Video hit Patricia Kaas

Patricia Kaas & Jeremy Irons - If You Go Away

If You Go Away is an adaptation of the 1959 Jacques Brel song "Ne me quitte pas" with English lyrics by Rod McKuen.

Created as part of a larger project to translate Brel's work, "If You Go Away" is considered a pop standard and has been recorded by many artists, including Greta Keller, for whom some say McKuen wrote the lyrics.

Damita Jo reached #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966 for her version of the song.

Terry Jacks recorded a version of the song which was released as a single in 1974 and reached #29 on the Adult Contemporary chart, #68 on the Billboard Hot 100, and went to #8 in the UK.

The complex melody is partly derivative of classical music - the poignant "But if you stay..." passage comes from Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6.

A sad but hopeful song, the lyrics are told from the perspective of someone telling their lover how much they'd be missed if they left. This is described in vivid, hyperbolic terms, such as "there'll be nothing left in the world to trust". If the lover stays, the narrator promises them both devotion and good times ("I'll make you a day / Like no day has been, or will be again"). Some lines show that the narrator is speaking to the lover as they already are leaving, or considering doing so ("Can I tell you now, as you turn to go..."). The lines "If you go, as I know you will" and later "...as I know you must" make clear that despite the narrator's protests, the lover's leaving is inevitable.

McKuen's translation is significantly different to the original Brel lyric. The English version is based around contrasting what would happen "if you go away" and what could happen "if you stay".

In the original French version, the singer begs for his lover not to leave him and is more supplicant and almost self-humiliating (the title "Ne me quitte pas" translates "Do not leave me").

Significant is the last image of the French version; although the McKuen version has lyrics that come close to the original sentiment, the French lyrics are far bleaker (as is the song in general): "Let me become the shadow of your shadow, the shadow of your hand, the shadow of your dog" (lit. translation of the original) as opposed to "I'd have been the shadow of your shadow if I thought it might have kept me by your side" (English lyrics).

The English version omits an interesting section of the original version in which the singer begs his lover to give their relationship a second chance, using examples derived from the natural world: "I will tell you of those lovers who saw their hearts catch fire twice;" "Fire has often been seen gushing out of an ancient volcano we thought too old"; "There are, people say, burnt lands that produce more wheat than the best of Aprils".

The lyrics:

If you go away On this summer day

Then you might as well Take the sun away

All the birds that flew In the summer sky

When our love was new And our hearts were high

When the day was young And the night was long

And the moon stood still For the night bird's song

If you go away

If you go away

If you go away

But if you stay I'll make you a day

Like no day has been Or will be again

We'll sail the sun We'll ride on the rain

We'll talk to the trees We'll worship the wind

And if you go I'll understand

Leave me just enough love To hold in my hand

If you go away

If you go away

If you go away

If you go away

As I'm the real must There'll be nothing left

In the world to trust Just an empty room

Full of empty space Like the empty look

I see on your face I've been the shadow

Of your shadow I fell you might have kept me By your side

If you go away

If you go away

If you go away

But if You stay I'll make you a day

Like no day has been Or will be again

We'll sail the sun We'll ride on the rain

We'll talk to the trees We'll worship the wind

And if you go I'll understand,

Leave me just enough love To hold in my hand

If you go away

If you go away

Ne me quite pas