Ne me quitte pas/ If You Go Away
As a Christmas present in 2002, our daughter-in-law Marie-Eve bought us tickets for a concert in honour of the magnificent French singer-song writer Jacques Brel, held in Quebec City. Anne and I were particularly moved by the cover version of “Ne me quitte pas.” It stayed with us, like a personal anthem.
On the evening before Anne died, I couldn’t get the song out of my head, and I played it for her again and again, in its original version and in the English translation created in collaboration with Brel by the American poet, singer-songwriter, and composer, Rod McKuen.
Ne me quitte pas/ If You Go Away
Saturday evening, May 2, 2026
On that last evening, the room held its breath with me.
I sat beside your bed where silence gathered like snow.
The monitor kept its pale time; my heart refused it.
I played Jacques Brel’s “Ne me quitte pas,” then “If You Go Away,”
not for answers, only to lay my pleading in the air.
I begged you softly not to leave the life we made,
though your closed eyes had already crossed beyond my calling.
Your hand lay quiet in mine, warm as a fading ember.
The hospital lights dimmed the world to you, to me, to goodbye.
Every memory pressed near – the ordinary, shining things –
your laugh in the kitchen, your name inside my chest.
Love could not keep you, but it would not loosen either.
And when the night took you gently, it left your light with me.
Ne me quitte pas – Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel – Ne me quitte pas (Official Lyric Video)
Extrait du film Diana 2013 NE ME QUITTE PAS magnifique
Rod McKuen ~ IF YOU GO AWAY ~ song by Jacques Brel. English lyrics by Rod McKuen. McKuen and Jacques Brel collaborated on many songs that became hits. For this reason the two formed a close friendship. McKuen says: “When news of Jacques’ death came I stayed locked in my bedroom and drank for a week.”
https://genius.com/Rod-mckuen-if-you-go-away-ne-me-quittes-pas-lyrics
“Ne me quitte pas” speaks to the helplessness of loving someone so deeply that the thought of losing them feels impossible to bear. For me, its power lies not in drama but in its honesty: the way it gives voice to devotion, longing, and the wish to hold close what cannot be kept by force of love alone. In that sense, the song feels profoundly meaningful to me, because it mirrors the tenderness, gratitude, and sorrow that can exist together when love is tested by suffering. Its beauty is that it does not pretend grief can be solved; it simply honors the depth of attachment, and that honesty can feel like a form of dignity.
But the song also expresses desperation and utter sadness, along with profound imploring and a sense of inevitable loss.
I’ve learned that many people who are losing a loved one have latched onto this song as they implore the expiring person to stay, even as they know that they will and must depart… for eternity.
Your friend,
Robert
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/
If you feel like reading more about Anne’s cancer journey, I’ve chronicled it in prose and poetry here:
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/news/
