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