point on the text follows the journal entry through "music or dancing" with only minor variations. (It continues in the plural: "detectors and delineators... '') Even if Nietzsche had read a translation of this lecture-and I have no evidence that he did-he could scarcely have known that in his manu- script Emerson had ascribed the two sentences on ascending souls to Zoroaster, and that Emerson thus associated his Joyous Science with Zarathustra! (Zoroaster is the Greek name of the Persian prophet whom the Persians calJed Zarathushtra.) Emerson's editors refer us to an article on "The Orac1es of Zoroaster," from which, though they do not mention it at this point, Emerson quoted on many other occasions. Zoroaster is also mentioned in the Essays, which Nietzsche read so many times; for example, two~thirds of the way through "Experience." The immediately preceding paragraph begins with three lines of verse and ends: "the question ever is, not, what you have done or forborne. but, at whose command you have done or forborne it/' Whatever the precise meaning of that may be, the imagery of commanding and obeying recurs in Nietzsche's Zarathustra. In the fifth paragraph from the end of "Experi- ence," the dictum "The life of truth is cold" sounds Hke Nietzsche: and a sentence a few lines later goes a long way toward explaining Nietzsche's love of Emerson: "A sympathetic person is placed in the dilemma of a swimmer among drowning men, who all catch at him, and if he give so much as a leg or n The Early Lectures, vol. III: 1838-1842, ed. Robert E. Spiller and Wallace E. Williams, Cambridge, Mass., 1972, p. 367f. 12 In his manuscript Emerson referred to de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Pt. II, transl. Henry Reeve, New York, 1840, p. 144. 10 THE GAY SCIENCE a finger, they will drown him.'' As usual, the similarity becomes much less striking as one reads on, and one would never mis- take a whole page of Emerson for a page of Nietzsche. In the last chapter ("Prospects") of Emerson's early book. Nature. he introduces four paragraphs in quotes that, he says, "a certain poet sang to me." Again, a couple of sentences sound rather like Nietzsche's Zarathustra: "A man is a god in ruins" and "Man is the dwarf of himself." But what is even more striking is the conclusion: "Thus my Orphic poet sang." Was this perhaps the seed of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"? It would be utterly improbable if we did not know that Nietzsche, long steeped in Emerson, reread him and annotated him again dur- ing the period of The Gay Science and just before he wrote Zarathustra. 13 To return to Emerson's "Toyous Science," he used the pas- sage from his Journals once more in the second paragraph of his lecture on "The Scholar," at the University of Virginia. June 28. 1876. This time he referred twice to the "intellectual con- science" (six years later Nietzsche called the second section of his Gay Science "The intellectual conscience"!) before he said: "I think the peculiar office of scholars in a careful and gloomy generation is to be (as the poets were called in the Middle Ages) Professors of the Joyous Science, detectors and deline- ators of ·occult symmetries"-and so forth, down through '"music and dancing."14 Again, I have no evidence that Nietzsche ever read this lec- ture, or any passage whatever in which Emerson referred to Joyous Science. As it happens, one E. S. Dallas published a work entitled The Gay Science in London in 1866, in two volumes. The work deals with literary criticism, and Nietzsche was surely unaware of it. But in view of what has been said here about gai saber, it is hardly surprising that several writers should have tried to revive this notion. To investigate in detail Nietzsche's relation to Emerson would lead us too far afield. Previous writers have covered the 13 See Baumgarten, 1956. 1" Complete Works, Riverside Edition, vol. X, Cambridge, Mass.. 1883, p. 250.  TRANSLATOR's INTRODUCTION 11 same ground again and again, but unfortunately without com- paring Nietzsche's German excerpts with the original English text-and context! Hubbard confined himself almost entirely to Nietzsche's German copy of the Essays, telling us what Nietzsche marked, while Baumgarten reports at length about the excerpts Nietzsche copied. Both call our attention to passages in Nietzsche's books that they consider similar to passages in Emerson; but a critical reader will often wonder whether there really is any great similarity. To be sure, 1 have just caJJed attention to some parallels that do not seem to have been noticed before; and in section 142 I have found a quotation from Emerson that seems to have been overlooked. Hence it might seem that, even if one denied some simi]arities, a great many others would be left. On balance, however, it seems to me that most of those who have written on this subject have exaggerated the kinship of these men, and that the differences are far more striking. StiJl, it is of considerable interest-and rather at odds with many popular notions about Nietzsche-that he loved Emerson from first to last. A section in Twilight of the Idols, written in 1888, during Nietzsche's last great creative spurt, bears the title "Emerson,"15 and here Nietzsche's affection contrasts strongly with the tone of his comments on a number of other writers in the preceding sections. Emerson's coinage "The Over·soul,. (the title of one of the essays) surely influenced Nietzsche's choice of the term Obermensch-and this makes my translation, "over- man,u doubly appropriate. 1 take it that Nietzsche knew that the original had "over-soul," although this was translated in his copy as Die hohere Seele, the higher soul, which undoubtedly influenced his phrase, "the higher men." Volume XI of the Musarion edition of Nietzsche's works in the original German contains aJmost 200 pages of his notes from the period during which he worked on The Gay Science, includ- ing these two notes: lG VPN, 522. The gentle but by no means hostile irony of the final two sentences in that section was surely prompted by a passage in "Experi· ence,.. il' the same paragraph where Zoroaster is mentioned: "Why should I fret myseJf ?" 12 THE GAY SCIENCE "Emerson.-Never have I felt so much at home in a book, and in my home, as-I may not praise it, it is too close to me." "The author who has been richest in ideas in this century so far has been an American (unfortunately made obscure by German philosophy-frosted glass)" (p. 283£.). Nietzsche also speaks of Emerson in The Gay Science (sec- tion 92). But to place Emerson in Nietzsche's world one would have to go beyond the references to Emerson; one would have to consider his love of Claude Lorrain, the seventeenth-century landscape painter, and Adalbert Stifter, the nineteenth-century Austrian novelist-as well as the place of Epicurus in his thought. For I take it that Emerson was basically as unlike Nietzsche as these three men were, although Nietzsche cannot be understood apart from the attraction that their serene cheer- fulness and calm. harmonious humanity always held for him. Always? If some widely credited legends were true, no evidence of any such taste could be found in Nietzsche's later works, beginning with Zarathustra. In fact, not· only his love of Emer- son still finds expression in Twilight, which was written in 1888, but Claude Lorrain is still apotheosized in Nietzsche's last creative weeks, in Nietzsche contra Wagner, in Ecce Homo, and in some letters in the fall of 1888/6 and Adalbert Stifter and Gottfried Keller still appear together in The Will to Power (note 1021) as they did earlier in The Wanderer and His Shadow (section 109). Nietzsche's taste remained the same-which is to say, utterly different from what most writers about him take for granted- and in Zarathustra, for example, this taste finds expression again and again, and occasionally veers into sentimentality. [t is Nietzsche's philosophical views that change to some extent as he keeps thinking; and The Gay Science, written partly before and partly after Zarathustra, reflects both his abiding taste and the development of his thought. It is instructive in this connec- tion to pursue his discussions of Epicurus through this volume Nietzsche contra Wagner. A Music Without a Future, VPN. 608; 1 11 Ecce Homo, the last sentence of the section on Twilight, BWN, 772: letters to Gast, October 30, to Overbeck, November 13, and to Meta von Salis. November 14.  TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION 13 -a much maligned philosopher for whom Nietzsche had a deep feeling and to whom he returns again and again in these pages; in the end. critically. To return to science, Nietzsche certainly rejected the simplis- tic alternative of being either "for" science, like some positiv- ists, or "against,. science, like some neoromantics. In his first book, The Birth of Tragedy. he had tried "to look at science in the perspective of the artisf' (Preface; BWN. 19); but this did not mean that he was uroru art and "against" science. The posi- tion to which his intricate dialectic finally led was, in his own words, an "artistic Socrates,-a philosopher with an intellec- tual conscience and with the feeUng for art that the historical Socrates had lacked. Indeed, not only a feeling for art. Nietzsche aJso spoke of "a Socrates who makes music"-a philosopher who also is an artist. But for Nietzsche that never meant being a philosopher six days and a poet on the sabbath, or writing a conventional philosophical book with some poetry at the begin· ning and the end; it meant-gay science, philosophy that sings and sizzles.11 4 The Structure of The Gay Science The first edition lacked the preface, began directly with the rhymes of the Prelude, and ended with section 342 which. except for minute changes indicated in my commentary, con~ sisted literally of the beginning of Nietzsche's next book Thus Spoke Zarathustra. That is to say. the ending was poetic, though not rhymed. It was preceded by two other very remarkable sections. The first of these (340) is called The dying Socrate& and was clearly placed so close to the end because Nietzsche considered it a particularly fitting coda and testament. It begins: 4 '1 admire the coutage and wisdom of Socrates in everything he did, said-and did not say." A striking statement, utterly at odds with much of the literature on Nietzsche. This section is u For a discussion of Nietzsche s conception of the way in which he was scientific and a contrast with Hegel. who thought he was scientific, we Kaufmann, Chapter 2. 14 THE GAY SCIENCE discussed in the commentary. Nietzsche found reasons to believe ·that Socrates considered life a disease and death a cure, and the section ends: "We must overcome even the Greeks!., What follows is section 341: "The greatest weight.', It is here that Nietzsche first announces his famous doctrine of the eternal recurrence of the same events at immense intervals- a literal recurrence even of "this spider and this moonlight be- tween the trees... Actually,. the doctrine, which has been alluded to in three earlier sections (109, 233, and 285). is not pra. claimed even here. Rather the question is raised how you would react to it if a demon spelled it out to you, and Nietzsche sug- gests that most people would consider this recurrence a curse and that it would require the most impassioned love of life "to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal con- firmation and seal.', With this doctrine, then, Nietzsche over- comes even Socrates-and Epicurus, and Emerson. What is suggested at this point transcends all gaiety and serenity and involves passion. Then comes the last section, entitled lncipit tragoedia, the tragedy begins. Zarathustra gives up the serenity of his ten years of solitude and decides to go down among men. The last words of this section and thus of the first edition of this book are ambiguous: untergehen means go down, but also drown or perish. This ambiguity is discussed in the commentary; but the final sentence would strike almost any reader as meanillg first of all: "Thus began Zarathustra's destruction.u The end of Hermann Hesse s last hero, Josef Knecht. the magister ludi of the Glasperlenspiel or bead game. echoes this passage. Nietzsche"s immense influence on Hesse has long been recognized, and Hesse often acknowledged it. In 1919, right after the end of World War I, he published a pamphlet with the title- Zarathustras Wiederkehr ("Zarathustra's Return'"; but Wiederkehr is also the word Nietzsche had used often for his conception of the recurrence). Some writers have supposed, following a remark by Hesse, that in his later work the influence of Nietzsche became less significant for him; but this is surely false. Nietzsche's impact on Hesse had been so formative and so deep that it is quite as evident in Hesse s last novel as in ltis earlier work. In the Epilogue of my Nietzsche I have quoted  TRANSLATOR's INTRODUCTION 15 two notes-one early Nietzsche, the other late-that suggest the basic conception of Hesse's last and greatest novel, the need for secular monasteries and "education free from politics, na- tionalityt and newspapers." But it should also be noted that in the end Knecht leaves his serene retreat to go down among men -and drowns. To return to the problem of structure, the final section about Zarathustra is not merely tacked on but rather carefully led up to by the sections that precede it. And Book V, written after Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil, and added only in the second edition, picks up themes introduced earlier. What may at first seem to be a haphazard sequence of aphor- isms turns out to be a carefu11y crafted composition in which almost every section means much more in context than will ever be noted by readers who assume, in flat defiance of Nietzsche's own repeated pleas to the contrary, that each section is a self- sufficient aphorism. The structure is extremely important, and it is one of the functions of my commentary to show this. To anticipate a single example: there would have been less doubt about what Nietzsche might have meant in the parable of the madman when he says ~