# XXXI: The Night-Song explained — Thus Spoke Zarathustra

> Chapter companion for Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.

## What happens

In 'The Night-Song,' Zarathustra laments his nature as a giver of light, expressing a profound loneliness and a craving for darkness and love. He feels isolated by his own abundance, unable to receive or connect with those he illuminates, and yearns for the warmth and intimacy of the night.

## Themes in this chapter

### Solitude and Companionship

Zarathustra's night-song is a poignant expression of his solitude as a shining one, longing for the companionship and warmth of the night and those who receive.

### Pity and Contempt

Zarathustra's hunger for wickedness and his sense of a gap between giving and receiving reflect a complex interplay of pity for those he illuminates and contempt for the limitations of his own role.

## Character check-ins

### Zarathustra

Zarathustra sings of his lonesomeness as a bestower of light, craving darkness and love, and feeling the misery of his own generosity.

### Life

Life is implicitly referenced as the source of Zarathustra's craving for love and the nightly, though not directly named.

## Key lines

> Light am I: ah, that I were night! But it is my lonesomeness to be begirt with light!

I am a source of illumination, but I wish I were darkness; my isolation comes from being surrounded by my own light.

_Zarathustra expresses the paradox of his existence as a giver of light, which isolates him from the very darkness he craves._

> It is my poverty that my hand never ceaseth bestowing; it is mine envy that I see waiting eyes and the brightened nights of longing.

My endless giving is a form of poverty, and I envy those who wait with longing eyes for my gifts.

_Zarathustra reveals the emptiness and envy that accompany his role as a perpetual bestower._

> Oh, the lonesomeness of all bestowers! Oh, the silence of all shining ones!

How lonely are all who give! How silent are all who shine!

_Zarathustra laments the inherent isolation of those who give and illuminate, as they cannot receive in return._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/thus_spoke_zarathustra_se/chapters/part-ii-xxxi-the-night-song
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/thus_spoke_zarathustra_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/thus_spoke_zarathustra_se/chapters