My translation of the elusive Ne Me Quitte Pas

[tracingwind]

... is all about maintaining the same style of language, rawness of feeling and musical timing as the original while at the same time being as true as possible to the words and images he used, instead of a Hallmark card version of it. So here is the original and below it is my translation... You will find that if you tried to sing my translation in

Comments

[anonymous]

One of the best translations of this song that I have read. BRAVO!

[ext_364899]

I have read many English translations of this song... this is without a doubt the most beautiful. Thank you.

[titooney]

I came to this site because I was searching for a translation of ne me quitte pas for some non french speaking friends. I have already read quite a few and this is by far the best I have found. Almost everytime i listen to this song or even simply read the lyrics, I can feel my heart beat a little stronger and my throat get tightened. And while reading at your interpretation of the lyrics I felt the same. I could feel the strenght of the text, really. And though, it is also one of the closest concerning the original meaning of words. Of course, as a fan of Brel, there are still few things I feel just a bit differently but, really, nice work. Thanks a lot. And, if you have or plan to translate other songs of Brel, I'll be happy to read them.

My attempt

[fare]

http://fare.livejournal.com/173134.html

RE: My attempt

[ext_4102018]

That was me who wrote the reply anonymously by accident. :)

Re: My attempt

[fare]

You said:

This is a brilliant translation. You've kept the original meaning and intensity while at the same time maintaining the musicality and rhyme. Bravo! Thanks for sharing. Have you worked on other song translations?

Thanks a lot for liking it! It was a lot of work. There isn't any other song translation as such that I am proud enough of to show, but there is this poem that I put to music then translated: Un songe / A dream, and I'm quite happy with the first part of the translation and satisfied enough with the ending. Then again, I put to music a few poems and wrote a few songs of my own: http://fare.livejournal.com/tag/sheet%20music