Thus Spake Zarathustra

A considerable part and parcel of Nietzsche's genius is his ability to make his language dance, and this is what becomes extraordinarily difficult to translate. Some have failed in the attempt while others have hardly tried. Our present translator, Thomas Wayne, is himself an aphorist of palpable genius if not yet repute, with several collections to his credit which I have been privileged to edit. He knows that wordplay is the thing wherein he'll catch the conscience of the reader. I have seen him wrestle with a particularly intractable word or phrase of Nietzsche's masterwork and snatch an exasperated success from the jaws of failure. While the great tendency among earlier translators has been to smooth out the rough edges, cut corners and sometimes omit troublesome passages outright, this one honors and respects the original as no other.