Rafael Alberti

Blue

1
Blue arrived. And its time was painted.

2
How many blues did the Mediterranean give?

3
Venus, mother of the sea of the blues.

4
The blue of the Greeks
rests, like a god, on columns.

5
The delicate, medieval blue.

6
The Virgin brought her virginal blue:
blue Mary, blue Our Lady.

7
It fell to his palette. And brought
the most secret blue from the sky.
Kneeling, he painted his blues.
Angels christened him with blue.
They appointed him: Beato Blue Angelico.

8
There are celestial palettes like wings
descended from the white of clouds.

9
The blues of Italy,
the blues of Spain,
the blues of France . . .

10
Raphael had wings.
Perugino also had wings
in order to spread his blues around.

11
When they get color from you,
indigo blue, brushes are feathers.

12
Venice of golden Titian blue.

13
Rome of Poussin blues between the pines.

14
Tintoretto blues embitter me.

15
Sulphur alcohol phosphorous Greco blue.
Toxic verdigris blue Greco.

16
On the palette of Velasquez I have
another name: I am called Guadarrama.

17
When I wander through nacreous flesh,
I am called the merry blue vein of Rubens.

                                translated by Mark Strand