Don't Leave Me (My English rendition)

My English rendition of Jacques Brel's achingly beautiful "Ne Me Quitte Pas"

Don’t leave me

(Ne Me Quitte Pas)

Jacques Brel

 

English Rendition

Tyler Allen

 

 

Don’t leave me

We must forget all

That has passed away

Forget those words

Spoken yesterday

Forget the times we

Misunderstood

Trying to know

What no lovers could

Forget those hours

Of asking why

Leaving the heart

Of happiness awry

 

Don’t leave me (x4)

 

I…

Will give to you

Pearls of rain from a land

Where rain never falls

I will scourge the sand

I will dig the earth

Till the day of my death

All the gold and light

Will cover your flesh

I will make a domain

Where love will be king

Where love shall rule

And you will be queen

 

Don’t leave me (x5)

 

For you…

I will invent

Words of no sense

Only you and I will

Know what is meant

I will tell to you

The tale of two lovers

Whose hearts

Caught ablaze

And burned for each other

I will tell you the story

Of the king who died

On his throne, all alone

For you were not by his side

 

Don’t leave me (x4)

 

My love…

I have seen

New fire enfold

The ancient volcano

That was thought to be cold

Sometimes we see

The scorched fields of gray

Harvesting more

Than he brightest May

When the evening comes

And the sky burns red

The sun and the night sky

Shall never wed

 

Don’t leave me (x5)

 

Don’t leave me now

I won’t cry anymore

I won’t talk anymore

I will crawl on the floor

I will hide somehow

Just to watch you dance and smile

Just to hear you laugh

And sing… for awhile

Let me be the…

Shadow of your shadow

The shadow of your hand

The shadow of your dog, but…

You don’t understand

Just…

 

Don’t leave me (x4)

Author's Note

Not a completely accurate translation from French, but not a completely different rip-off like Rod Mckuen's version (which basically doomed the song from then on).
I suggest you listen to it in French though; only in its original language does it have all the emotion and meaning. Watch him sing it on youtube. It is the most harrowing and beautiful performance of any song that i've ever seen.