XXXIX

Poets

“Since I have known the body better”⁠—said Zarathustra to one of his disciples⁠—“the spirit hath only been to me symbolically spirit; and all the ‘imperishable’⁠—that is also but a simile.”

“So have I heard thee say once before,” answered the disciple, “and then thou addedst: ‘But the poets lie too much.’ Why didst thou say that the poets lie too much?”

“Why?” said Zarathustra. “Thou askest why? I do not belong to those who may be asked after their Why.

“Is my experience but of yesterday? It is long ago that I experienced the reasons for mine opinions.

“Should I not have to be a cask of memory, if I also wanted to have my reasons with me?

“It is already too much for me even to retain mine opinions; and many a bird flieth away.

271