Ekphrasis of "Le Repos," Marc Chagall, 1968

 Ekphrasis of “Le Repos,” Marc Chagall, 1968

Do you remember your dreams?

Chagall remembered his - in colors and forms surreal…

In the foreground of an old village, a blue-faced, half-naked girl shares a

                                   smile

with a floating, green-faced cow staring intently at her,

                                   while

between them, an adult woman, bemused, thinks of blue-faced girl, perhaps herself in her youth,

                                   while

tenuously holding a tiny human figure, perhaps herself as a child, 

                                   while 

another flies towards the child with the open arms, perhaps herself loving herself,

                                   while

a small hovering human holding a book, again green-faced, whispers poetry in the woman’s ear,

                                   while

more figures in the orange-red sky surround her head - her musings given form and meaning…    

a human welcomes with open arms the love of a flying bird,

                                   while 

another blows a horn, announcing the astonishments to the villagers,

                                   while

they gaze in amazement at all the phantasms before them,

                                   while

of course, the girl and the cow continue to eye each other, as they will forever.

Chagall may be in “le repos,” but his dreams, and their artistic expression, are not.