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"
I met a woman long ago
Her hair, the black that black can go
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Soft she answered, no
I met a girl across the sea
Her hair, the gold that gold could be
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Yes, but not for thee
I met a man who lost his mind
In some lost place I had to find
Follow me, the wise man said
But he walked behind
I walked into a hospital
Where none was sick and none was well
When at night the nurses left
I could not walk at all
Morning came and then came noon
Dinner time a scalpel blade
Lay beside my silver spoon
Some girls wander by mistake
Into the mess that scalpels make
Are you the teachers of my heart
We teach old hearts to break
One morning, I woke up alone
The hospital and the nurses gone
Have I carved enough, my Lord?
Child, you are a bone
I ate and ate and ate
No, I did not miss a plate, well
How much do these suppers cost?
We'll take it out in hate
I spent my hatred every place
On every work, on every face
Someone gave me wishes
And I wished for an embrace
Several girls embraced me, then
I was embraced by men
Is my passion perfect?
No, do it once again
I was handsome, I was strong
I knew the words of every song
Did my singing please you?
No, the words you sang were wrong
Who is it whom I address
Who takes down what I confess?
Are you the teachers of my heart?
We teach old hearts to rest
Oh, teachers are my lessons done?
I cannot do another one
They laughed and laughed and said
Well, child
Are your lessons done?
Are your lessons done?
Are your lessons done?
Her hair, the black that black can go
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Soft she answered, no
I met a girl across the sea
Her hair, the gold that gold could be
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Yes, but not for thee
I met a man who lost his mind
In some lost place I had to find
Follow me, the wise man said
But he walked behind
I walked into a hospital
Where none was sick and none was well
When at night the nurses left
I could not walk at all
Morning came and then came noon
Dinner time a scalpel blade
Lay beside my silver spoon
Some girls wander by mistake
Into the mess that scalpels make
Are you the teachers of my heart
We teach old hearts to break
One morning, I woke up alone
The hospital and the nurses gone
Have I carved enough, my Lord?
Child, you are a bone
I ate and ate and ate
No, I did not miss a plate, well
How much do these suppers cost?
We'll take it out in hate
I spent my hatred every place
On every work, on every face
Someone gave me wishes
And I wished for an embrace
Several girls embraced me, then
I was embraced by men
Is my passion perfect?
No, do it once again
I was handsome, I was strong
I knew the words of every song
Did my singing please you?
No, the words you sang were wrong
Who is it whom I address
Who takes down what I confess?
Are you the teachers of my heart?
We teach old hearts to rest
Oh, teachers are my lessons done?
I cannot do another one
They laughed and laughed and said
Well, child
Are your lessons done?
Are your lessons done?
Are your lessons done?
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This is the song that introduced me to Leonard Cohen. It hooked and held me. The infinite search for life's lessons and knowledge that will bring us peace and comfort. Instead, we find teachers and lessons that are for others or are not what they seem at all. I met a man who lost his mind, in some lost place I had to find. "Follow me," the wise man said, but he walked behind. A descent into madness, "led" by someone who egged on until ending up in a mental hospital "Where none are sick and none are well.. Some girls wander by mistake into the mess that scalpels make. "Are you the teachers of my heart?" "We teach old hearts to break!" The splatter of heartbreak from love, of being used and tossed aside with callous disregard. He's seeking something definite, while they (the girls) just wander by mistake. The song is just so incredible, so powerful, hitting on so many levels, it's impossible not to find a commonality.