It has been a while.
My magical life in Melbourne, Australia was in full swing.
I heard this song
Ne me quitte pas
after listening to it a hundred times i could sing along without understanding a word
did it matter /
No
To this day, it remains one of my favourite songs and of course, I know what the words mean
It is sheer poetry
wandering around the South pacific, I heard Jacques Brel had died in Hiva Oa , Polinesie Francaise. (he is buried there, where he spent his last years but had died in Bobigny, France in the hospital where he had been taken urgently)
Years later I would meet a group of elderly visitors from Marquesas, who spoke French and I longingly asked.. any one of you from Hiva Oa ?
How did it feel, arriving in the centre of Bruxelles
knowing this is where Jacques Brel was born and raised ..
I felt his presence in those very first days in Quartier Europeen and the centre vile ..
While he sang mainly in French, he had influenced so many English speaking singers.. His songs have been translated into over 100 different languages. The version of Ne me quitte pas most remembered in the English speaking world was by Nina Simone..
I remember sitting with Le petite poete de Côte Sauvage at a small theatre in Bruxelles, listening to a re enactment of Brel's life, with his songs.. I particularly liked Les Bourgeois
It is midnight in Miami and I am not sleepy .
Two weeks ago I was in Quiberon
In one week, hope to be back in my beloved Island ..
