What Must Be Said
| by Günter Grass | |
| Original title | Was gesagt werden muss |
|---|---|
| Translator | Breon Mitchell (English translation used in this article) |
| First published in | Süddeutsche Zeitung, La Repubblica, El País |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
| Subject(s) | Iran–Israel relations, nuclear proliferation |
| Genre(s) | Prose poetry |
| Publication date | 4 April 2012 |
| Lines | 66 |
"What Must Be Said" (German: "Was gesagt werden muss") is a 2012 prose poem by the German writer Günter Grass, recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. The poem discusses an alleged threat of annihilation of the Iranian people and the writer's fears that Germany's delivery to Israel of a sixth Dolphin class submarine capable of carryingnuclear warheads might facilitate an eventual Israeli nuclear attack on Iran, and thus involve his country in a foreseeable crime.
The poem was first published on 4 April 2012 by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, La Repubblica and El País, triggering four days later the declaration by Eli Yishai, the Israeli Minister for the Interior, that Grass, who had visited Israel in 1967 and 1971, was now persona non grata.
The poem is written in prose and consists of 69 lines in 9 unrhymed stanzas. The basic theme is that it is hypocritical to blame Iran unilaterally for perhaps also having a desire to acquire nuclear weapons when Israel itself has a "growing nuclear potential". Grass adopts the assumption that Israel is planning a “first strike” preventive war against Iran that could wipe out the Iranian people. He deplores the fact that Germany is furnishing Israel with a submarine capable of delivering nuclear bombs, and says no one in the West dares to mention Israel in connection with nuclear weaponry. The author assesses that an attack on Iran would be a crime, to which Germany would become an accomplice.
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