Page:Complete works of Nietzsche vol 10.djvu/377

Rh  THE FOOL'S DILEMMA. Ah, what I wrote on board and wall With foolish heart, in foolish scrawl, I meant but for their decoration!

Yet say you, "Fools' abomination! Both board and wall require purgation, And let no trace our eyes appal!" Well, I will help you, as I can, For sponge and broom are my vocation, As critic and as waterman.

But when the finished work I scan, I'm glad to see each learned owl With "wisdom" board and wall defoul.   RIMUS REMEDIUM (or a Consolation to Sick Poets). From thy moist lips, O Time, thou witch, beslavering me, Hour upon hour too slowly drips In vain—I cry, in frenzy's fit, "A curse upon that yawning pit, A curse upon Eternity!" The world's of brass, A fiery bullock, deaf to wail: Pain's dagger pierces my cuirass, Wingéd, and writes upon my bone: "Bowels and heart the world hath none, Why scourge her sins with anger's flail?" 