Leonard Cohen’s early love was muse behind many songs
Pair met on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s when they were in their early 20s
The woman who inspired Leonard Cohen’s “So Long, Marianne” has died.
The singer’s official Facebook page is featuring memories of Marianne Ihlen, who died last week at the age of 81.
A tribute post cites the “overwhelming response from those who knew Marianne well, those who knew her only as Leonard Cohen’s muse, and even those who previously didn’t know there was a ‘real Marianne.’ ”
Ihlen and Cohen met on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s when they were in their early 20s.
“So Long, Marianne” was released in 1967 on Cohen’s debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen.
A message on Cohen’s Facebook page from Ihlen’s close friend and documentarian Jan Christian Mollestad thanks the singer for a letter he sent days before her death that “gave her extra strength.”
“Your letter came when she still could talk and laugh in full consciousness. When we read it aloud, she smiled as only Marianne can,” Mollestad wrote.
“In her last hour, I held her hand and hummed ‘Bird on a Wire,’ while she was breathing so lightly. And when we left the room, after her soul had flown out of the window for new adventures, we kissed her head and whispered your everlasting words, ‘So long, Marianne.’ ”
Kari Hesthamar, author of the book So Long Marianne — A Love Story, wrote:
“Marianne had that gift: she made you feel that you were seen; she made you become a better version of yourself. With her eye for beauty, she made everything around herself beautiful.”
Biographer Sylvie Simmons added that Ihlen was a truly beautiful soul. “Marianne came from a time when women were raised to be muses and helpmates, which she was; she loved creative men and she was creative herself,” wrote Simmons, author of I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen.
“Her life was not the easiest, but nothing seemed to dent her generosity and kindness.”