To Painting
To you, flax in the field. To you, expanse
of surface for the eyes: expectant glance.
To you, imagination, ice or coal,
exact design or fire out of control.
To you, line unforeseen or always known.
To you, heroic paintbrush, wax or stone,
complaint to whatever style's envisioned,
to measure or the lack of all precision.
To you, form; color, resonating scheme
by which life shows the volume of its space,
dark next to light, light next to sun, now fainter.
To you, fictive reality of dream.
To you, real object, palpable, in place.
To you at last, the hand, all Painting's painter.
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Rafael Alberti
translated by Carolyn L. Tipton
To Painting
Northwestern University Press 1997
