Clemency Clause
1
Like somebody whose final wish was granted
who ate his food the last he'll ever get
who drank his last wine as much as he wanted
who even got a final cigarette
and watched the smoke clouds drifting there forlorn
the way his frightened little soul will float
when he'll be strangled in the early dawn
and dangled on a rope around his throat
Condemned to death I've known this gloomy cell
but now I'm in the yard the sun's ablaze
I have to rub my unprotected eyes
which still belong there to that blackest hell
You make me itch you noxious sunny rays
my clemency was such a strange surprise
2
I felt let down my soul wanted to sleep
it wasn't even half a twitch before
I could have reached the bed's inviting deep
to stay there and to sleep for evermore
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3
the far bank of pain was my Paradise
grandfather's yard was the warmth of a hand
late summer's day on the cool porch a slice
of sugared rye bread is my portion and
I climb the mulberry tree when I am fed
to settle high up in the canopy
my crow's nest on my mast from overhead
I watch the tossing shadows of the sea
I'm both deck boy and legendary knight
my ship goes down but just seconds to spare
a griffin lands and flies back with me where
we all receive life sentences because
we're locked up lifelong at our normal site
according to the known clemency clause
Translated by Peter Zollman
From 'Selected Poems' by István Baka