. . .la luz esculpe al viento en la cortina,
hace de cada hora un cuerpo vivo,
entra en el cuarto y se desliza,
descalza, sobre el filo del chuchillo. . .

. . .the light sculpts the wind in the curtains,
makes each hour a living body
comes into the room and slips off,
slipperless, along the edge of a knife. . .

. . .la lumière sculpte le vent sur le rideau,
fait de chaque heure un corps vivant,
pénètre dans la chambre et se glisse,
pieds nus, sur le fil du couteau. . .

In awarding Octavio Paz the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Academy said that Paz's work “seems to incorporate, interpret, and reconstrue major existential questions-death, time, love, and reality.” Paz dedicated his poem, Sight and Touch, to his dear friend, the Franco-Polish artist, Balthus. Balthus reciprocated with three illustrations for this Limited Editions Club book and prints. The poem is about light “a wavering river that sketches its doubts and turns them to certainties.” Writes Paz, “Light is time thinking about itself.” The poem is presented in the original Spanish, in English and in French.

The three Balthus paintings have been turned into multicolor woodcuts by Keiji Shinohara and printed on Kozo Uwazen paper made by hand in Japan. The text is set in a Monotype version of Lutetia--sharp and brilliant in cut, crisp and contemporary in feeling. The boards are covered with pure linen on the sides, overlapped on the spine with Nigerian oasis goatskin. Set in a linen covered and lined case.