‘What Must Be Said’ --Guenter Grass

[TrueStranger]

Salaam Aliakum,

This poem should spread like a wild fire for the simple fact that Israel is trying to silence freedom of Speech, and not to mention the truth. They are attacking Gunter Grass from all angles, even going as far as to demand he be stripped of his Nobel Prize.

Here is an unofficial translation of Guenter Grass’ poem, “What Must Be Said.”

“What Must Be Said.”

Why do I stay silent, conceal for too long
What is obvious and has been

Practiced in war games, at the end of which we as survivors

Are at best footnotes.

It is the alleged right to the first strike

That could annihilate the Iranian people—

Subjugated by a loud-mouth

And guided to organized jubilation—

Because in their sphere of power,

It is suspected, a nuclear bomb is being built.

Yet why do I forbid myself

To name that other country

In which, for years, even if secretly,

There has been a growing nuclear potential at hand

But beyond control, because not accessible to inspections?

The universal concealment of these facts,

To which my silence subordinated itself,

I sense as an incriminating lie

And coercion--the punishment is promised

As soon as it is ignored;

The verdict of “anti-Semitism” is familiar.

Now, though, because in my country

Which time and again has sought and confronted

Its very own crimes

That is without comparison

In turn on a purely commercial basis, if also

With nimble lips calling it a reparation, declares

A further U-boat should be delivered to Israel,

Whose specialty consists of guiding all-destroying warheads to where the existence

Of a single atomic bomb is unproven,

But fear wishes to be of conclusive evidence,

I say what must be said.

But why have I stayed silent until now?

Because I thought my origin,

Afflicted by a stain never to be expunged

Forbade this fact as pronounced truth

To be told to the nation of Israel, to which I am bound

And wish to stay bound.

Why do I say only now,

Aged and with my last ink,

The nuclear power Israel endangers

The already fragile world peace?

Because it must be said

What even tomorrow may be too late to say;

Also because we--as Germans burdened enough--

Could become suppliers to a crime

That is foreseeable, wherefore our complicity

Could not be redeemed through any of the usual excuses.

And granted: I am silent no longer

Because I am tired of the West’s hypocrisy;

In addition to which it is to be hoped

That this will free many from silence,

Appeal to the perpetrator of the recognizable danger

To renounce violence and

Likewise insist

That an unhindered and permanent control

Of the Israeli nuclear potential

And the Iranian nuclear sites

Be authorized through an international agency

By the governments of both countries.

Only this way are all, the Israelis and Palestinians,

Even more, all people, that in this

Region occupied by mania

Live cheek by jowl among enemies,

And also us, to be helped.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...D4S_story.html

[Muslim Woman]

thanks for sharing . InshaAlla will post in other forums .

[MustafaMc]

Israel is prepared to annihlate another country who might possibly one day have the ability to do the same to them in the same manner that USA destroyed Iraq because they might possibly have WMDs. I believe that Israel would not attack Iran if it already had nuclear weapons. The ability to use nuclear weapons is the most effective deterent to being attacked.

[Muslim Woman]

Gunter Grass accuses Israel of plotting to 'wipe out' Iran: "I admit: I will be silent no longer, because I am sick of the hypocrisy of the West".
http://bit.ly/HOehbD

BERLIN - Controversy-courting German Nobel literature laureate Gunter Grass published a poem Wednesday in which he accused Israel of plotting Iran's annihilation and threatening global security.
The 84-year-old longtime leftist activist wrote in "What must be said" that he worried Israel "could wipe out the Iranian people" with a "first strike" due to the threat it sees in Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
"Why do I only say now, aged and with my last ink: the atomic power Israel is endangering the already fragile world peace?" reads the poem, which was published in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Grass answers that Nazi Germany's "incomparable" crimes against Jews and fears of accusations of anti-Semitism kept him from openly criticizing Israel.



But now, "tomorrow could already be too late" and Germany could become a "supplier to a crime," referring to a deal sealed last month for Berlin to sell Israel a sixth nuclear-capable Dolphin-class submarine.
"I admit: I will be silent no longer, because I am sick of the hypocrisy of the West".


Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Gu...#ixzz1rb3orhQB