The Therapy Zone!

Goethe

Geh! Gehorche meinen Winke Go, obey my message

The German original:

 “Geh! Gehorche meinen Winken,

Nutze deine jungen Tage,

Lerne zeitig klüger sein!

Auf des Glückes großer Waage

Steht die Zunge selten ein.

Du mußt steigen oder sinken,

Du mußt herrschen und gewinnen

Oder dienen und verlieren,

Leiden oder triumphieren,

Amboß oder Hammer sein.”

English translation:

 “Go! Obey my message,

 make good use of your young days,

 learn early to be clever;

 on the great scales of fortune,

 the balance rarely keeps still;

 you must rise or sink,

 you must rule and win

 or serve and lose,

 suffer or triumph,

 be the anvil or the hammer.”

  “Go! Obey my message” that on its own made me think about how when as Number 2, he attempted to incite a mass break out of The Village “I am in command, obey me and be free.” But on that occasion everyone ignored Number 6’s message!

   As for the hammer and anvil, as Number said to Number 6 “You have to be hammer or anvil” and he saw Number 6 as the anvil. That Number 2 was going to hammer Number 6! And yet did it not turn out to be the other way around. That it was Number 6 who was doing the actual hammering?

   Certainly Number 6 learned to be clever by carrying out acts of Jamming against Number 2. Had he been more clever in realising that, then Number 6’s power would have been nullified.

   In the case of ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ it appears that there were no scales of fortune, only justice and revenge in the name of 73. And in that Number 6 risked all against a professional sadist. And yet the scales of fortune tipped in Number 6’s favour, and Number 2 sank!

   Number 6 may have won, but there was no rule for him. That was never on the cards, nor was escape. Whike Number 2 served and lost. It was also Number 2 who suffered, and Number 6 who triumphed that is to be the hammer or anvil!

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