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DrMarty | April 7, 2012 at 09:22 am
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Guenter Grass Poem: "What Must Be Said"
{This is an English translation by Daniel Grasenach of Guenter Grass's poem published earlier this week in Sueddeutsche Zeitung and reported throughout the world.}
WHAT MUST BE SAID
Why am I silent, silent too long, About what is obvious and has been rehearsed In war games, at whose conclusion we as survivors Are footnotes at best.
It is the claimed right of a first strike That could annihilate the Iranian people, Subjugated by a loudmouth And herded by organized jubilation, Because in this sphere of control, the construction Of an atom bomb is suspected.
Yet why do I forbid myself To name the other nation In which for years -- although kept secret -- A growing nuclear potential is on hand But out of control, because no inspection May be made?
The general silence on the evidence at hand, To which my silence owes obedience, I feel to be an incriminating lie, Coercion, where the penalty is announced The moment one missteps; The verdict "Antisemitism" is familiar.
But now, because from my own land, Whose own crimes, fundamental And beyond compare, Time after time catch up with her and take her to task, On the other hand and purely businesslike, if also Declared with facile lips to be a reparation, Yet another submarine shall be furnished To Israel, whose specialty consists Of guiding all-annihilating warheads To that place, where the existence Of one single atom bomb remains unproven, Yet where suspicion becomes evidence, I'll say what must be said. But why have I been silent up to now? Because I thought my origin, That bears a stigma, never to be redeemed, Forbade me to regard this fact as spoken truth About the land of Israel, to which I'm bound And will remain so.
Why do I say now for the first time, Aged and with my last ink: The atomic might of Israel endangers The already fragile peace of the world? Because it must be said, What may be too late tomorrow; And because we -- as Germans incriminated enough -- Could become suppliers to a crime, That is foreseeable, which is why our complicity Were to be effaced by none of the usual Making of excuses.
And let me say: I'll be silent no more, Because the hypocrisy of the West Disgusts me; besides it is to be hoped That many others may be freed from silence, May ask those responsible for the evident danger To renounce the use of force and Likewise insist, That an unhindered and permanent control Of Israeli atomic potentials And Iranian nuclear compounds By an international authority Be allowed by the governments of both nations.
Only so may all be helped, Israelis and Palestinians, And what is more, all people who live In this region occupied by delusion, Side by side yet hostile, And finally ourselves may be helped as well.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (7)
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GenericX (not verified)at 01:39 on April 8th, 2012
A warning couldn't be more beautifully said...
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James Cooper (not verified)at 10:34 on April 8th, 2012
Bravo Gunter! It takes a brave humanist to speak out against Israel's policy of destruction of those it paranoically perceives to be its enemies, be it Iranians or Palestinians! Of course, they are bound to be labelled "anti-semites" and thus any constructive criticism will be prevented for fear of "offence"!
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J Bertram (not verified)at 11:53 on April 8th, 2012
Thank you all for this prose translation of Grass' poem. My German is too rusty to read the original properly... and any good prose rendering beats a cramped and half-comprehended foray in prose in a language not my own.
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German Cupcake (not verified)at 18:12 on April 22nd, 2012
Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Normale Tabelle"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} Wow, I guess this is the only article without Nazi comments. Thanks for the open mind :-)I don't get what’s the big deal anyway? I am so sick of it the "No criticism allowed"-policy of Israel's politicians. Israel is always screaming “Foul” and accuses the person of being antisemitic -or in case it is a German then he/she is branded as a Nazi. Then usually the Jewish Lobby in the U.S. will reinforce it in the media. It's like someone would be called a racist just for criticizing the Obama administration. That is nuts right?! This censorship has to stop. It must be possible to question the politic of a democratic government. FYI Germany is financing Israel’s wars for years. Just recently the German government has subsidized four nuclear submarines for the Israelis. This poem was written because the author Mr. Grass fears the danger of a nuclear war. He questions the right of the country Israel for a nuclear first strike to annihilate the people of Iran just for a bad feeling that there MIGHT be a nuclear weapons program going on. (Like the big lie of “weapons of mass destruction” in Afghanistan you all fell for.) Mr. Grass also says that by questioning Israel one is automatically branded as an anti-semitic. (Which BTW totally happened!!) Mr. Grass is afraid Germany could participate in a future wrongdoing, where we later can’t say that we haven’t already known. He wants to achieve that both countries nuclear program is inspected/supervised by an international authority that is approved by BOTH countries Israel and Iran. IS THAT REALLY SUCH A BAD THING? Why do so many people twist the facts and make Mr. Grass look anti-semitic? He has a point! I pray that the people in the Mideast will one day live peacefully without suppression and wars again. I am with the author and believe that it isn’t the right solution to add fuel to the fire!XOXO from Germany
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German Cupcake (not verified)at 18:16 on April 22nd, 2012
Sorry, for the disaster in my previous post. I copied and pasted it from "Word" in case the webpage suddenly changes and my text is gone. (As happened before)
at 03:30 on April 24th, 2012
German Cupcake,
Thanks for your input. You should join NowPublic and post your own articles.
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asilonlineat 05:02 on May 1st, 2012
very nice poems love poems