The Work
A study dedicated to Max Ernst’s painting and Paul Eluard’s poem ‘At the first clear word’
In the colorful embroidered cloth, there is at least one color unreachable.
There is at least one color dyed with unsurmountable amount of suffering.
One color stacked with all those seconds when worlds didn't reach the work.
And if worlds reached the work, then it would not remain that color.
In the absence of the one color, work is reachable, tangible and sweet.
It is empty of all other worlds only accessible to the hands here.
Hands knitting a cloth with one passage, one key, to new universes.
But the color must remain unreachable. Or it must stand to lose The Work.
~
Vaishali Paliwal
The title comes from one of Paul Éluard’s poems: Source for translation and history of the painting.
Au premier mot limpide
(At the first clear word)
Au premier mot limpide au premier rire de ta chair
(At the first clear word, at the first laugh of your flesh)
La route épaisse disparaît
(The thick road disappears)
Tout recommence.
(Everything starts over.)
La fleur timide la fleur sans air du ciel nocturne
(The timid flower, the airless flower of the night sky)
Des mains voilées de maladresse
(Veiled clumsy hands)
Des mains d’enfant.
(Hands of a child.)
Des yeux levés sur ton visage et c’est le jour sur terre
(Eyes raised upon your face and it’s daylight on the earth)
La première jeunesse close
(The first youth is closed)
Le seul plaisir.
(The only pleasure.)
Foyer de terre foyer d’odeurs et de rosée
(Home of land, home of scent and of dew)
Sans âge sans raison sans liens
(Without age, without reason, without ties)
L’oubli sans ombre.
(Oblivion without shadows.)
