När Klas Östergren meddelade att han lämnar Svenska akademien citerade han Leonard Cohen: "I’m leaving the table, I’m out of the game".
I ett försök att få de tre avhoppade ledamöterna att återvända grep Sara Danius cohentråden, som ett halmstrå.
Fullproppad med fragment ur Cohens texter ringde hon mitt i natten upp avhopparna i ett fyrpartsamtal. De svarade med samma mynt.
Följande utspelade sig.
SARA DANIUS: Why dont you come on back to the war, its just beginning.
PETER ENGLUND: Nothing left to do, when you've got to go on waiting, waiting for the miracle to come
KLAS ÖSTERGREN: You loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win
KJELL ESPMARK: A million candles burning for the love that never came. You want it darker. We kill the flame
SD: Hey, thats no way to say goodbye.
KÖ: It don't matter how it all went wrong. That don't change the way I feel. And I can't believe that time's gonna heal this wound I'm speaking of. There ain't no cure, There ain't no cure …
PE: Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the fight was fixed.
KE:You want it darker. We kill the flame
SD: It's lonely here, there's no one left to torture.
KÖ: There were three of us this morning. I'm the only one this evening
but I must go on
PE: It's over, it ain't going any further
KE: You want it darker. We kill the flame
SD: It's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.
PE: I think you're playing far too rough , for a lady who's been to the moon
KÖ: You don't really care for music, do you?
KE:You want it darker. We kill the flame
SD: There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in
KÖ: If you should ever track me down, I will surrender there, and I will leave with you one broken man, whom I will teach you to repair.
PE: When it all comes down to dust, I will kill you if I must, I will help you if I can.
KE: You want it darker. We kill the flame
SD: I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you, I'm glad you stood in my way.
KÖ: Then read me the list of the crimes that are mine, I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline.
PE: There is no decent place to stand in a massacre
KE: You want it darker. We kill the flame
SD: You left when I told you I was curiuos, I never said that I was brave
ESPMARK, ÖSTERGREN och ENGLUND, unisont:
Give us back the Berlin wall
Give us Stalin and St Paul
Give us Christ or give us Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
We've seen the future, Sara: it is murder
