"what happens to the heart?"

and sometimes when the night is slow,
the wretched and the meek,
we gather up our hearts and go,
a thousand kisses deep

the ponies run, the girls are young,
the odds are there to beat . . .


Leonard Cohen

Hey, that's no way to say goodbye

I loved you in the morning
Our kisses deep and warm
Your head 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.

Leonard Cohen (*)

"please let me start again"

I asked my father,
I said, "Father change my name."
The one I'm using now it's covered up
with fear and filth and cowardice and shame. 
(...)
He said, "I locked you in this body,
I meant it as a kind of trial."
(...)
"Then let me start again," I cried,
"please let me start again,
I want a face that's fair this time,
I want a spirit that is calm." 

Leonard Cohen

"Your pain is no credential here, it's just the shadow of my wound"

I stepped into an avalanche, 
it covered up my soul;
when I am not this hunchback that you see, 
I sleep beneath the golden hill. 
You who wish to conquer pain, 
you must learn, learn to serve me well. 
You strike my side by accident 
as you go down for your gold. 
The cripple here that you clothe and feed 
is neither starved nor cold; 
he does not ask for your company, 
not at the centre, the centre of the world. 

When I am on a pedestal, 
you did not raise me there. 
Your laws do not compel me 
to kneel grotesque and bare. 
I myself am the pedestal 
for this ugly hump at which you stare. 

You who wish to conquer pain, 
you must learn what makes me kind; 
the crumbs of love that you offer me, 
they're the crumbs I've left behind. 
Your pain is no credential here, 
it's just the shadow, of my wound. 

I have begun to long for you, 
I who have no greed; 
I have begun to ask for you, 
I who have no need. 
You say you've gone away from me, 
but I can feel you when you breathe. 

Do not dress in those rags for me, 
I know you are not poor; 
you don't love me quite so fiercely now 
when you know that you are not sure, 
it is your world, beloved, 
it is your flesh that I wear.


Leonard Cohen

(Cover by Nick Cave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNSyhVEvfM)

And no one knows where the night is going...

"And all go stumbling through that house 

in lonely secrecy 

Saying "Do reveal yourself" 

or "Why has thou forsaken me?"

And no one knows where the night is going...

All at once the torches flare 

The inner door flies open 

One by one they enter there 

In every style of passion

(...)

Those who dance, begin to dance 

Those who weep begin 

Those who earnestly are lost 

Are lost and lost again

And no one knows where the night is going...

One by one the guests arrive 

The guests are coming through 

The broken-hearted many 

The open-hearted few

And no one knows where the night is going..."

Leonard Cohen

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l48aOXWKx4E]