and even should I walk on my own errors, still would I be above them and their heads.
For men are not equal: so speaks justice. And what I will, they may not will!-
Thus spoke Zarathustra.
39. Poets
"SINCE I have known the body better"- said Zarathustra to one of his disciples- "the spirit has only been to me symbolically spirit; and all the 'imperishable'- that is also but a parable."
"So have I heard you say once before," answered the disciple, "and then you added: 'But the poets lie too much.' Why did you say that the poets lie too much?"
"Why?" said Zarathustra. "You ask 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 my 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 my opinions; and many a bird flies away.
And sometimes, also, do I find a fugitive creature in my dovecote, which is alien to me, and trembles when I lay my hand upon it.
But what did Zarathustra once say to you? That the poets lie too much?- But Zarathustra also is a poet.
