Old Postcard Wednesday—Freight train on the Meailles viaduct curve, Provence, France

(Railways of Provence -Freight train on the viaduct curve Méailles)

(This line of Railway narrow gauge connects 
NICE WORTHY. Based on the French Riviera, it 
rises up to 1000m. altitude of the valleys 
of the Var and Verdon.)


This old postcard attracted my attention because of the beauty of the singular autumnal tree on the hillside beyond the railway. It seems like the perfect image to celebrate the beginning of autumn this coming Saturday. I have never seen anything quite like that tree since most of our evergreen trees in the Pacific Northwest are conical like the trees on the hillside here, but of course they do not change color. The postcard tree's glorious, bright color does not look like the dull browns of a dead or dying tree. I find it so mysterious and perplexing that it makes me wonder if it wasn't the tree that caught the photographer's eye more than anything else in the scene. We'll never know.

In keeping with our French theme, the well-loved poem by Paul Verlaine:

Autumn Song by Paul Verlaine

With long sobs
the violin-throbs
of autumn wound
my heart with languorous
and montonous
sound.

Choking and pale
When I mind the tale
the hours keep,
my memory strays
down other days
and I weep;

and I let me go
where ill winds blow
now here, now there,
harried and sped,
even as a dead
leaf, anywhere.




Tiré du DVD "Léo Ferré chante les poètes" (1986 - Théâtre libertaire de Paris)
[From the DVD "Léo Ferré sings poets" (1986 - Paris Theatre libertarian)]

Chanson d'automne by Paul Verlaine

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l'automne
Blessent mon cœur
D'une langueur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l'heure,

Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure ;

Et je m'en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m'emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.


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