Nietzsche on Eulogy

Part of a series on Nietzsche, Unveiling the Depths of Human Existence

I have mentioned before my perspectives on the social media dilemma here ~~(I don’t recommend reading it if you did not, I wrote it fanatically 3 years ago)~~ (jun 2023 note: i deleted this post.), my clue was correlated to the upcummie pleasure that comes from someone’s else applause on us, which translates to something like upvotes or likes on the internet, and how we’re being conditioned to it just like a dumb Pavlov’s Dog.

I still find this a valid argument, however, it stands on a prolonged fundament, thus we actually love the upcommies, praise, and tributes. Personally, I don’t, and I don’t recall if this was a sequence of self-refinement and I’ve become afraid of being invisibly influenced or just because it makes me feel awkward and don’t know how to appropriately respond.

I’ve been reading Nietzsche recently as you probably guessed, and he did have a staid yet poetic dissertation on the very topic. I’ve collected anthologies of his from different books and I’d like to share them here (My naive translation included).

The endeavour to avoid one’s renown, the intentional offending of one’s panegyrists, the dislike of hearing opinions about one’s self, and all through fear of renown: instances like these are to be met with; they actually exist—believe it or not!

أن يخشى أحدهم شهرته، ويهين عن قصد هؤلاء الذين يثنون عليه، ويخاف سماع الأحكام التي تصدر في حقه، خشية الثناء،— هذا أمر موجود بالفعل، صدقوا أو لا تصدقوا!

Here is some one who, you perceive, wishes to praise you: you bite your lips and brace up your heart: Oh, that that cup might go hence! But it does not, it comes! let us therefore drink the sweet impudence of the panegyrist, let us overcome the disgust and profound contempt that we feel for the innermost substance of his praise, let us assume a look of thankful joy—for he wished to make himself agreeable to us! And now that it is all over we know that he feels greatly exalted; he has been victorious over us. Yes, and also over himself, the villain!—for it was no easy matter for him to wring this praise from himself.

تنتبه إلى أن شخصًا يريد أن يثني عليك: تعض على شفتك، ينفبض قلبك، عسى أن تتركني هاته الكأس وشأني! لكنها لا تتركك، بل تدنوا منك! لتشرب كأس بذاءة لسان المادح العذبة، لتتغلب على الإشمئزاز والاحتقار الشديد اللذان يوحي بهما جوهر ثنائه، لتظهر على وجهك ملامح فرحة الاعتراف بجميل ثناءه. قد كان لطيفًا معنا. الآن وقد حدث ذلك تعلم أنه يشعر بالابتهاج، لقد انتصر عليك—وعلى ذاته كذلك، هو ذلك الحيوان! لم يكن من السهل عليه أن ينتزع من نفسه ذلك الإطراء.

REFUSING THANKS.—We are perfectly justified in refusing a request, but it is never right to refuse thanks—or, what comes to the same thing, to accept them coldly and conventionally. This

قد نرفض طلبًا، ولكن لا يحق لنا أبدًا أن نرفض الثناء، سيعتبر ذلك إهانة كبيرة، لماذا؟

And my favorite one:

He who bestows something great receives no gratitude; for in accepting it the recipient has already been weighed down too much. A refined soul is distressed to know that someone owes it thanks; a crude soul, to know that it owes someone thanks. When the gratitude of many to one throws away all shame, we behold fame.

من يمنح ما هو جليل لا يتلقى ثناءًا، لأنه بقبوله يكون قد أُثقل على كاهله الكثير بالفعل. النفس المُهذّبة تبأس لشعورها بأن هناك من يدين لها بالشكر؛ رُوحٌ فجة، كي تحس أنها مدينة بالشكر لشخص ما.

The last one from Human, all too human I think is the most missionary thesis of his in this topic:

The reason why the powerful man is grateful is this : his benefactor, through the benefit he confers, has mistaken and intruded into the sphere of the powerful man, —now the latter, in return, penetrates into the sphere of the benefactor by the act of gratitude. It is a milder form of revenge. Without the satisfaction of gratitude, the powerful man would have shown himself powerless, and would have been reckoned as such ever after. Therefore every society of the good, which originally meant the powerful, places gratitude amongst the first duties.—Swift propounded the maxim that men were grateful in the same proportion as they were revengeful.

I think one of the most reasons he was consistent (and it is hard to consistent for an intensive writer, they usually have many contradictions) for, is that he knew no one would read him then.

(tap for home) also see; posts archive, top of my stack