"Dance Me to the End of Love" as written by and Leonard Cohen....
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
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The song is about the string quartet who were forced to play beside the crematoriums in the death camps. The members of the quartet were going to be killed after in the crematorium but were allowed to play music. This playing of music is joy and happiness to the members of the quartet, the last piece of love and joy they will experience before their end.
The song lyrics themselves describe a man and woman who are dancing, yet the man is asking for the woman to dance him or help him to do many things. This couple are exactly like the string quartet. Both of these groups of people are going to be killed in the crematorium but, they can experience joy, whether it'd be playing music or dancing, for the last time until before their end. It shows that both these groups, predominantly the couple, are enjoying themselves through something they love and are forgetting all their troubles and concerns of their deaths. He is asking her to take them back to happier times and reflect on their lives and realise the happiness in their lives before their end.
Key lines
"Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin" - String quartet's instruments burned in crematorium
"Show me slowly what I only know the limits of" - Only know limits of life physically so, he wants her to take him back to a happier time in their dance.
"We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above" - our love is joy and happiness, they will die so they are beneath it, yet they are happy and joyful before they die so they are above
"Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn" - wants her to take him back to an early time where they were young, happy and exuberant
"Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn" - encapsulate this moment of joy before our death, even though we know the inevitable will happen
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I love every line of this song, but a few stand out: "Dance me to the children who are asking to be born"--my knees go weak over that one. Or: "Raise a tent of shelter now though every thread is torn" suggesting they have few posessions but their love is enough to sustain them.
I fantasize about re-marrying my husband just so that this can be our (second) wedding song!
he just wants his lover to be there the whole time and he doesnt particular care what else happens
The song is chronological: courtship, marriage, children, then aging and death.
The last lines are:
"Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in"
The panic is the process and fear of dying. I'm afraid, so hold my hand and dance me until I'm gathered safely in.
"Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove"
The naked hand is the flesh. The glove is a metaphor for the touch of your memory after you are gone. You may be gone, but your love remains. Your memory is there to dance me in my heart. Dance me to the end of love.
"'Dance Me To The End Of Love' ... it's curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that's why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, "Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin," meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song -- it's not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Thanks, I wrote a reply above before reading that, and I think it's important to note that Cohen says the language of the song can be related to both that horrific situation AND to the feeling of overwhelming love and desire.