5. Seven Sons - Epilogue

Seven Sons

An epic poem in 7 parts with Prologue and Epilogue

Epilogue

At last we’ve come to our long-expected end.
Now I’ll give a summary and explanations.
Maybe there is something you can’t understand
In this strange work, in a queer poet’s creation.

Experienced readers have got what I did mean
By purposely choosing the number of seven.
They must have called to mem’ry the deadly sins,
Those which hinder from ent’ring the gates of heaven.

Now I ask you: did you fail to find them all?
Are there some sins that I did not even mention?
If yes, it means you can’t see through a brick wall.
But don’t worry because that was my intention.

Now we’ll try and see what you readers have missed,
We will have a good look at my lines together.
Maybe you’ll find out what was hid in the mist,
Or maybe my thoughts would remain in dull weather.

Jack’s sin’s evident if you read carefully:
Greed turned him into a villain, a betrayer.
But that’s not the only thing: severity
And hard-heartedness of that unscrupulous player

Seem to me more terrible than the toothed greed
That’s characteristic where there’s making money,
For cruelty revels in watching you bleed,
It sucks in your blood which seems to taste like honey.

And what can we tell about the second son?
Arthur may be characterized by wrath (hatred?)
Towards the whole world, but I sure may be wrong:
It’s hard to imagine the boy saw it’s putrid.

He just couldn’t make good use of his discipline,
He didn’t understand: man’s life must not be taken.
He sold himself to Ares: that was his sin,
For army destroyed later all his great makings.

As far as the story of Val is concerned,
To determine his deadly sin would be harder.
I say it’s pride, though it may be not discerned,
And you may, of course, argue with me with ardor.

Val thought that he was a good needing no prayer,
He was sure: his abilities had no limits.
But it’s not his sin, and no sin’s his despair,
Though he’d to put himself together, I deem it.

What Casper’s sin was, you will not say to me,
For I did not say it while telling his story.
Since he was a teen he looked enviously
At scientists and felt he wanted to win glory.

But is envy the thing he must be blamed for?
He didn’t have to become a milit’ry puppet
And to use his knowledge for the sake of war.
On the contrary, science must try hard and stop it.

What about Elija, the reverend man?
Don’t try, for I did not say he was a glutton:
Like many priests, he loved t’ eat time and again,
And his fav’rite dishes were chops and roast mutton.

But is gluttony such a terrible sin?
Our priest’s not to blame that he thought of nutrition.
When faith has been lost it’s always a hard thing.
Maybe his choice was wrong, he mistook his mission.

George, unlucky man, what was he guilty of?
I’ll say that of lust, but you will not believe it.
Like any man, he tried to search for some love
(And only at college, so we can forgive it).

He was characterized by inability
To finish his work, by lack of concentration.
But there is no deadly sin which I would see:
He tried hard and died with a pleasant sensation.

There’s Silvester left, and the last sin is sloth.
But was that the cause of his being a vagrant?
No laziness made him choose a most strange path,
But the belief in that the world was not fragrant.

He wanted to change it, was sure that he could,
But he trusted too much, I think, in man’s kindness.
Believing in affection and brotherhood,
He might be right, and still he might suffer blindness.

The father of the seven died long before
He saw that his sons’ efforts in failure ended.
I think that it is fortunate for him or
He’d be much upset, it could drive him demented.

No matter what are those seven deadly sins,
The sons can, must or may be blamed for some others.
Maybe there are left a lot of unknown things,
But now ends the story of the seven brothers.

25–26.12.99