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I think everyone is delving too much into filling in the specific details. I like the idea that Cohen could be writing this to himself, though I can't make it totally work due to the line about taking the trouble from her eyes that he thought was there for good. Otherwise, it would work perfectly. Anybody familiar with the enneagram would recognize a type 5 character and the transition of avarice vs. nonattachment. Type 5s tend to have few possessions but can be very attached to what they do have. It would not be so uncommon for one to wear the same coat every day even when it is worn enough that anybody else would have ditched it, which is spoken of in it being "worn at the shoulder" but that lyric could also mean that the coat was still in excellent condition and was simply slung over his shoulder and a metaphor for being in a transition state of no longer being encompassed by his attachment, but still not giving it up, or going clear. For an article of clothing to be so frequently present would make it very famous, and even a factor into the physical identity. When meeting anybody new, "Just look for the man in the blue raincoat." I think the lock of hair is a really common memento frequently saved as a the end to a segment of life. Hair is also a lifeless remainder of what was once live tissue. To give up your attachments and go clear is in many ways a death of most of our ideas of who we are and how we define ourselves. "Living for nothing," could actually be a sign of success in the endeaver of going clear. Keeping a record would help others find the way there themselves. Yet, for Cohen, who is a 4 with a 5 wing on the enneagram, there is little balance and emotional connection to be living by yourself in the middle of a desert. Cohen feels abandoned when FBR gave up his attachment to their friendship. Cohen can acknowledge the positive aspects and inspiration that brought about some clearing in himself, yet wants the intimacy back. Jane represents Cohen's romantic attachment, and once he felt he possessed her, he could not see her wildness and potential for growth, he viewed her as a static being. FBR came home alone after waiting for every train because he passed the test of refusing romantic attachment. He taught Jane to do this as well, and she was able to grow herself once she no longer considered herself a possession: Cohen's woman, somebody's wife. Cohen had previously felt he had given all of himself to her, and was at first quite dismayed that all it took was a flake of FBR's life to bring about such a vital change and take the trouble from her eyes. The gypsy thief line shows that he felt a keen loss at first, and FBR was responsible. The gypsy lablel I think again speaks on nonattachment as gypsies are almost defined by their nomadic lifestyle, not becoming attached to a particular longitude and lattitude, but instead engaging in a flow of life. This actually saved the health of their relationship, and obviously they are still together as she is now awake and sending her regards. The most powerful lines that bring tears to my eyes when I say them, are "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, and I'm glad you stood in my way." I've been reading a lot about forgiveness lately and have a lot of self help and spiritual definitions of it that I find helpful, and yet what it really comes down to is that you forgive because you miss that person's positive presence in your life, which is an attachment. Love is so often defined as an attachment and also as a nonattachment. It is very painful to be attached to someone who has risen above that game. So love is a paradox, as is this song. Is it really saying anything conclusive, no because it contradicts itself, which many of us feel is a failing, and going clear would be so clear that there is no way to misunderstand, no double meaning, or hypocrisy. But I think the more enlightened spiritual being is very much at home here and to this person being clear is to feel very much at home with the contradiction of the universe. Obviously the song can be interpreted so many ways, that nobody really understands what really went down. Cohen can't even understand his own story, he just remembers being tyrannized by his own attachments to romantic love and trying to get others to understand this aspect. I think Cohen is also and INFp, and the hidden life motive of an INFp is to understand and be understood. Obviously he failed miserably in that, and that would make this song a complete failure in that sense. Yet within the scope of worldly balance, this song is his largest success and grandest work of art. |
