Sjötti mars

14. febrúar, á valentínusardaginn árið 1989, gaf Ayatollah Khomeini út veiðileyfi á rithöfundinn Salman Rushdie - eins og hefur nokkuð verið í umræðunni upp á síðkastið í kjölfarið á pönkun Jótlandspóstsins á múslimum í Danmörku. Fáeinum vikum síðar orti Salman Rushdie ljóð sér til varnar, en það var einmitt ort þennan dag fyrir 17 árum síðan. Ljóðið heitir '6 march 1989' og birtist upphaflega í bókmenntatímaritinu Granta í september sama ár.

6 march 1989

Boy, yaar, they sure called me some good names of late:
e.g. opportunist (dangerous). E.g. full-of-hate,
self-aggrandizing, Satan, self-loathing and shrill,
the type it would clean up the planet to kill.
I justjust remember my own goodname still.

Damn, brother. You saw what they did to my face?
Poked out my eyes. Knocked teeth out of place,
stuck a dog's body under, hung same from a hook,
wrote what-all on my forehead! Wrote 'bastard'! Wrote 'crook'!
I justjust recall how my face used to look.

Now, misters and sisters, they've come for my voice.
If the Cat got my tongue, look who-who would rejoice—
muftis, politicos, 'my own people', hacks.
Still, nameless-and-faceless or not, here's my choice:
not to shut up. To sing on, in spite of attacks,
to sing (while my dreams are being murdered by facts)
praises of butterflies broken on racks.

- Salman Rushdie