Ne me quitte pas (1959)

Ne me quitte pas – Jacques Brel

Don´t leave me

Don’t forsake me now !
Let’s forget it all.
All can be forgotten.
Who is fleeing now ?
Let’s forget the time,
when I misunderstood,
and the time I lost,
asking how you could.
Let’s forget those hours,
which killed our hearts
with my many darts,
asking why and how.

Don’t forsake me now !

I will offer you
many pearls of rain
coming from countries
which never saw a rain.
I will dig the earth
even after death
to hang over you
gold and diamonds blaze.
I will make a realm
where love shall be king
where love shall be law
where you shall be the queen.

Don’t forsake me now !

Don’t forsake me now !
For you I shall invent
senseless words which you
will then understand.
Then I shall tell you
of those lovers who
saw two times their hearts
be shot by loving darts.
I shall tell you too
the story of this king,
dead for not having had
the luck in finding you.

Don’t forsake me now !

One has often had
burst anew the fire
of an old volcano
believed to be dead.
There are, it is said,
scorched lands which yield
more wheat than the best
month could ever bring ahead.
And when evening comes,
to make the sky flare up,
doesn’t the color black
sometimes wed with red ?

Don’t forsake me now !

Don’t forsake me now !
I shall weep no more,
I shall speak no more,
I shall hide right here,
only look at you
see you dance and smile,
listen to you sing
and then hear you laugh.
Let me only be
the shadow of your shade,
the shadow of your hand,
the shadow of your dog, but …

Don’t forsake me now !

(English translation by D. Kaiser)