Leonard Cohen letter to Marianne Ihlen, Saint Jean-sur-Richelieu, 26 June 1961

Leonard Cohen met Marianne Ihlen on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960. The pair shared a long and chaotic romance that inspired a catalogue of Cohen songs — like So Long Marianne, Bird on the Wire, and Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye — and left behind a legacy of over 50 love letters.

Cohen admits that although it’s been a year since they last saw each other, he is unable to move on — and is departing Hydra the next day to see her in Norway. He writes, ‘I must see again what happens to us when we are together, perhaps it will be nothing, perhaps everything. Anyhow, we shall see and speak and touch and if it is nothing we shall say so. If it is nothing I’ll get on with my life and you with yours and all we’ll keep of one another will be a few months of sun and a long journey north. At least we will be able to say goodbye, something we have never managed.’

He wouldn’t manage that goodbye until the very end of their lives, when he heard that she was dying and wrote her a final letter in 2016. It ended, ‘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.’

leonard :-(

From Leonard Cohen's final letter to his dying muse, Marianne Ihlen. She died in July 2016, and Cohen followed her shortly after, dying in November 2016.

"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. 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 l'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."

- Leonard Cohen

Marianne Ihlen when she met Leonard Cohen

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A bit late for Valentine's, but then, Marianne and Leonard left a lot of things until too late.

“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. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine.” 

Maxence Fermine racconta la storia d'amore fra Leonard Cohen e Marianne Ihlen: "Dance me to the end of love" - recensione di Giuseppe Iannozzi

Lo scrittore Maxence Fermine racconta la storia d’amore fra Leonard Cohen e Marianne Ihlen: “Dance me to the end of love” di Giuseppe Iannozzi Maxence Fermine, autore francese molto noto in Italia, soprattutto per “La trilogia dei colori: Neve – Il violino nero – L’apicoltore”, omaggia Leonard Cohen con un romanzo breve, “Dance me to the end of love” (AnimaMundi Edizioni). Il nuovo lavoro di…

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"Goodbye, old friend. Endless love, see you down the road."

Leonard Cohen, in a final letter to Marianne Ihlen, days before she passed.

thinking about pre heart transfer ghostkicks

LITTLE AXEL Trailer | Miami Jewish Film Festival 2022

The story of Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen has been recounted numerous times-- in books, films, and the press. Theirs was a romance that would inspire Leonard to write some of his most moving poetry, wisdom, and songs. It all began when Leonard first set foot on a rocky, carefree island off the coast of Greece as an unknown author who had never even sung in public. For Leonard and Marianne, then 26 & 25 respectively, the stars aligned at this bohemian playground, and they fell deeply in love. Ihlen, often called Cohen’s muse, was the inspiration for some of his greatest songs, among them “So Long, Marianne,” “Like a Bird on a Wire” and “That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.” Their romance also encompassed a third person: Marianne was not alone when she met Cohen; she came with her infant son, Axel Joachim Jensen, Jr., the offspring of her marriage to the Norwegian writer, Axel Jensen, who had abandoned them after the boy’s birth. Leonard Cohen soon became, for all intents and purposes, the boy’s adoptive father, and the bond between them continued even after Cohen became an international superstar and separate from Marianne at the end of the 1960s. Little Axel for the first time tells this story through exclusive archive material and Axel’s own words, while shining a light on his own struggle with mental illness throughout his adult life.

A letter sent from Leonard Cohen to Marianne Ihlen, dated December 24, 1960 // lyrics to So Long, Marianne by Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen to Marianne Ihlen (edited).