This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If Thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Magnified, sanctified, be Thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord
There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the Scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame
They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord
Magnified, sanctified, be Thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the love that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame
If you are the dealer, let me out of the game
If you are the healer, I'm broken and lame
If Thine is the glory, mine must be the shame
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord
Hineni
Hineni, hineni
Hineni
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If Thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Magnified, sanctified, be Thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord
There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the Scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame
They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord
Magnified, sanctified, be Thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the love that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame
If you are the dealer, let me out of the game
If you are the healer, I'm broken and lame
If Thine is the glory, mine must be the shame
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord
Hineni
Hineni, hineni
Hineni
Lyrics submitted by bloodangel
You Want It Darker Lyrics as written by Patrick Leonard Leonard Cohen
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Cohen was almost certainly thinking of the Abraham/Isaac story, where he responds "hineni" to G-d at the beginning when he is called. He's used that story many times in his songs.
"Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name, vilified, crucified, in the human frame" are two lines, that are from two different sources. The first part does not have anything to do with Christian themes.
"Magnified, Sanctified be thy holy name" is a straight English translation of the first four words of the Kaddish, a Jewish prayer. and while all versions of that prayer start this way, he is no doubt in context referencing the Mourner's Kaddish that is said by close relatives of a deceased person after their burial.
However, "villified, crucified, in the human frame" is certainly a reference to Jesus.
He's flowing between different traditions here taking from each what fits his litany of suffering that he addresses to G-d in this song.
@icebox This is great. I come from the Christian tradition and the knowledge about that Kaddish here is very helpful. Thanks!
@icebox Cohen always has a fascination with Jesus Christ as some sort of a universal figure and I think he said (correct me if I'm wrong) "I'm very fond of Jesus Christ. He may be the most beautiful guy who walked the face of this earth. Any guy who says 'Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the meek' has got to be a figure of unparalleled generosity and insight and madness...A man who declared himself to stand among the thieves, the prostitutes and the homeless. His position cannot be comprehended. It is an inhuman generosity. A generosity that would overthrow the world if it was embraced because nothing would weather that compassion. I'm not trying to alter the Jewish view of Jesus Christ. But to me, in spite of what I know about the history of legal Christianity, the figure of the man has touched me." from Leonard Cohen in His Own Words by Jim Devlin