Among Daughters of the Desert

1

Go not away! said then the wanderer who called himself Zarathustra’s shadow. Abide with us — otherwise the old gloomy affliction might again fall upon us.

Now hath that old magician given us of his worst for our good, and lo, the good, pious pope there hath tears in his eyes, and hath quite embarked again upon the sea of melancholy!

Those kings may well put on a good air before us still; for that have they learned best of us all at present! Had they however no one to see them, I wager that with them also the bad game would again commence —

The bad game of drifting clouds, of damp melancholy, of curtained heavens, of stolen suns, of howling autumn winds —

The bad game of our howling and crying for help! Abide with us, O Zarathustra! Here there is much concealed misery that wisheth to speak, much evening, much cloud, much damp air!

Thou hast nourished us with strong food for men, and powerful proverbs; do not let the weakly, womanly spirits attack us anew at dessert!

Thou alone makest the air around thee strong and clear! Did I ever find anywhere on earth such good air as with thee in thy cave?

Many lands have I seen, my nose hath learned to test and estimate many kinds of air; but with thee do my nostrils taste their greatest delight!

Unless it be — unless it be — do forgive an old recollection! Forgive me an old after-dinner song, which I once composed amongst daughters of the desert —

For with them was there equally good, clear, Oriental air; there was I furthest from cloudy, damp, melancholy Old-Europe!

Then did I love such Oriental maidens and other blue kingdoms of heaven, over which hang no clouds and no thoughts.

Ye would not believe how charmingly they sat there, when they did not dance, profound, but without thoughts, like little secrets, like beribboned riddles, like dessert-nuts —

Many-hued and foreign, forsooth, but without clouds; riddles which can be guessed: to please such maidens I then composed an after-dinner psalm.

Thus spake the wanderer who called himself Zarathustra’s shadow; and before any one answered him, he had seized the harp of the old magician, crossed his legs, and looked calmly and sagely around him — with his nostrils, however, he inhaled the air slowly and questioningly, like one who in new countries tasteth new foreign air. Afterward he began to sing with a kind of roaring.

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The deserts grow: woe him who doth them hide!

— Ha!
Solemnly!
In effect solemnly!
A worthy beginning!
Afric manner, solemnly!
Of a lion worthy,
Or perhaps of a virtuous howl-monkey —
But it’s naught to you,
Ye friendly damsels dearly loved,
At whose own feet to me,
The first occasion,
To a European under palm-trees,
A seat is now granted. Selah.

Wonderful, truly!
Here do I sit now,
The desert nigh, and yet I am
So far still from the desert,
Even in naught