The Best Translation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Thus Spoke Zarathustra was written in German. 2 recommended editions, ranked — with Gröblé’s verdict on which to read first.
Walter Kaufmann
Penguin Classics · 1978 · 342 pages
Kaufmann pulled Nietzsche out of his Nazi appropriators in the mid-century, and his Zarathustra is still the one most readers know. Biblical cadence, alive to the parodies, more readable than the prose suggests it should be.
Every recommended edition, compared
Del Caro's Cambridge is the scholarly standard now, more literal than Kaufmann and backed by the full Cambridge apparatus. Pick it when you want to argue with a specific passage.
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Reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra in translation
Thus Spoke Zarathustra was written in German, so unless you read German, the translator decides the book you actually experience — its register, its pace, how it sounds read aloud. Two editions of the same work can feel like different books.
The ranking above is Gröblé’s: one reader’s verdict on which English gets you closest, not a publisher’s blurb. Start with the top pick; reach for the others when you want a different angle on the original.