Dionysos-Dithyramben

The Sun Sinks

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1.

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You will not thirst for long,

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My burned-out heart!

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The promise of something hangs in the air,

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In unknown currents which blow upon me -

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The great cooling is coming....

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My sun burns high up above me at nooon:

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I welcome you, as you drift by,

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You sudden winds,

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You cool spirits of evening!

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The air surges, strange and clear.

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Does the night not

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Squint at me with the

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Slit eyes of a seducer?

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Stand firm my brave heart!

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Do not ask "Why?"

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2.

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Day of my life!

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The sun sinks.

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Already the smooth eventide

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Is coated in gold.

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Warmly breathe the rocks:

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Did happiness sleep well at noon -

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As it fell into an afternoon slumber?

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Now, bathed in green lights,

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It plays upon the edge of the brown abyss.

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Day of my life!

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As you roll towards evening

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Your eyes glow pale,

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Already half-closed;

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Silently,

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Your dewy teardrops

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Pour into white seas,

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Your purple love,

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Your last faltering bliss.

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3.

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Jubiliance, golden one, come!

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You sweetest and

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Most secret foretaste of death!

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Have I run my course too fast?

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Only now that my feet have tired

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Do you catch my eye;

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Only now do my fingers grasp your charm.

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Around me only waves and games.

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Whatever mattered once

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Sinks down in blue oblivion -

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My boat drifts idle now.

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Voyages and storms - how it forgets them all!

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Desire and hope have drowned,

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Soul and sea are smooth and calm.

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Seventh solitude!

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Never before have I felt

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Your sweet safety closer,

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Warmer than sunshine.

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Yet does the ice not still glint on my summit?

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And now a fish, silver, light,

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Swims out of my boat.

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(Nietzsche F., Dionysus Dithyrambs, 1888)

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(Nietzsche, Selected Writings, Stephen Matcalf, 1995, Friedrich Nietzsche, On The Art Of Dying, p.147)

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(Translation is based on the Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari (editors) edition of Nietzsche's Werke (Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, 1969))

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(Inserted by Dorian Voet, Copenhagen, 2005)

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