Leonard Cohen - The Best Of [compilation] (1975) by Leonard Cohen (보컬) on maniadb.com

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.

Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind

Oh, the Sisters of Mercy
They are not departed or gone
They were waiting for me
When I thought that I just can't go on
And they brought me their comfort
And later they brought me their song
Oh,I hope you run into them
You who've been traveling so long.

Yes,you who must leave everything
That you cannot control
It begins with your family
But soon it comes round to your soul.
Well,I've been where you're hanging
I think I can see how you're pinned
When you're not feeling holy
Your loneliness says that you've sinned.

They lay down beside me
I made my confession to them
They touched both my eyes
And I touched the dew on their hem.
If your life is a leaf
That the seasons tear off and condemn
They will bind you with love
That is graceful and green as a stem.

When I left they were sleeping
I hope you run into them soon.
Don't turn on the lights,
You can read their address by the moon
And you won't make me jealous
If I hear that they sweetened your night
We weren't lovers like that
And besides it would still be alright.

Come over to the window my little darling
I'd like to try to read your palm
I used to think I was some sort of gypsy boy
Before I let you take me home.

* So long ,Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again,

Well,you know that I love to live with you
But you make me forget so very much
I forget to pary for the angels
And then the angels forget to pray for us.

* repeat

We met when we were almost young
Deep in the green lilac park
You held on to me like I was a crucifix
As we went kneeling through the dark.

* repeat

Your letters they all say that you're
beside me now
Then why do I feel alone?
I'm standing on a ledge and your fine
spider web
Is fastening my ankle to a stone.

* repeat

For now I need your hidden love
I'm cold as a new razor blade
You left when I told you I was curious
I never said that I was brave.

* repeat

Oh,you are really such a pretty one
I see you've gone and changed your
name again
And just when I climbed this whole
mountainside
To wash my eyelids in the rain.

Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Like a worm on a hook,
like a knight from some old fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee.
If I, if I have been unkind,
I hope that you can just let it go by.
If I, if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you.

Like a baby, stillborn,
like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me.
But I swear by this song
and by all that I have done wrong
I will make it all up to thee.
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
he said to me, "You must not ask for so much."
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
she cried to me, "Hey, why not ask for more?"

Oh like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choirhave tried in my way to be free

I came by myself to very crowded place
I was looking for someone who had lines in her face
I found her there but she was past all concern
I asked her to hold me, I said, "Lady, unfold me,"
But she scorned me and told me
I was dead and I would never return.

Well,I argued all night like so many have before
Saying,"Whatever you give me I seem to need
so much more."
Then she pointed at me where I kneeled on her floor
She said,"Don't try to use me or slyly refuse me
Just win me or lose me, it is this that the darkness is for."

I cried,'Oh, Lady Midnight, I fear that you grow old,
Stars eat your body and the wind makes you cold"
"If we cry now,"she said, "It will just be ignored."
So I walked through the morning,
the sweet early morning
I could hear my lady calling,
"You've won me, you've won me,my lord."

When they poured across the border
I was cautioned to surrender
this I could not do
I took my gun and vanished
I have changed my name so often
I've lost my wife and children
but I have many friends
and some of them are with me

An old woman gave us shelter
kept us hidden in the garret
then the soldiers came
she died without a whisper

There were three of us this morning
I'm the only one this evening
but I must go on
the frontiers are my prison

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing
through the graves the wind is blowing
freedom soon will come
then we'll come from the shadows

Les Allemands e'taient chez moi
ils me dirent Signe toi
mais je n'ai pas peur
j'ai repris mon arme

J'ai change' cent fois de nom
j'ai perdu femme et enfants
mais j'ai tant d'amis
j'ai la France entie`re

Un vieil homme dans un grenier
pour la nuit nous a cache
les Allemands l'ont pris
il est mort sans surprise

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing
through the graves the wind is blowing
freedom soon will come
then we'll come from the shadows

I loved you in the morning
Our kisses deep and warm
Your hair upon the pillow
Like a sleepy golden storm.
Yes,many loved before us
I know that we are not new
In city and in forest
They smiled like me and you,
But now it's come to distances
And both of us must try
Your eyes are soft with sorrow
Hey,that's no way to say goodbye.

I'm not looking for another
As I wander in my time
Walk me to the comer
Our steps will always rhyme.
You know my love goes with you
As your love stays with me
It's just the way it changes
Like the shoreline and the sea.
But let's not talk of love or chains
And things we can't untie,
Your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey,that's no way to say goodbye.

I loved you in the morning
Our kisses deep and warm
Your hair upon the pillow
Like a sleepy golden storm.
Yes, many loved before us.
I know that we are not new
In city and in forest
They smiled like me and you.
But let's not talk of love or chains
And things we can't untie,
Your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.

It's four in the morning,
the end of December
I'm writing you now just to see
if you're better
New York is cold,
but I like where I'm living
There's music on Clinton Street
all through the evening.

I hear that you're building
your little house deep in the desert
You're living for nothing now,
I hope you're keeping some kind of record.

Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you
you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You'd been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without Lili Marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody's wife.

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see Jane's awake

She sends her regards.

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I'm glad you stood in my way.

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear

The rain falls down on last year's man,
that's a jew's harp on the table,
that's a crayon in his hand.
And the corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled
far past the stems of thumbtacks
that still throw shadows on the wood.
And the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend
and all the rain falls down amen
on the works of last year's man.

I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark
oh one by one she had to tell them
that her name was Joan of Arc.
I was in that army, yes I stayed a little while
I want to thank you, Joan of Arc,
for treating me so well.
And though I wear a uniform I was not born to fight
all these wounded boys you lie beside,
goodnight, my friends, goodnight.

I came upon a wedding that old families had contrived
Bethlehem the bridegroom,
Babylon the bride.
Great Babylon was naked, oh she stood there trembling for me,
and Bethlehem inflamed us both
like the shy one at some orgy.
And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil
that I had to draw aside to see
the serpent eat its tail.

Some women wait for Jesus, and some women wait for Cain
so I hang upon my altar
and I hoist my axe again.
And I take the one who finds me back to where it all began
when Jesus was the honeymoon
and Cain was just the man.
And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin
that the wilderness is gathering
all its children back again.

The rain falls down on last year's man,
an hour has gone by
and he has not moved his hand.
But everything will happen if he only gives the word
the lovers will rise up
and the mountains touch the ground.
But the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend
and all the rain falls down amen
on the works of last year's man.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.

Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

And then you got away, didn't you babe...

I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.

And who by fire, who by water,
who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
who in your merry merry month of may,
who by very slow decay,
and who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
and who by avalanche, who by powder,
who for his greed, who for his hunger,
and who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident,
who in solitude, who in this mirror,
who by his lady's command, who by his own hand,
who in mortal chains, who in power,
and who shall I say is calling?

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

Just take this longing from my tongue
all the lonely things my hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down
like you would do for one your love.

Hungry as an archway
through which the troops have passed,
I stand in ruins behind you,
with your winter clothes, your broken sandal straps.
I love to see you naked over there
especially from the back.

Oh take this longing from my tongue,
all the useless things my hands have done,
untie for me your hired blue gown,
like you would do for one that you love.

You're faithful to the better man,
I'm afraid that he left.
So let me judge your love affair
in this very room where I have sentenced
mine to death.
I'll even wear these old laurel leaves
that he's shaken from his head.

Just take this longing from my tongue,
all the useless things my hands have done,
let me see your beauty broken down,
like you would do for one you love.

Like you would do for one you love.