It's true that all the men you knew were dealers
Who said they were through with dealing
Every time you gave them shelter
I know that kind of man, it's hard to hold the hand of anyone
Who is reaching for the sky just to surrender
Who is reaching for the sky just to surrender

And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind
You find he did not leave you very much, not even laughter
Like any dealer, he was watching for the card that is so high and wild
He'll never need to deal another
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger

And then leaning on your window sill
He'll say one day you caused his will
To weaken with your love and warmth and shelter
And then taking from his wallet
An old schedule of trains, he'll say
I told you when I came I was a stranger
I told you when I came I was a stranger

But now another stranger seems
To want you to ignore his dreams
As though they were the burden of some other
Oh, you've seen that man before
His golden arm, dispatching cards
But now it's rusted from the elbows to the finger
And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter
Yes, he wants to trade the game he knows for shelter

Ah, you hate to watch another tired man
Lay down his hand like he was giving up the holy game of poker
And while he talks his dreams to sleep, you notice there's a highway
That is curling up like smoke above his shoulder
It's curling just like smoke above his shoulder

You tell him to come in, sit down
But something makes you turn around
The door is open, you can't close your shelter
You try the handle of the road, it opens, do not be afraid
It's you, my love, you who are the stranger
It is you, my love, you who are the stranger

Well, I've been waiting, I was sure
We'd meet between the trains we're waiting for
I think it's time to board another
Please understand, I never had a secret chart
To get me to the heart of this or any other matter
Well, he talks like this, you don't know what he's after
When he speaks like this, you don't know what he's after

Let's meet tomorrow, if you choose
Upon the shore, beneath the bridge
That they are building on some endless river
Then he leaves the platform for the sleeping car that's warm
You realize, he's only advertising one more shelter
And it comes to you, he never was a stranger
And you say, "Okay, the bridge or someplace later"

And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind
You find he did not leave you very much, not even laughter
Like any dealer, he was watching for the card that is so high and wild
He'll never need to deal another
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger

And leaning on your window sill
He'll say one day you caused his will
To weaken with your love and warmth and shelter
And then taking from his wallet
An old schedule of trains, he'll say
I told you when I came I was a stranger
I told you when I came I was a stranger
I told you when I came I was a stranger
I told you when I came I was a stranger


Lyrics submitted by phaethon

The Stranger Song Lyrics as written by Leonard Cohen

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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The Stranger Song song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    It seems to me that there’s a lot speaking for the interpretation that the man referred to in the first verses are not just any man using women. He is a man preoccupied with something to such an extent that he is desirable to the woman. If he is ‘Joseph looking for a manger’ and she is the manger, then (metaphorically speaking) the man is about to deliver Christ into this world, while her function is just to be the well… manger. The comforting surrounding to his project. He is ‘reaching for the sky just to surrender’ — meaning that he is trying to achieve the sublime as a minimum goal for his life. Someone like that cannot truly be accompanied — you cannot hold their hand — they can only be admired from a distance and waited on by people like her, who secretly like the fact that he is preoccupied with something important. The ‘card that is so high and wild, he’ll never need to deal another’, which he is waiting for is thereby not just another woman — the better woman, who will replace the one he is with now. The card he is waiting for is the fantastic idea. Say, the song to end all songs. The one thing that will define him, so that he’ll never have to try his hand at anything else to have left his mark on the world. It could be a woman he conquers, but not necessarily.

    To be led away from this quest for his own ingenuity towards something more cozy infuriates him precisely because he wants to be led away. If he could refuse it at will, he could take it or leave it as and when he wanted it. But if his ‘will is weakened by her love and warmth and shelter’ he is diverted from what he believe to be his true goal. The fact that he has kept the ‘schedule of trains’ — metaphorically speaking a backdoor — also means that he hasn’t been ready trade in his dreams completely for ‘love and warmth and shelter’. He only wanted it for a while. And if all the men she knew were like this, she probably didn’t want him to trade in his dreams completely.

    In the second verse, this is why she hates to see this apparently new man give up — disown his dreams ‘as if they were the burden of some other’. The image of the ‘highway that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder’ is a symbol the vagrant search for the ‘high and wild card’ he has temporarily left behind. Maybe he thinks of the highway as a whiff of smoke easily blown away by a new and better life with her. Maybe it is an image of where his true heart lies. Anyhow, it seems that it is this highway that she enters, when she opens ‘the handle of the road’. They switch roles. She has had enough of being the manger. She wants to be the stranger, now.

    This is the reason why the speaker in the poem, using first person for the first time in the text, believes that they might ‘meet between trains’. She has left her shelter and now, instead of him seeking her as a manger (metaphorically speaking a safe haven), she has become like him: an interesting stranger, which other people might be drawn to. But as strangers, they are not reliable. Their relationship will be romantically coincidental: ‘upon the shore, beneath a bridge…’. And she realizes that it probably will not be at all. She says ‘the bridge or someplace later’, perhaps playing along with the fiction that it will ever happen that two people like that (both reaching for the sky just to surrender, watching for the high and wild card, etc.) will ever have their romantic encounter.

    As the song ends with the chorus, she alone again. She is sweeping up jokers, etc., because even embarking on her own path and becoming a stranger herself, did not make him stay. It just made their relationship romantically impossible, rather than a cozy manger, which he could use as long as he liked.

    toreholston September 16, 2009   Link

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