| Leonard Cohen – Alexandra Leaving Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Sorry my bad english, I´m not from english speaking country. Alexandra Leaving is song, which Cohen composed with Sharon Robinson. All their common songs are magic, soft and beautiful. I think, that AL is about feeling, that you get when you have to leave some beloved person. But it is not braking up, there is no fight, no argument, no bitterness. Of course, I was thinking of death. Especially when you read the poem, that inspired Cohen- The God abandons Antony by Constantine P. Cavafy. But it´s Alexandria, the town, that is dying. The god forsakes Antony When suddenly, at midnight, you hear an invisible procession going by with exquisite music, voices, don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now, work gone wrong, your plans all proving deceptive–don’t mourn them uselessly. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving. Above all, don’t fool yourself, don’t say it was a dream, your ears deceived you: don’t degrade yourself with empty hopes like these. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, as is right for you who were given this kind of city, go firmly to the window and listen with deep emotion, but not with the whining, the pleas of a coward; listen–your final delectation–to the voices, to the exquisite music of that strange procession, and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing. But what about the last strophe? "You, who were bewildered by a meaninig, whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed....." In this point of view it seems to me, that these two people are lovers and one of them, I suppose the man, has to get back to family, becouse of duty, becouse of illness, who knows. Once he vowed to stand by a woman-his wife, even though his heart is no more with her. He didn´t mean to be unfaithfull, but something happend (his moral code was broken). But maybe (probably) Cohen didn´t mean some particular situation, he just used the poem, turn it a little bit to some other and slightly mysterious meaning just to make us feel the way we feel, when listening to it. The inevitable lost of something beautiful, of somebody deeply beloved, that will never come back. |
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| Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Hi! Please, forgive my bad english, I´m from Czech republic. Recently (in my middle age) I felt in love with LC and I study his songs, I try to understand them and maybe sing some of them. In FBR I kind of felt, that LC may be writting to himself. On internet (songfacts.com) I found this quote: "In a 1994 BBC Radio Interview Cohen remarked: "The problem with that song is that I've forgotten the actual triangle. Whether it was my own - of course, I always felt that there was an invisible male seducing the woman I was with, now whether this one was incarnate or merely imaginary I don't remember, I've always had the sense that either I've been that figure in relation to another couple or there'd been a figure like that in relation to my marriage. I don't quite remember but I did have this feeling that there was always a third party, sometimes me, sometimes another man, sometimes another woman.It was a song I've never been satisfied with. It's not that I've resisted an impressionistic approach to songwriting, but I've never felt that this one, that I really nailed the lyric. I'm ready to concede something to the mystery, but secretly I've always felt that there was something about the song that was unclear. So I've been very happy with some of the imagery, but a lot of the imagery." Together with his another words- he said, that this song is against tyrany, "tyrany I feel myself which is the possession of women, and woman's possession of man"- I thing this: This song is about his feelings toward women (maybe one woman). When he was in love with a woman, probably when young, he couldn´t stop beeing possesive, even though he knew, it´s killing. That sort of feeling is hardly to abandon. And another thing. Recently I found myslef jalous at myslef. I knew, that that extraordinery moment of love I am in, will never happen again,it will never be that new, that beautiful. My relationship may be and will be beautiful in some other way, but it will never be the same. I am jalous at me, when I was young, I am jalous at me when I was with my lover yesterday. And I am jalous at my lover when he smiled at me last day, because the yesterday´s me is not today´s me. And I am not crazy, I am quite rational woman, could you imagine, how the maniodpresive persone feels? (LC suffers with MD the whole life)? What this desease makes to you? What did it make to LC? |
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