No Mercy,

by J. W. Cassandra

The poem uses the contrast between staying and moving to take the reader to cosmic perspectives through parallels and opposites. The symbol of the 'soul's ice-crack' is one of the key motifs: the cosmic perspectives all reach to the soul, and the reckoning will inevitably arrive. Instead of mercy, I used in the Hungarian version the word bargain, because it is more expressive in that language. 

The lyrical self is not the same as me.

I left so that I stayed
here:
I will stand guard at the gate
forever.

I moved, and the gate also
moved;
Yet I remained as a prime burden,
a bundle.

But only he sees a burden who is
burdened with sins:
I stand easily on the guard, then
I rise to heaven:

A defiant smile is a flashing up to the sky
lightning flash:
I left so that this is the ice-crack
of your soul.

I moved and the gate also
moved –
I stayed, and you know well:
No mercy!

Written: 15 / 08. 2025., by J. W. Cassandra
Translated: 16 / 08. 2025., by J. W. Cassandra

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