Nietzsches arbetslinje: Cheerful winds

Work and boredom. - Looking for work in order to be paid; in civilized countries today almost all men are at one in doing that. For all of them work is a means and not an end in itself. Hence they are not very refined in their choice of work, if only it pays well. But there are, if only rarely, men who would rather perish than work without any pleasure in their work. They are choosy, hard to satisfy, and do not care for ample rewards, if the work itself is not the reward of rewards. Artists and contemplative men of all kinds belong to this rare breed, but so do even those men of leisure who spend their lives hunting, traveling, or in love affairs and adventures. All of these desire work and misery if only it is associated with pleasure, and the hardest, most difficult work if necessary. Otherwise, their idleness is resolute, even if it spells impoverishment, dishonor and danger to life and limb. They do not fear boredom as much as work without pleasure; they actually require a lot of boredom, if their work is to succeed. For thinkers and all sensitive spirits, boredom is that disagreeable “windless calm” of the soul that precedes a happy voyage and cheerful winds. They have to bear it and wait for its effect on them. Precisely this is what lesser natures cannot achieve by any means. To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar, no less than work without pleasure. Perhaps Asians are distinguished above Europeans by a capacity for longer, deeper calm; even their opiates have a slow effect and require patience, as opposed to the disgusting suddenness of the European poison, alcohol.

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Texten hämtad ur den engelska versionen av Die fröhliche Wissenschaft från 1887.
Min version: The Gay Science, Random House, 1974. (Och min franska granne berättade nyss att Nietzsche fått termen från provencalskan; från trubadurerna).

Hundra år, utan större ålderskillnad. En annan dag ska jag översätta texten. Idag är jag helt slut av Björnligans balkongbullerborrning i ett hus som ska få femton fult assymetriskt placerade balkonger. Trivsel? Tja. Investering? Den som lever får se. Just nu är den bara den version av skärselden som Dante aldrig skulle kommit på. Decibel-hell. No cheerful winds.