Breakup Song Watch Sunday: Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away)

There comes a time, as a relationship ends, when a lover seeks to change the course of history through poetry.  This song is about that time.

Both the English and the French versions of the song make ridiculously desperate promises in the attempt to persuade a lover not to leave. 

From the French:

I will give you pearls of rain come from countries where it never rains.
I will dig up the earth even in death to cover your body with gold and with light.
I will make a kingdom where love shall be king, where love shall be law, where you shall be queen.
Don’t leave me!
Don’t leave me!
Don’t leave me!
Don’t leave me!

From the English:

But if you stay
I'll make you a day
Like no day has ever been
Or will be again
We'll sail on the sun
We'll ride on the rain
We'll talk to the trees
And worship the wind

Pulling out all the rhetorical stops, this guy is!

We’ve all been there, right?  It’s a final gambit to forestall the inevitable.  I will make you stay through the force of my will, as expressed by my fancy words.  Which is ridiculous when you think about it.  It’s not like this affair started over poetry in the first place.  But somehow, luring them back in with poetic hyperbole seems like a good idea at the time.

No doubt about it, love gives us teh stupids.

Here is a video of someone doing a slow, fastidious burlesque to Nina Simone’s rendition of “Ne Me Quitte Pas.”  I have never seen a stripper fold her clothes after taking them off before.  (If only she would stop touching her hair!) 

[Ugh.  Vimeo won't allow the embed without a pound of flesh.  Link here.]

This is such an odd song for a striptease.  I can only think that undressing in public is meant to reflect the debasing of self portrayed in the song:  Let me become the shadow of your shadow, the shadow of your hand, the shadow of your dog, but don’t leave me!  Don’t leave me!  Don’t leave me!  Don’t leave me!