Gare Du Midi. (Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

Auden's title in French translates as 'Railway Station in the South of France'. A stranger arrives in a southern town in France, and the mayor has arranged a low-key welcome for him. There is something alarming and pitiable about this man, who gets off the train and 'walks out briskly to infect a city'. The city's 'terrible future may have just arrived'.
Who is the stranger who gets off the train in a station in the South? The man has come from further south; we do not know exactly where. Auden wrote the poem in Brussels in 1938, a year before the Second World War started, when he could see ominous signs in Europe. There were signs of approaching war in Europe. Auden wrote prophetically in this poem, as Germany would completely conquer France early in the war, imposing a collaborative government in Vichy.Hitler would annex Belgium for Germany in 1940 also. 'Gare du Midi' is connected to World War II, but the stranger's identity is not clear.
This short, free verse poem is widely admired by the critics and justly so.