Write a little more often...

Hello again - second time today!  If you're looking for my autumnal Artistic Stamper project, you'll find it here.  It'd be lovely if you have time to go and take a look.

But I'm back with some journalling pages which grew out of a song that matters a great deal to me.

It's a long time since I've had time to play along with a challenge just because I like the look of it, but the moment I saw that the theme at Country View Challenges this month was Letters, I've had just one song going round in my brain: Marlene Dietrich's version of Marie, Marie.  And that's where these pages came from.

I grew up on Marlene Dietrich - she may not always hit the notes completely in tune, but my word the woman can sell the drama of a song.  And even before my French was up to much, I knew that there was something catastrophic going on in the story of this song. 

(Click here to hear the live in London version, which is the one I've always known.  Full lyrics and translation are at the foot of the post.)

As Marlene says, we hear a woman reading a letter sent to her by a man in prison.  We never learn his name; he refers to himself simply as his prison number, 14,200.  And he's telling her about life in prison, and asking - quite simply - for her to write to him more often.














Once my French improved, the drama became more mysterious.  We know nothing for certain...

Why is he in prison?  Were they lovers? (Surely, that's a yes.)  Why has she stopped writing so often?  Why is she apparently so unhappy that he's to be released soon?  And why is there such doubt over the release date?










Most of the words seem fairly innocuous - why does she break down over the fact that they have puddings on Sundays and fish on Fridays?














Has she met someone else and is feeling guilty?  Is that why she breaks down when she reads his humble words?  Or is she simply desperate that they can't be together?











All these mysteries keep me coming back to the song, over and over again, and the pure drama of Marlene's delivery (I'll even accept that it's slightly over the top, veering into melodrama... I don't care, it comes from a place of truth!) always takes me to the edge of tears too.

The two photos were selected from Darkroom Door's Photo Booth sheets - they work very well for me as Marie and 14,200.












And there are the folded letters which had been going to and fro, but now seem to be going mainly in one direction.

He's got a background of wire mesh or bars keeping him imprisoned...

... while she has soft, feminine lace.

And they each have a snippet of fabric with more letter-writing on it (and it's even in French - thank you Tim Holtz!).

The threads of the fabric are frayed and unravelling, as their relationship seems to be.














The whole background is made up of other letters...















Lots of texture over which I've let ink run like tears.














There's plenty of stamping too.

Parisian postmarks...










Handwritten script, some of it reverse-stamped in water to take ink off the page.  Letters you might wish unwritten, but you can't take them back.












And the words of course...

... that plea from the heart - "So write more often" - but so gently put; no recriminations, no blame, just a gentle request. 

(Apologies to the French speakers - I know the accent is missing from that first e, but the Idea-ology set doesn't include diacritics!)










So there are my pages.  I'm always so happy to hear your thoughts, so I'd love to know what you make of them. 

Thank you for spending some time here at Words and Pictures today, and I'll hope to return the visit very soon.

I'm entering this at Country View Crafts Challenges where the theme is Letters.
And with all those mysteries - what's he in for? why has she stopped writing? has she met someone else? - I'd also like to share it over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where It's A Mystery this week.

A Pâques ou à la Mi-Carême                                  At Easter or at Lent,
Quand je serai libéré                                                 When I will be released,
Lorsque j´aurai fini ma peine                                When I will have finished my sentence,
O que j´irai t´embrasser                                          Oh how I will kiss you.                                 

Dans notre jardin d´Angleterre                              In our English garden
Les roses ont dû refleurir                                          The roses have bloomed again;
Si tu en portais à ma mère                                        If you would take some to my mother
Ça me ferait bien plaisir                                            That would make me very happy.

Marie, Marie                                                                  Marie, Marie
Ecris donc plus souvent                                             Write, then, more often
Marie, Marie                                                                 Marie, Marie
Au quatorze mille deux cent                                     To Fourteen Thousand, Two Hundred

Je travaille à la bibliothèque                                  I work in the library,  
Je m´invente du bon temps                                     I pretend to have a good time;
J´ai pour amis tous les poètes                                I have, as friends, all the poets -
Baudelaire, Châteaubriand                                    Baudelaire, Châteaubriand.

Pour nous ici quoi qu´on en pense                         For us here, it's as you might think...
Ils sont vraiment très gentils                                   They really are very nice
On a du dessert le dimanche                                    There's pudding on Sundays
Poisson le vendredi                                                     And fish on Fridays

Marie, Marie                                                                  Marie, Marie
Ecris donc plus souvent                                            So write more often
Marie, Marie                                                                  Marie, Marie
Au quatorze mille deux cent                                     To Fourteen Thousand, Two Hundred

A Pâques ou à la Mi-Carême                                  At Easter or at Lent
Il reviendra bien le temps                                       There will be plenty of time again
Où tu pourras dire je t´aime                                    When you will be able to say, "I love you"
Au quatorze mille deux cent                                    To Fourteen Thousand, Two Hundred

Gilbert Bécaud