Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/499

 THE DRUNKEN SONG 465

"Mine assembled friends," said the ugliest man, "what think ye? For the sake of this day, / am for the first time content to have lived the whole of life.

And to bear witness for so much is not yet enough for me. It is worth while to live on earth. One day, one festival with Zarathustra, taught me to love earth.

'Hath that been life?' I shall say unto death. ' Up ! Once more ! '

My friends, what think ye? Will ye not, like me, say unto death : ' Hath that been life ? For Zara- thustra's sake, up ! Once more ! '"

Thus spake the ugliest man. But it was not far from midnight. And what think ye then befell ? As soon as the higher men had heard his question, all at once they became conscious of their change and con- valescence and who occasioned them. Then they leaped towards Zarathustra, thanking, revering, fon- dling, kissing his hands, each in his own peculiar way, so that some laughed and some cried. But the old wizard danced with pleasure. And though he then, as some tale-tellers think, was full of sweet wine, he was certainly still fuller of sweet life and had renounced all weariness. There are even such as tell that then even the ass danced. For not in vain had the ugliest man (it is said) given it wine to drink before. This may be so, or it may be otherwise. And if in truth the ass did not dance that night, greater and stranger wonders

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