The Flame

by Leonard Cohen

  but I have obtained a key

  and I wait for you

  beside the rows

  of night blooming jasmine

  Your starless nights

  your lipstick life

  you work

  as a silhouette

  I was just a minor figure

  in the junta

  your strapless night

  your cigarette

  the moon behind

  your deco silhouette

  The colonel wanted you

  as did the Minister

  of the Interior

  I was just a minor figure

  in the junta

  a lieutenant

  in the palace guard

  I cannot forget

  that lonely summer

  {and the sky} and that night

  so luminously starred

  It is not for me

  to explain or justify

  the history of mankind

  It is not my place

  to make a statement

  I was educated by the Jesuits

  and the Sanhedrin

  but no one could explain to me

  the screaming from the basement

  Adolf Hitler Mussolini

  Stalin Mao Tse Tung

  I wasn’t born a devil

  but I dreamed of being one

  I still get many offers

  but there’s someone I must thank

  All of us were robbed

  & Dylan was the Bank

  The leading man

  the leading man

  the man I’ll never be

  he stole my woman

  in New York

  and my horse

  in Tennessee

  ***

  Studio May 24 ’03

  How long

  will you go on pretending

  there’s something

  you know how to fix

  How many more digital shots will you {edit?} take

  of the helpless, the old and dead & the sick

  Will you ever stand up and be seen

  by the sultan, the slaves, and the secret police

  and when are you going to

  stand up and be seen

  When are you going diving for coins

  to stop swimming

  in the lakes and the sewers of filth

  When are you going to help someone out

  who’s certainly

  going to be killed

  When are you going to be fingered

  and be stripped

  by a dreamer who’s aching

  to kick out your teeth

  how long will you go on diving

  for changes in the sewers of filth

  ***

  The truth minus 7%

  He only kissed you

  on the cheek

  and he only touched your hand

  you say that nothing happened

  and I’ll let your story stand

  That’s a {mighty?} big bunch of roses

  that “nothing happened” sent

  but I thank you for telling

  the truth to me

  The truth minus seven

  Percent

  ***

  Frankfurt Airport Feb 19, 2002

  I’d like to pray

  five times a day

  in fact I do

  I’d like to live

  as though G-d lived

  through me and you

  in fact I do

  ***

  Mumbai

  [?] Jan 3, ’03

  We made a little garden

  in the middle of L.A.

  so our hearts

  they wouldn’t harden

  & our spirits

  they could play

  ***

  Annie’s asleep by the fireside

  That’s my book in her hand

  That’s my thorn in her side.

  We loved that way

  ” ” ” ”

  ” ” ” ”

  for more than a year, I’d say.

  ***

  I used to have a life

  I was living at the centre

  There’s people {places [?] went} that I love

  & there’s women that I know

  A waitress called me sir

  then she called me Leonard

  I like the edge it’s better

  than the centre

  ***

  It has waited until this night

  concealed in tears, and {the} lines I’ve

  conferred, and broken promises

  It believes, though I do not believe

  It waits, though I have given up waiting

  It is strong, though I am not

  Everything else I have misused and squandered

  because I could not lie about this love

  It summons me, though I have no courage

  and it bids me to say these words

  to you:

  I have waited for you all my life

  I have never given myself to another

  You are my first love and my last

  ***

  I’m trying to catch the future

  I don’t know which way it goes

  I’ve got a stomach full of ouzo {sunlight}

  and a sterling silver nose

  My guitar is very quiet

  There’s a song it likes to tell me

  My songs are like the stars

  They {just} control they don’t compel me

  And my love is blonde and ancient

  I met her by the sea

  She was putting things together

  and she needed some of me

  Come back here when you’re thirsty

  she whispered thru a wave

  Then she took me down a thousand feet

  to the midwife in my grave

  and she saved us in a grave

  There’s a song it needs to tell me

  My songs are only planets

  They control, they don’t compel me

  and my love is blonde and ancient

  I met her by the sea

  She was putting things together

  and she needed some of me

  Come back here when you’re thirsty

  She whispered through a wave

  Then she took me down a thousand feet

  and sewed us in a grave

  I have my hand on both our bodies

  It’s the bridge I cannot find

  through the razorblades and daisies

  to the birth we leave behind

  ***

  Dec 18th 2011 Palisades

  I am a living statue

  I moved for you

  when you gave me

  a quarter euro

  My closest friend

  sprayed me bronze

  early this morning

  when it was

  still dark

  I am the best

  living statue

  in Germany

  I make a fortune

  No one is as still

  as I am

  I hover over

  my bronze body

  like a bird

  above her nest

  The living statue

  ignore the compliments

  the proposition

  the marriage

  proposals

  She is safe

  and beautiful

  forever

  even when my friend

  helps me off

  my pedestal

  and we go home

  and I am alone

  in the shower

  ***

  and Nico was blond

  and Dylan was found

  in a pit he alone had descended

  and there he unfurled

  for the sake of the world

  the bright flag so long undefended

  ***

  I’ve had it

  I’ve had it with you

  and the kid

  and th
e farm

  and the job

  and the war

  and the debt

  and the bullshit

  I read

  in the palm of my hand

  and what did you do

  with my god

  and my church

  and my car

  and my dick

  was I supposed

  to like

  living on my fucking knees?

  of course I don’t

  say this to anyone

  especially {not to} my wife

  especially my kids

  and not to anyone

  bigger or stronger

  or the boss

  or the sadist in

  charge of my teeth {mind}

  and it all looks

  so peaceful

  when you’re not

  hunting for pussy

  or sucking up to

  the lord

  I advise you all to

  get tired and old

  and bored

  cranky and bored

  and then the voice

  is heard

  deeper than the world

  you may need acid

  to hear it, or weed

  never did it for me

  and I took (maybe)

  a hundred trips at

  least

  ***

  and I sought my beloved

  when I was trying to make my marriage {work}

  move from islands to cities & back again

  when I was trying to make my marriage work

  but I could not find my beloved

  And you made me use words

  like husband and wife

  to cross a border to cash a cheque

  words that armed my solitude

  against my daily life

  you wrote your poems

  without the recognition

  without the prize of women

  without the sting of fame

  not even for the name of poet

  did you labour on the empty page

  and just the news of you

  silenced many a juke-box

  I declared my high intention to be free

  I cut myself shaving

  ***

  go tell your brother

  the family is no more

  go tell your baby sister

  she’s nothing but a whore

  go tell the Angels of the Lord

  there is no God above

  go tell your heart of longing

  that there’s no such thing as love

  I told my brother

  what I heard

  & he began to weep

  I told my sister, she said Hush

  the baby is asleep

  I told the angels of the lord

  they covered {blinded} me with light

  I told my heart, my heart did say

  Be still with me tonight

  O man of flesh, my heart did say

  as I went through the night

  prepare yourself for sorrow

  & prepare for sweet delight

  There came a tide of suffering

  which I could barely stand

  you must sacrifice your sorrow

  on the altar of delight

  and I went down in tears

  There came a dark indifference

  which seemed to last for years

  There came a spring where nothing grew

  There came a summer with no sun

  There was no crystal in the snow

  No harvesting for anyone

  There was no crystal in the snow

  No fragrance in the spring

  No summer with its naked dance

  No autumn harvesting

  I tried to cry, {my eyes were sealed} there were no tears

  I tried to laugh, there was no scorn

  I tried to run, there was no road

  I tried to die, I was not born

  I pinned across a piece of meat

  hanging in the abattoir

  I struggled for a woman’s touch

  I pinned across a piece of meat

  & feeding on a {barren} star

  I struggled for a woman’s touch

  for solace {comfort something} in the abattoir

  The boredom of her {our} company

  The sting trance of her {our} embrace

  whiled away the outlines

  hanging face to face

  O let it end, O solace me

  now

  let me surrender now

  O make it clear what you forbid

  and what you allow

  The boredom of our company

  The trance of our embrace

  These were the very hooks

  that held us

  hanging face to face

  And many times I begged my heart

  let me surrender now

  I’ll put aside what you forbid

  I’ll take to me what you allow

  And then the laughter in the air

  you cannot yield, there is no war

  you cannot lose, there is no game

  Now lest I be the juda’s lamb

  & lead you to the knife

  This is not a parable

  It’s but a human life

  The man who tells this story

  he is sitting on a bed chair

  wondering where to go and how

  to get from here to there

  He says this as a caveat

  to the {blind} ears of youth

  that there is the stink of beauty

  above {the} corpse of truth

  But now the night is ending

  for one listening to his heart

  for this listener of the heart

  The baby’s crying for {singing in the [?]} crib

  The lovers break apart

  My sister heats {a} bottle

  & my brother starts the car

  The Angels dress as humans

  to be with us where we are

  The baby’s singing in the crib

  The lovers break apart

  But only music has the power

  so put your head upon the stories

  I’ve grown old

  in a hundred ways

  but my heart is young

  & still it plays

  on the theme of love

  on the theme of death

  o close it plays

  as my very breath

  they rise & fall

  with my very breath

  my son goes back

  and forth on a swing

  and then he wears

  a wedding ring

  he works a mighty

  task and then

  my son is one

  with me again

  In a mother’s womb

  my daughter stirs

  and then the moving

  child is hers

  and then heroic

  duties call

  and the deepest

  womb of all

  and many a bitter

  night went by

  that death would win

  & love would try

  and many a bitter

  night goes by

  that death must win

  and love must try

  sweet

  and my darling removes {unlocks}

  the clasp of her hair

  and many the blessings

  of sweet repair

  till she

  {my darling} unfastens

  the clasp of her hair

  and many the blessings

  of sweet repair

  till she unpins

  her [wigs?] black hair

  ***

  Now I am not your father

  but since your father’s dead

  I’ll tell the bedtime story

  before you go to bed

  So come and gather round me

  but do not sit too near

  The closer that you sit to me


  The less that you will hear

  Among my stories there is one

  you’ve never heard before

  though all I’ve said goes round it

  like the apple round its core

  It is the story of a love

  I had for one of you

  when you were neither seed nor child

  and I was nothing too

  Forbidden to be spoken by me

  or anyone

  but now the seal is broken

  and the story has begun

  And who forbid the telling

  is a question you may pose

  It was he who hated nakedness

  and made us all wear clothes

  ***

  They are far ahead of me

  the true writers

  with whom I once paced myself

  tarrying with women and riches

  and problems of the Way

  I fell behind

  losing all but the original uneasiness

  This is my fourth day

  without cigarettes or coffee

  my eye on Shakyamuni and St. Francis

  as it was once

  on Flaubert and William Butler Yeats

  and I still have this ugly feeling

  that I will reform the world

  ***

  I know you don’t believe me

  & that’s why you have to split

  you’re looking for a peaceful place

  & this ain’t exactly it

  So I’ll drive you to the station

  & I’ll put you on the train

  There’s one that sinks in the ocean

  & there’s one that stops in Maine

  I used to travel like a fool

  when I was middle-aged

  but then I settled down with you

  when settling was the rage

  I’m glad you left that photograph

  of you & me at Harvard

  you didn’t really leave it but

  I fished it from the garbage

  ***

  August 1985

  They took me to the Holy Land

  and up to the Wall of Sorrow

  I said, these stones are made of sand

  and they won’t be here tomorrow

  They {took me} to Mount Everest

  and they pointed to the summit

  I said I am impressed

  but it’s just another limit

  ***

  I saw you on the dance floor

  Showing everybody how

  you’d gone beyond your sorrow

  No one could hurt you now

  love’s only good

  when you come back from the war

  love’s only good

  when you’re back from the war

  I’m a slave to the truth

  though it’s not what I planned

  all through the night

  there were cries of every creature

  and they cried

  o they cried

  only the moon

  with its vaguely human features

  could arise

  above its crying

  of the night

  if I could speak

  if the time would only

  if I could cry

  I would cry myself a river

  and I’d sail, I’d go sailing

  through the night

  ***

  make it easy baby

  can’t pass another test

  just spread your blanket on the sand

  where both of us can rest