Today the weather has turned, and there seems to be a storm passing over. The wind is strong again, and I feel the pollen and dust from the air enter my lungs making me cough. My mind irresistibly leads me to the Japanese film, The Wind Rises, which is a title inspired from the first line of a French poem by Paul Valéry.
Le vent se lève! . . . il faut tenter de vivre!
The wind rises… we must try to live!
The poem was written from the perspective of a man reading in a graveyard by the sea. The way in which the wind breaks the waves and sprays salt in the air inspires him and seems to lift him up. In the film, this line is referred to often. It’s a story about a Japanese engineer during the second world war. He fails repeatedly in his attempts to create a military aircraft, yet his passion for aircrafts consistently uplifts him.
In both cases, we see how something as simple as the breeze can help us to remember that we must live our life. Today, I have given this line my own meaning. As I walked back to my apartment, I started to notice that the air is too chilly, the breeze is too strong. I looked up and saw that the sun had gone, and the clouds were grey and heavy. I stopped to put on my jumper and continued to walk back… trying to force my legs to move a little quicker.
The day has turned into a beautiful, melancholic mess. The sky from my balcony seems to be a tie dye from the 60s. Grey, white, blue, all slowly fading into each other. The wind makes the trees dance, and it whistles through the corridor leading to my front door. There is a kind of energy it brings, I feel, as I watch the seagulls surfing by. An active element, the same one which turns sadness into tears… it brings a sense of relief.
The wind is rising and I start to feel something bubbling to the surface and inspiring me. Something that is small now but will get bigger with time. It comes to my attention that there is a kind of dialogue between Japan and France that I am dancing between this year. I don’t know what will happen, but I know that I’m visiting both of these countries for a reason. So, I lay back and let my arms float on this strong breeze. I let it lift me up, and I let the story come to me.
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