In the heights my table was set for you: —

That look at me and say: "were we once friends?" —

Friend Zarathustra has come, the guest of guests!

As that arrow,—away from here! For your own good! .....

Died in my mouth—

The strongest was he who drew his bow like this— —:

I sought where the most biting wind blows?

What once tied us together, one hope's bond —

The friend of noon—no! do not ask who he is—

I—am no longer the same? Hands, face, gait have changed?

Here among this most remote realm of ice and rock—

— My old friends! Now how pale you look!

My bow is bent!

— O withered word, once fragrant as the rose!

I compare it to parchment that the hand

That knock at my heart and window nightly,

And my honey—who has tasted it? .....

New friends! Come! It's time! It's time!

You hesitate, amazed—oh, you are quite sullen!

At noon was the time one became two ...

This song is over—the sweet cry of longing

I await friends, ready day and night,

Too often resisted his own strength,

And what I am, to you friends—I am not?

Unlearned man and god, curse and prayer?

— There you are, friends!— Alas, but I am not

Where no one lives, in desolate polar zones,

No longer friends, they are—what should I call them?—

The one you wanted?

Here one has to be a hunter and chamois-like.

Nothing but ghosts of friends!

Wounded and stopped by his own victory?

I await friends, ready day and night

O longing of youth that misunderstood itself!

Who still reads the signs

I learned to live

Where are you friends? Come! It's time! It's time!

O summer garden!

Only he who changes remains akin to me.

Your hope stayed strong:

To the grey yonder of the abyss?

My realm—what realm stretches further?

Is afraid to grasp,—like parchment that is discolored, burnt.

You turn away?— O heart, you have borne enough,

I've become a wicked hunter!— Look how much

But now alas! No arrow is dangerous

No, leave! Do not be angry! You—cannot live here:

A sorceror did it, the friend at the right time,

That they have aged has driven them away:

Restless happiness in standing, watching and waiting: —

Love once inscribed on it, the faded ones?

O noon of life! Second time of youth!

Am I another? A stranger to myself?

Keep your door open to new friends!

Restless happiness in standing, watching and waiting!

Now we celebrate together, certain of victory,

A wrestler, who too often subdued himself?

The feast of feasts:

Full of love and fear!

Sprung from myself?

Those I longed for,

The wedding has come for light and darkness .....

Now the world laughs, the dread curtain is rent,

Become a ghost who crosses glaciers?

Who lives so close to the stars

O summer garden!

Once you were young, now—you are younger!

O noon of life! O time to celebrate!

Let the old go! Let the memories go!

Those I deemed changed into my kin,