Here is a translation of [business partner/former lover Pierre] Berge's tearful farewell speech."It’s the last time I speak to you, Yves.
"I remember the first time we met and those days that followed. The day we decided to be together.
"I remember telling you in your bed at Val de Grace hospital that you were no longer the head of the couture house where you worked, and I remember your reaction. ...
"I remember your first collection under your name and the tears at the end. Then the years passed. Oh, how they passed quickly. The divorce was inevitable but the love never stopped."
What stuck Berge the most, he said, was Saint Laurent’s “rigor and exigence.”
"We find the style you created everywhere today.
"Chanel and you were the great couturiers of the 20th century. She of the first half, you the second.
“You constructed an oeuvre,” he said and compared its beauty and mastery to “a garden of Le Notre or a beautiful Matisse.”
"I don’t know how to say good-bye because I can never leave you. We will never watch a sunset together again. We will never share the emotions together before a painting again. Someday I will join you under the palm trees of Morocco.
I want to tell you my admiration, my profound respect and my love."
He was in tears and barely got through the speech as his voice turned hoarse.
The service concluded with the very beautiful ballad by Jacques Brel, "Le Chanson des Vieux Amants" ("The Song of Old Lovers").
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 5 June 2008 19:21 (fifteen years ago) link