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Ken Burch

(50,254 posts)
Sun Aug 7, 2016, 05:21 PM Aug 2016

Leonard Cohen penned a heartbreaking final letter to dying muse Marianne Ihlen

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/leonard-cohen-pens-heartbreaking-final-letter-to-dying-muse-marianne-ihlen-a7177126.html?cmpid=facebook-post

It was Ihlen who had inspired the likes of 'So Long, Marianne' and 'Bird on a Wire', after the pair had met on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s and became romantically intertwined.

CBC Radio spoke to Ihlen's close friend Jan Christian Mollestad, a documentary filmmaker, who had broken the news to Cohen that she was dying and had received his letter in return to read to Ihlen. "It said, 'Well Marianne it's come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon,'" Mollestad recalled.

"'Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine. And you know that I've always loved you for your beauty and your wisdom, but I don't need to say anything more about that because you know all about that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road… '"

"When I read the lines 'stretch out your hand,' she stretched out her hand. Only two days later she lost consciousness and slipped into death. I wrote a letter back to Leonard saying in her final moments I hummed 'A Bird on a Wire' because that was the song she felt closest to. And then I kissed her on the head and left the room, and said 'so long, Marianne.'"



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Leonard Cohen penned a heartbreaking final letter to dying muse Marianne Ihlen (Original Post) Ken Burch Aug 2016 OP
Leonard Cohen overcome by So Long, Marianne (Live 1972) bananas Aug 2016 #1
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