Nietzsche

If Nietzsche is the posthumous man, Lou Salome surely is the posthumous woman. Friend, pupil, lover, muse and an inspiration to many geniuses of her time, like Nietzsche, Paul Rée, Rilke, Wagner and Freud. She wrote books, poems and dedicated Escreveu livros, poemas e devoted her life to psychoanalysis. It was. Lou was the one whom Freud trusted the treatment of his own daughter. Here is one of her poems, which Nietzsche put to music: Hymn To Life.

Surely, a friend loves a friend the way
That I love you, enigmatic life —
Whether I rejoiced or wept with you,
Whether you gave me joy or pain.

I love you with all your harms;
And if you must destroy me,
I wrest myself from your arms,
As a friend tears himself away from a friend’s breast.

I embrace you with all my strength!
Let all your flames ignite me,
Let me in the ardor of the struggle
Probe your enigma ever deeper.

To live and think millennia!
Enclose me now in both your arms:
If you have no more joy to give me —
Well then—there still remains your pain.