Lyrical Philosophy

Socrates Before Plato

There are different modes of philosophy,
At least two: the satiric and the lyric.
(Might we not say also, the tragic?)
The purpose of satire is to reveal the tragic:
The satirist pulls out the curtains
When Brünhilde sings. Like Samson,
The satirist is tragic, but his is a tragedy of truth:
He rips down pagan temples,
Sometimes with blind thrusts.

Against the double destruction of this goat-tragedy,
The lyric creates. Lyricism is a celebration of life,
The affirmation, Nietzsche's "yes."
The analytic is tragic, continental satiric;
Only a poetic philosophy, that is, my philosophy,
Can construct a new lyric of life, a life-lyric.

The life-lyric is fundamentally ethical.
Why? Because it undermines the foundations of boredom:
There is no longer a place for this, the first problem of ethics
Is resolved. Also, every reason to despise life
Is exposed as nonentity, a sickness unto death --
The lyrical philosopher is never cranky, even his destruction
Makes. By breaking what is not, he fixes down a limit on what is
And ties it to the shore of what we know. Look at what we gain:
A vessel to surpass the wastes.

Is it time for the lyric,
Which we might even liken to a golden calf?
Not yet, not until we know the limit --
Until then, destroy everything, leave nothing untouched,
Because everything partakes of the corrupt.