In the heights my table was set for you: —
Now we celebrate together, certain of victory,
No longer friends, they are—what should I call them?—
Is afraid to grasp,—like parchment that is discolored, burnt.
Love once inscribed on it, the faded ones?
Once you were young, now—you are younger!
The friend of noon—no! do not ask who he is—
Am I another? A stranger to myself?
I—am no longer the same? Hands, face, gait have changed?
A sorceror did it, the friend at the right time,
Here among this most remote realm of ice and rock—
And my honey—who has tasted it? .....
What once tied us together, one hope's bond —
— There you are, friends!— Alas, but I am not
Friend Zarathustra has come, the guest of guests!
I compare it to parchment that the hand
Restless happiness in standing, watching and waiting: —
But now alas! No arrow is dangerous
As that arrow,—away from here! For your own good! .....
That look at me and say: "were we once friends?" —
The wedding has come for light and darkness .....
A wrestler, who too often subdued himself?
Here one has to be a hunter and chamois-like.
I await friends, ready day and night,
— O withered word, once fragrant as the rose!
That they have aged has driven them away:
You turn away?— O heart, you have borne enough,
This song is over—the sweet cry of longing
And what I am, to you friends—I am not?
You hesitate, amazed—oh, you are quite sullen!
My realm—what realm stretches further?
Now the world laughs, the dread curtain is rent,
O longing of youth that misunderstood itself!
Unlearned man and god, curse and prayer?
Too often resisted his own strength,
Who still reads the signs
Only he who changes remains akin to me.
No, leave! Do not be angry! You—cannot live here:
That knock at my heart and window nightly,
Let the old go! Let the memories go!
To the grey yonder of the abyss?
The strongest was he who drew his bow like this— —:
Nothing but ghosts of friends!
At noon was the time one became two ...
Those I deemed changed into my kin,
Wounded and stopped by his own victory?
Where are you friends? Come! It's time! It's time!
Restless happiness in standing, watching and waiting!
I sought where the most biting wind blows?
O noon of life! O time to celebrate!
New friends! Come! It's time! It's time!
I await friends, ready day and night
