Marc Chagall.

The Chagall in the Garden.

아빠의 권유로 샤갈의 Orphée를 보러 National Sculpture Garden을 찾았던 추운 겨울날, 따사로운 햇살에 각각, 또 하나가 되어 반짝이는 mosaic tile들... 몽환적인 시간이었다.

사실 그의 작품을 볼 때면, 그러한 작품을 만들게 된 그의 삶의 이야기에 더 관심을 갖곤 했는데, (...장르를 불문하고 망명, 혹은 이중/복수국적의 예술가에게 더 관심을 갖게 되고, 나와의 연결고리를 의식적/무의식적으로 찾게 되는 건 어쩔 수 없다.) - 문득, 누군가의 생전에도 몇 번이나 새로이 그려질 수 있는 국경으로 구분되는 그것이 결국 무슨 의미가 있으랴, 하는 생각이 들었었다. 더군다나 필요에 따라 얼마든지 '우리'에 포함시키고, 또 쉽게 '너'로 밀어내는 사회에서.

... His life and art together added up to this image of a lonesome visionary, a citizen of the world with much of the child still in him, a stranger lost in wonder—an image which the artist did everything to cultivate. Profoundly religious and with a deep love of the homeland, his work is arguably the most urgent appeal for tolerance and respect of all that is different that modern times could make. - Walther, Ingo F., Metzger, Rainer. Marc Chagall, 1887–1985: Painting as Poetry 중.

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The Country Which Is In My Soul

-Marc Chagall

The country which is in my soul

Is mine alone.

I enter without a passport.

Like me,

It knows my sadness

And my solitude.

It numbs me

And shrouds me with its heavy scent.

For me the gardens flower.

Flowers are my creation.

The streets belong to me

But there are no houses,

They were destroyed in early childhood.

Its inhabitants roam in the air

In search of a home;

They dwell in my soul.

For this reason I smile

When my sun is barely shining,

Or I cry

Like a light rain

In the night.

There was a time when I wore two heads.

There was a time when these two faces

Covered themselves with an amorous dew

And were based on the scent of a rose.

Now it seems the same

To me when I return.

I look ahead

Towards a high portal

Behind which some walls spread themselves

Where faded thunder sleeps

And light breaks through.

The country which is in my soul

Is mine alone.