{"id":246726,"date":"2023-10-23T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=246726"},"modified":"2023-10-23T05:11:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T04:11:38","slug":"what-must-be-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/10\/what-must-be-said\/","title":{"rendered":"What Must Be Said"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nobel Laureate’s controversial poem about Israel may have lacked elegance, but it was also a dire warning about war with Iran that has irritated, provoked and outraged people everywhere.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why do I stay silent, conceal for too long
\nWhat clearly is and has been
\nPracticed in war games, at the end of which we as survivors
\nAre at best footnotes.<\/p>\n

It is the alleged right to first strike
\nThat could annihilate the Iranian people–
\nEnslaved by a loud-mouth
\nAnd guided to organized jubilation–
\nBecause in their territory,
\nIt is suspected, a bomb is being built.<\/p>\n

Yet why do I forbid myself
\nTo name that other country
\nIn which, for years, even if secretly,
\nThere has been a growing nuclear potential at hand
\nBut beyond control, because no inspection is available?<\/p>\n

The universal concealment of these facts,
\nTo which my silence subordinated itself,
\nI sense as incriminating lies
\nAnd force–the punishment is promised
\nAs soon as it is ignored;
\nThe verdict of “anti-Semitism” is familiar.<\/p>\n

Now, though, because in my country
\nWhich from time to time has sought and confronted
\nIts very own crime
\nThat is without compare
\nIn turn on a purely commercial basis, if also
\nWith nimble lips calling it a reparation, declares
\nA further U-boat should be delivered to Israel,
\nWhose specialty consists of guiding all-destroying warheads to where the existence
\nOf a single atomic bomb is unproven,
\nBut as a fear wishes to be conclusive,
\nI say what must be said.<\/p>\n

Why though have I stayed silent until now?
\nBecause I thought my origin,
\nAfflicted by a stain never to be expunged
\nKept the state of Israel, to which I am bound<\/p>\n

And wish to stay bound,<\/p>\n

From accepting this fact as pronounced truth.<\/p>\n

Why do I say only now,
\nAged and with my last ink,
\nThat the nuclear power of Israel endangers
\nThe already fragile world peace?
\nBecause it must be said
\nWhat even tomorrow may be too late to say;
\nAlso because we–as Germans burdened enough–
\nCould be the suppliers to a crime
\nThat is foreseeable, wherefore our complicity
\nCould not be redeemed through any of the usual excuses.<\/p>\n

And granted: I am silent no longer
\nBecause I am tired of the hypocrisy
\nOf the West; in addition to which it is to be hoped
\nThat this will free many from silence,
\nThat they may prompt the perpetrator of the recognized danger
\nTo renounce violence and
\nLikewise insist
\nThat an unhindered and permanent control
\nOf the Israeli nuclear potential
\nAnd the Iranian nuclear sites
\nBe authorized through an international agency
\nBy the governments of both countries.<\/p>\n

Only this way are all, the Israelis and Palestinians,
\nEven more, all people, that in this
\nRegion occupied by mania
\nLive cheek by jowl among enemies,
\nAnd also us, to be helped.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________<\/p>\n

This translation appeared in <\/em>The Atlantic on 6 Apr 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gunter Grass [1927-2015], recipient of the <\/em>1999 Nobel Prize in Literature,<\/em><\/strong> novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, is probably the greatest German writer of the 20th century.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nobel Laureate’s controversial poem about Israel may have lacked elegance, but it was also a dire warning about war with Iran that has irritated, provoked and outraged people everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":246727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[865,742,88,2416,427,868,481,886],"class_list":["post-246726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-genocide","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-palestine","tag-poetry","tag-warfare","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246726"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246737,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246726\/revisions\/246737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}