Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Psalm 137: Leonard Cohen's commentary

An odd take on it but very accurate. In fact it describes how God has done things in my own life, so I have to look at a lot of things again in a different way. A most interesting and surprising allusion to Psalm 122.

The video

The words:

By the rivers dark
I wandered on.
I lived my life
In Babylon.

And I did forget
My holy song:
And I had no strength
In Babylon.

By the rivers dark
Where I could not see
Who was waiting there
Who was hunting me.

And he cut my lip
And he cut my heart.
So I could not drink
From the river dark.

And he covered me,
And I saw within,
My lawless heart
And my wedding ring,

I did not know
And I could not see
Who was waiting there,
Who was hunting me.

By the rivers dark
I panicked on.
I belonged at last
To Babylon.

Then he struck my heart
With a deadly force,
And he said, "This heart:
It is not yours."

And he gave the wind
My wedding ring;
And he circled us
With everything.

By the rivers dark,
In a wounded dawn,
I live my life
In Babylon.

Though I take my song
From a withered limb,
Both song and tree,
They sing for him.

Be the truth unsaid
And the blessing gone,
If I forget
My Babylon.

I did not know
And I could not see
Who was waiting there,
Who was hunting me.

By the rivers dark,
Where it all goes on;
By the rivers dark
In Babylon.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i dont get it..but i have to read psalm 137 alongside of it..
judy

12/18/2010 10:12 AM  

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