XI

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XI

All joy wanteth the eternity of all things, it wanteth honey, it wanteth lees, it wanteth drunken midnight, it wanteth graves, it wanteth grave-tears’ consolation, it wanteth gilded evening-red⁠—

—What doth not joy want! it is thirstier, heartier, hungrier, more frightful, more mysterious, than all woe: it wanteth itself, it biteth into itself, the ring’s will writheth in it⁠—

—It wanteth love, it wanteth hate, it is overrich, it bestoweth, it throweth away, it beggeth for someone to take from it, it thanketh the taker, it would fain be hated⁠—

—So rich is joy that it thirsteth for woe, for hell, for hate, for shame, for the lame, for the world⁠—for this world, Oh, ye know it indeed!

Ye higher men, for you doth it long, this joy, this irrepressible, blessed joy⁠—for your woe, ye failures! For failures, longeth all eternal joy.

For joys all want themselves, therefore do they also want grief! O happiness, O pain! Oh break, thou heart! Ye higher men, do learn it, that joys want eternity.

—Joys want the eternity of all things, they want deep, profound eternity!