L'Arbre Bleu - The Blue Tree, Paris.

It was a clear, sunny morning of October and I was looking for a suitable caffè to have breakfast; an important decision when you are on holiday but not a complicated decision when you are in Paris.

I was walking in Rue Descartes just beyond the Pantheon when I saw the Blue Tree for the first time.

The mural was painted in 2000 by the Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky, one of the twelve murals created for the initiative Les Murs de l'An 2000 - Walls of the Year 2000 promoted by the City of Paris. Next to the electric blue tree, the French poet Yves Bonnefoy wrote a short poem entitled 'L'Arbre  Bleu'.
His words are addressed to the passer-by and to the philosophe, to those who look up, above all if they are not on holiday. 

L’Arbre Bleu

                                  Passant,                                    

Regarde ce grand arbre 

                    Et à travers lui                      

Il peut suffire.

Car même déchiré, souillé,  

L’arbre des rues,

C’est toute la nature,

Tout le ciel,

L’oiseau s’y pose,

Le vent y bouge, le soleil

Y dit le même espoir malgré

La mort.

Philosophe,

As-tu chance d’avoir l’arbre

Dans ta rue,

Tes pensées seront moins ardues

Tes yeux plus libres,

Tes mains plus désireuses

De moins de nuit.

The  Blue Tree

Passer-by,

Look at this big tree

And through it  

It may suffice.

For even torn, stained,

The tree of the streets,  

It's all the nature,  

All the sky,  

The bird lands on it,

The wind moves it, the sun  

Tells the same hope despite

The death.

Philosopher,

Have you the chance to have the tree

In your street,  

Your thoughts will be less ardous,

Your eyes freer,

Your hands more eager

Less by night.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Paris, October 2009.

Translation:
TravelinaGarden.

Address:
L'Arbre Bleu - Rue Descartes - 5th arrondissement Paris.