Gunter Grass poem English translation What must be said

http://betweentwosouths.blogspot.de/2012/04/gunter-grass-poem-english-translation.html

What must be said

Why did I remain silent, silent so long,

about something so clear we used

in war games, where, as survivors,

we are just the footnotes?

That is the claimed right to the formal preventive aggression

which could erase the Iranian people

dominated by a bouncer and moved to an organized jubilation,

because in the area of his competence there is

the construction of the atomic bomb.

And then why do I avoid myself

to call the other country with its name,

where since years – even if secretly covered -

there is an increasing nuclear power,

without control, because unreachable

by every inspection?

I feel the everybody silence on this state of affairs,

which my silence is slave to,

as an oppressive lie and an inhibition that presents punishment

we don’t pay attention to;

the verdict “anti-Semitism” is common.

Now, since my country,

from time to time touched by unique and exclusive crimes,

obliged to justify itself,

again for pure business aims - even if

with fast tongue we call it “reparation” -

should deliver another submarine to Israel,
with the specialty of addressing

annihilating warheads where the

existence of one atomic bomb is not proved

but it wants evidence as a scarecrow,

I say what must be said.

Why did I stay silent until now?

Because the thought about my origin,

burdened by an unclearing stain,

had avoiding to wait this fact

like a truth declared by the State of Israel

that I want to be connected to.

Why did I say it only now,

old and with the last ink:

the nuclear power of Israel

threat the world peace?

Because it must be said

what tomorrow will be too late;

Because - as Germans and with

enough faults on the back -

we might also become deliverers of a predictable

crime, and no excuse would erase our complicity.

And I admit: I won’t be silent

because I had enough of the Western hypocrisy;

Because I wish that many will want

to get rid of the silence,

exhorting the cause of a recognizable

risk to the abdication, asking that a free and permanent control

of the Israel atomic power

and the Iran nuclear bases

will be made by both the governments

with an international supervision.

Only in this way, Israelis, Palestinians, and everybody,
all people living hostile face to face in that

country occupied by the craziness,

will have a way out,

so us too.

Translation by Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher

The News (Haaretz): German Nobel laureate Gunter Grass' new poem: Nuclear Israel is a threat to world peace.