BardicTranslationRoughs/MassovTheArtist

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Noticing neither the Sun nor the stars
Knowing nothing of what is happening in the world
Alone in his empty flat
Massov the artist paints the light

The artist is a man like any other
But party to an invisible battle
A self-propelling prayer rattles inside him
Like a hamster in a wheel

He paints all night, he paints all day
He paints in tempera and chalk
He paints white on white
And God's holy light flows within him

Dawn blankets the house
In crimson and purple
Massov the artist shuffles to the corner shop
To buy some kefir

And once more hurries back to his cell
That to him is wider than the sky and the universe
To fix the eternal light of the world
Upon the unworthy canvas

...some fifteen years ago
I cried in the early dawn
Saying over and over -
"Massov the artist paints the Light".