Lovitt: ewige Wiederkunft des Gleichen - eternal returning of the same

Nietzsche  ’s phrase die ewige Wiederkunft des Gleichen, here translated as "the eternal returning of the same," is usually translated as "the eternal recurrence (or return) of the same." The translation "returning" has been chosen in accordance with the burden of Heidegger’s present discussion of the will to power as turning back upon itself. The phrase might well be rendered here the "perpetual returning of the selfsame."

The turning back of the will to power upon itself, that it may move forward as the will to power, has its correlate for Heidegger in the reflexive movement characteristic of what is as such. "The eternal returning of the same," as the existentia of the essentia, the will to power, is taken by Heidegger to speak of that mode of Being of all that is which he elsewhere calls "subjectness" (Subjektitiit). Just as the will to power, as the Being of what is, simultaneously and necessarily turns back upon itself in going beyond itself; so, correspondingly, whatever is, in its Being, simultaneously and necessarily goes out beyond itself while yet underlying itself, thereby perpetuating and securing itself. Thus, "Everywhere the Being of whatever is lies in setting-itself-before-itself and thus in setting-itself-up" (p. 100). This is that self-objectifying, self-establishing character of what is which is its character as "representing" and which corresponds to the will to power’s simultaneously advancing to greater power and establishing a reserve on the basis of which it can so advance. (QCT   p. 81-82)