C
TO NIETZSCHE
When you could not be the Christ you
rejected Him, the superhuman archetype;
a hunger for eternity filled your pour soul’s
longing until the sad moment of your death.
Hoping to break through the barrier to
the hereafter you gave your suffering heart
the eternal return, oh Oedipus reborn,
victim of the Sphinx you thought you had
conquered. Feeling inside you were a slave,
you preached domination, and it was a complaint
that sounded like the laughter of a fierce lion;
you battled with fate in a tenacious
struggle to keep on living, to only die
finally free from reason, our torment.
Salamanca. 18 November 1910.
Miguel de Unamuno
Translation by Armand F. Baker