15 Translator's PrefaceSafranski vividly portrays Nietzsche's many attempts to try on identi-
ties and masks. Nietzsche played the free spirit, die moralist, the scien-
tist, the antiscientist, the prophet, and the fool. Particularly when he
lived in Genoa for several periods in 1880-82, he fancied himself a new
Columbus of the mind, exploring territory as yet uncharted by human
cognition. Throughout all of his forays, he clung to music as his anchor,
whether he was looking to Wagner, Dionysus, or his own sense of the
colossal power of music
The author does not succumb to the temptation to homogenize
Nietzsche's multifaceted philosophy.^5 He invites the reader inside the
workings of Nietzsche's highly complex and often discrepant philo-
sophical byways. Nietzsche struggled to overcome his own compassion
and embody the Ubermensch he championed, by creating what he called a
"second nature." In the end, however, he never quite managed to escape
his first nature, which was anchored in the "human, all too human."
I would like to thank my students at Rutgers, primarily those enrolled in
my translation methodology seminars; their diligent and at times
resplendent renderings of their texts have continued to provide me with
fresh perspectives on my own work. Several students also steered me to
just the right websites when my more traditional (paper-based) means of
fact gathering stalled out. Professor Christian Wildberg of the Princeton
University Classics Department was kind enough to clarify several per-
plexing issues concerning Greek antiquity. I am grateful to my good
friend Anthony Heilbut for introducing me to this project; his sparkling
writing style inspires my own efforts. Thanks also go to Robert Weil, my(^5) For a provocative and influential discussion, written during World War Π, of
two major "camps" of Nietzsche reception, which pits the "gentle
Nietzscheane" against the "tough Nietzscheane," see Crane Brintons
Nietzsche (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1941). Safranski refrains from
entering into this debate.