ZARATHUSTRA´S LAST DISCOURSE

As it is known, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is considered, along with Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, one of the most important thinkers of modern western thought: one of its sharpest critics.

It is also known that Thus Spoke Zarathustra is one his most important pieces of work: his ultimate achievement and also his most famous writing.

Zarathustra gives an account of a young Persian man who faces an important task: to reveal or to make men recall the truth about themselves and their own possibilities. While carrying out his mission, this hero of thought experiences himself deep inner crises and changes of heart that make him become, in the end, the kind of man he claims men should endeavor to be.

Recently, it was made public an unpublished handwriting that could be, according to experts, the original version of Zarathustra´s chapter devoted to “Women”. A chapter that Nietzsche presumably must have decided to change after a love deception but that was kept intact as it was conceived at first.

As far as I know, this work has never been posted to Internet neither in English nor in any other language. Here, I reproduce it completely given its great value and wisdom:

WOMEN

As I went on my way alone today, at the hour when the sun declined, there I met an old woman, and she spoke thus unto my soul:

“Much has Zarathustra spoken also to us women, but never spoke he unto us concerning woman”.

And I answered her: “Concerning woman, one should only talk unto men”.

“Talk also unto me of woman”, said she; “I am old enough to forget it presently”.

And I, obliged by the old woman, spoke thus unto her:

Everything in woman is beautiful, and women all are beautiful but not all can appreciate it, including you women, in the first place.

It is not that there are as many variations in taste as men and women. The whole concept is wrong!!! You all have been deceived…

Some among you look at the woman´s body as if it were the supreme thing and prefer it meagre and famished. Others look at it contemptuously and would rather worship its spirit: hypocrites!!! Either way, women become an object: in the end, their real essence is denied as well as their real beauty.

The beauty of women is an “occurrence in motion” and it can be perceived in every single thing they think, they do, they feel, they happen to remember.... And even if they wanted to keep it undisclosed, there would always be one thing that reveals it: the way they smile, their perfect smile…

Then answered me the old woman: “Many fine things had Zarathustra said, especially for those who are young enough for them.

Strange! Zarathustra knows little about women, and yet he is right in some aspects about them. Though he might have forgotten to mention one thing... definitely the most important: that women are not really women... but divine beings playing they are human... some times, all too human".

Thus spoke Zarathustra

Note: Nietzsche never really wrote this piece but I wish he had done it (Heheheheh!).