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 it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well
And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well
And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
If it be your will
Lyrics submitted by Fistan, edited by traumermusing, Mellow_Harsher
If It Be Your Will Lyrics as written by Leonard Cohen
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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In interview and at concerts Cohen himself described the exact meaning of this song. He described it as a prayer he wrote and later set to music. He was diagnosed with nodules/masses on his vocal cords and was going to have to have surgery to remove them. He was a life long smoker and was told that if they were cancerous, he would probably need to have the vocal cords themselves removed along with the masses on them....which would literally mean he would not be able to speak, never mind sing ever again. Even if they were benign, the surgeon could not guarantee that the vocal cords wouldn't be damaged to some extent which would mean he would probably be able to talk, but unlikely to be able to sing again. The song is literal.....he is saying to God, if it be your will that I can never speak again, I accept it. In the 2nd verse, which is the only one to be repeated he's saying to God, if you allow me to sing, I will use my voice to praise you. He then repeats that "from this broken hill, all your praises they will ring, if it be your will to let me sing" In the 3rd verse he's asking for mercy from God for all who are suffering in the world "if it be your will, if there is a choice, let the rivers fill, let the hills rejoice, let your mercy spill on all these burning hearts in hell, if it be your will to make us well". The final verse he asks God to bring all his children (all human beings) close to Him and take care of them. He uses the Jewish parable of the jars containing God's light....God's light was so powerful that no container could contain it and consequently the jars cracked, allowing God's light into the world. (He uses the same imagery of the jars containing God's light in the song "Anthem" with the very famous lyrics "forget your perfect offering, there is a cracking,a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in") In the final lines he's asking God to end this night (all darkness/suffering in the world) if it be your will. That's it. Its all about Cohen telling God he is prepared to accept whatever is going to happen in the 1st half of it and in the second half he's pleading on behalf of everyone in the world who is lost or suffering. It's not about relationships between human beings ....and I honestly have no clue how someone could here this song and believe that's what he's talking about. It was a private piece he, addressed to God that he wrote while waiting to have surgery that had the potential to not only end his career, but actually take away his voice altogether. Essential as the saying goes....it does what it says on the tin!!!