One of the painter's favorite themes
a post-coital variation of the tableaux
of the artist and the model ,done by moonlight
the properties of the studio
dishevelled by goatish sex.Light emanates from the figure
of the Beloved, asleep and quite at peace.
She does not stir except to fall
further into a deep circle of calm
which sheds a light in the room,
who murmurs a name from afar
in some bright field
she moves in in her dream.
The strangest land of snow
however has captured him
who stays awake inside the thought
that time is not continuous
but a vast palace with trapdoors
and secret apartments
in which he comes and goes,
and loses her again
forewarned by happiness
and this same scene
revisited time after time from then
His own phantom there
keeps vigil; he is vaguely aware
of entering through a door
from the future:
this would account for
the strength of the cliche
of the sleeper shedding light
and the dark watcher.
( illustration from Picasso's Vollard Suite/1936)
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