my deep red in the mood for Cohen's ambiguous green

Leaving Green Sleeves (Leonard Cohen)

Gentle and Leonard Cohen

Yesterday, Gentle went to see Cohen. She said she would see and listen to him for me also. Even if I am not so sure that I'd like to be in a concert hall, hear his voice dissipating into the crowd. But she went there, and she went for me also, and I followed her like a stranger in her shadow. I knew that when her mouth opened in adoration for the first time, it was his words which blossomed on her lips. I knew she would remember it that very moment, and I wanted to be there, to witness her lips taking the shape of his voice.

After coming back, she wrote:

i am happy, fainted and delirious.
it was the best ever, everything i have ever desired.
i am so happy i can barely speak, i can barely move or listen to whatever happens near me.

For her then, four songs which have been with me today, the whole day long. And also as a kind of answer to this very interesting debate over at Dave's blog: what is the difference between a song and a poem, where and if one can and should draw a line between the two. But maybe this is a very easy answer, because Cohen is also the Poet, after all.

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.

And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.

She stands before you naked
you can see it, you can taste it,
and she comes to you light as the breeze.
Now you can drink it or you can nurse it,
it don't matter how you worship
as long as you're
down on your knees.

So I knelt there at the delta,
at the alpha and the omega,
at the cradle of the river and the seas.
And like a blessing come from heaven
for something like a second
I was healed and my heart
was at ease.

Many men have loved the bells
you fastened to the rein,
and everyone who wanted you
they found what they will always want again.
Your beauty lost to you yourself
just as it was lost to them.
Oh take this longing from my tongue,
whatever useless things these hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down
like you would do for one you love.


Your body like a searchlight
my poverty revealed,
I would like to try your charity
until you cry, "Now you must try my greed."
And everything depends upon
how near you sleep to me.

I cannot follow you, my love,

you cannot follow me.
I am the distance you put between
all of the moments that we will be.

You know who I am,
you've stared at the sun,
well I am the one who loves
changing from nothing to one.