The soothsayer and the dream of the coffins

“—And I saw a great sadness come over mankind. The best turned weary of their works. A doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it: ‘All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!’ And from all hills there re-echoed: ‘All is…

The soothsayer describes a great sadness over mankind: rotten fruit, dried fountains, and men living on in sepulchres. Zarathustra hears it, is touched by the foreboding, and becomes sad and weary like those described.

A doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it: ‘All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!’

The soothsayer names the doctrine that spreads among men.

Verily, said he unto his disciples, a little while, and there cometh the long twilight. Alas, how shall I preserve my light through it! That it may not smother in this sorrowfulness! To remoter worlds shall it be a…

Zarathustra fears the long twilight will smother his light. For three days he neither eats, drinks nor speaks, then sleeps while his disciples keep watch. He wakes and speaks as if from afar.

Hear, I pray you, the dream that I dreamed, my friends, and help me to divine its meaning! A riddle is it still unto me, this dream; the meaning is hidden in it and encaged, and doth not yet fly above it on free…

Zarathustra tells his dream: as night-watchman of Death's mountain-fortress he opens the creaking gate with rusty keys. A roaring wind throws him a black coffin that bursts open with laughing caricatures, and his own cry wakes him.

Thus did Zarathustra relate his dream, and then was silent: for as yet he knew not the interpretation thereof. But the disciple whom he loved most arose quickly, seized Zarathustra’s hand, and said: “Thy life itself…

The disciple says Zarathustra is himself the wind and the coffin, an advocate of life whose laughter will break the sepulchres. The enemies were only dreamed by him and will awaken and come to him.

Thus spake the disciple; and all the others then thronged around Zarathustra, grasped him by the hands, and tried to persuade him to leave his bed and his sadness, and return unto them. Zarathustra, however, sat upright…

The disciples raise Zarathustra; he recovers and calls for a good meal to make amends for bad dreams. He says the soothsayer shall eat at his side and he will show him a sea to drown in, then looks long at the interpreter and shakes his head.