Leonard Cohen Pens Moving Farewell Letter To 'So Long, Marianne' Muse

Veteran singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen wrote a heart-wrenching farewell letter to Marianne Ihlen, the woman who inspired his lauded track So Long, Marianne, in the days before her death on 29 July at the age of 81, it has been revealed.

According to The Guardian, Cohen and Ihlen met in the 1960s on the Greek island of Hydra, with the pair maintaining a relationship for much of that decade, though had parted ways by 1970; Norwegian-born Ihlen was also the basis for Cohen's 1969 hit Bird On The Wire.

It was her friend, documentary-maker Jan Christian Mollestad, who reached out to the Canadian troubadour before Ihlen's death to inform him of her ill health; Cohen's letter arrived two hours later.

"We brought it to her the next day and she was fully conscious and she was so happy that he had already written something for her," Mollestad told The Guardian.

"[The letter] 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,'" he continued. "'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.'"

Ihlen — whose funeral was held in Oslo this past Friday — passed away two days after receiving Cohen's letter. Her death has since been memorialised on Cohen's Facebook page itself in a post sporting correspondence from friends and collaborators including Mollestad himself. 

"I wrote a letter back to Leonard, saying in her final moments I hummed Bird On A Wire [sic] because that was the song she felt closest to," Mollestad said. 

"And then I kissed her on the head and left the room, and said, "So long, Marianne.'"