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This week I heard the speaker/author/coach Alan Seale say, that every time before he gets up on a stage, he tells himself: “Just love them”. Since I heard that I am working on saying it more to myself, than I did before. Every time when I feel a judgment toward myself or others come up, I (try to:-) think: “Just love them”. “Just love me”. It made me think of one of the most beautiful songs of Jacques Brel: ‘Quand on n’a que l’amour’. A song to sing along with a very loud voice. To do that you find the French text and a very free English translation.

The most beautiful sentence for me is: “Quand on n’a que l’amour pour vivre nos promesses
Sans nulle autre richesse que d’y croire toujours”.

The full text is as follows:

Brel “Quand on n’a que l’amour”

Quand on n’a que l’amour a s’offrir en partage
Au jour du grand voyage qu’est notre grand amour
Quand on n’a que l’amour, mon amour toi et moi
Pour qu’eclatent de joie chaque heure et chaque jour
Quand on n’a que l’amour pour vivre nos promesses
Sans nulle autre richesse que d’y croire toujours
Quand on n’a que l’amour pour meubler de merveilles
Et couvrir de soleil la laideur des faubourgs
Quand on n’a que l’amour pour unique raison
Pour unique chanson et unique secours
Quand on n’a que l’amour pour habiller matin
Pauvres et malandrins de manteaux de velours
Quand on n’a que l’amour a offrir en prière
Pour les maux de la terre en simple troubadour
Quand on n’a que l’amour a offrir a cela
Dont l’unique combat est de chercher le jour
Quand on n’a que l’amour pour tracer un chemin
Et forcer le destin a chaque carrefour
Quand on n’a que l’amour pour parler aux canons
Et rien qu’une chanson pour convaincre un tambour
Alors sans avoir rien que la force d’aimer
Nous aurons dans nos main, amis, le monde entier

IF WE ONLY HAVE LOVE

If we only have love
Then tomorrow will dawn
And the days of our years
Will rise on that morn
If we only have love
To embrace without fears
We will kiss with our eyes
We will sleep without tears
If we only have love
With our arms open wide
Then the young and the old
Will stand at our side
If we only have love
Love that’s falling like rain
Then the parched desert earth
Will grow green again
If we only have love
For the hymn that we shout
For the song that we sing
Then we’ll have a way out

If we only have love
We can reach those in pain
We can heal all our wounds
We can use our own names
If we only have love
Then Jerusalem stands
And then death has no shadow
There are no foreign lands
If we only have love
We will never bow down
We’ll be tall as the pines
Neither heroes nor clowns
If we only have love
Then we’ll only be men
And we’ll drink from the grail
To be born once again
Then with nothing at all
But the little we are
We’ll have conquered all time
All space, the sun and the stars

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