Poem by Nietzsche Pine and Lightning 1882

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3 years ago
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I saw this on Beer and Blood, a German tv miniseries on Octoberfest. Fanny zu Reventlow recites it in the series
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I grew tall
Over man and animal
And I speak
Nobody speaks to me
I grew too lonely
And too tall
I wait
What am I waiting for
The clouds to me are too close
I wait
Wait
Wait
For the first blaze
===
http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/poetry/poetry-dual.htm
Pinie und Blitz (1882) Pine and Lightning (1882)
This poem (see Nachlass, Sommer-Herbst 1882 3[2]) was written just prior to Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra, 1 (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1). It eventually found its way into the book — in a different form — in the chapter, "Vom Baum am Berge" (On the Tree on the Mountainside). In this chapter, Zarathustra advises a dismayed youth who is sitting against a tree, which Zarathustra then anthropomorphizes: "Dieser Baum steht einsam hier am Gebirge; er wuchs hoch hinweg über Mensch und Thier. (This tree stands lonely here in the mountains; he grew high above man and beast.) / Und wenn er reden wollte, er würde Niemanden haben, der ihn verstünde: so hoch wuchs er. (And if he wanted to talk, he would have no one who could understand him: so tall has he grown.) / Nun wartet er und wartet, — worauf wartet er doch? Er wohnt dem Sitze der Wolken zu nahe: er wartet wohl auf den ersten Blitz?" (Now he waits and waits, — yet what is he waiting for? He dwells too close to the seat of the clouds: perhaps he waits for the first lightning?)

Hoch wuchs ich über Mensch und Tier;
Und sprech' ich — niemand spricht mit mir. Over man and animal, I grew too tall;
Now when I speak — no one speaks with me at all.
Zu einsam wuchs ich und zu hoch —
Ich warte: worauf wart' ich doch? I grew too high and too lonely —
I wait: on what do I wait only?
Zu nah ist mir der Wolken Sitz, —
Ich warte auf den ersten Blitz. Close by, the clouds are sitting:
I wait on the first lightning.
— Translation by The Nietzsche Channel © 2000.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche
AUAWN0110321

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