Suzanne Lyrics
To me this song is about how love and faith works in the same way. Love is represented by Suzanne and faith by Jesus. They both make you want to:
And you want to travel with him/her And you want to travel blind And you know that you can trust /himher For he`s/she's touched your perfect body with his/her mind
Which basically means that both love and faith are irrational, but that does not mean that they are not real, it is just the nature of love and faith to be irrational.
@Lurtz I largely agree with you, though I'd clarify one thing: love and faith often have a power that is stronger than rationality, yet are not irrational. Cohen explains the rationality of love and faith throughout the song. For example, if Jesus touches us with his mind, that is a good reason to trust him and go with him even though you don't know where it will take you. It's impossible to know or have foresight on where a life of following Jesus will take you, so you are in effect traveling blind, but it is not without reason....
@Lurtz I largely agree with you, though I'd clarify one thing: love and faith often have a power that is stronger than rationality, yet are not irrational. Cohen explains the rationality of love and faith throughout the song. For example, if Jesus touches us with his mind, that is a good reason to trust him and go with him even though you don't know where it will take you. It's impossible to know or have foresight on where a life of following Jesus will take you, so you are in effect traveling blind, but it is not without reason.
Since it's early days, Christianity has had a strong emphasis on having a balance of both faith and reason. The founders of the majority of the fields of science were priests and monks. The arena of philosophy, which has a strong emphasis on reason, was for its first 1,700 years made up mostly of Christians, Jews and a small number of Greeks who attained high spiritual heights and believed in God. Many atheists try to attack people who believe in God or who believe in Jesus for having "blind faith" and they try to claim that it's without reason. However, Cohen in this song points out at least one good reason to believe in and follow Jesus: if he has affected you in a positive way.
Another reason is that his teachings are brilliant and were 3,000 years ahead of their time. Most people on both the right and the left in the US today still haven’t caught up with what he taught. For example, most people on the left mostly only want to help people who are located in the US, nearly all of whom are already in the richest third of people in the world. Yet Jesus said the neighbors that we must love are foreignors who are in great physical need, and who we don’t identify with at all and we don’t feel like helping. The Jews and the Samaritans were in different countries and disliked each other. Dozens of other times he said the key criteria for helping people was their being highly poor. He said loving meant helping them in material ways: giving them a coat, feeding them, etc.
Yet 95% of donations made by Americans go to other Americans, almost all of whom are in the richest third (and who have about 700% more than the poorest third). Most donations go to the richest 10% (everyone making over $10k a year), who have about 10,000% more than the poorest 10%. Most people on the both the left and the right are guilty of this.
In the future, people will look back and think it was barbaric and massive discrimination that the poorest third were almost completely ignored and got less than 5% of the donations made. Yet 2,050 years ago, a guy who did physical labor in a tiny fishing village in a rural area of the Middle East was ahead of where we are even at today after 2,000 years of signficant progress in the directions of the things he said we should do. Plus that was when he was only 30 years old. His radical teachings were shared with only a fairly small number of people at a time when books weren’t widely available and most people could read and write. Yet his teachings massively changed the world. While that’s not guaranteed proof that he was divine, it’s a reason to believe he was, especially if you’ve also had a positive personal experience of him.
Another reason is that there is historical proof that his original followers said that they saw him after he was crucified by Rome, and they were willing to be brutally killed just for admitting this. Non-Christian historians of the time wrote about this. Another reason is that anyone who has lived for more than 40 years knows that we humans are messed up and off track in numerous ways and are really in need of help. So it’s reasonably logical that God would enter the world in human form to help.
Thus there is more than one reason to believe in Jesus, and even more reasons to believe in God in general. Indeed, it’s more rational to believe that this incredibly complex, intricate and beautiful world was created by a creator via the incredible big bang and the ensuing process of evolution than “believing” it occured only by total chance. So faith and reason work together. Faith is different from yet related to reason, and many times faith can be more powerful or more important than reason.
@Lurtz [[ This site doesn't allow paragraph returns, so this is now one paragraph ]]: I largely agree with you, though I'd clarify one thing: love and faith often have a power that is stronger than rationality, yet are not irrational. Cohen explains the rationality of love and faith throughout the song. For example, if Jesus touches us with his mind, that is a good reason to trust him and go with him even though you don't know where it will take you. It's impossible to know or have foresight on where a life of following Jesus will...
@Lurtz [[ This site doesn't allow paragraph returns, so this is now one paragraph ]]: I largely agree with you, though I'd clarify one thing: love and faith often have a power that is stronger than rationality, yet are not irrational. Cohen explains the rationality of love and faith throughout the song. For example, if Jesus touches us with his mind, that is a good reason to trust him and go with him even though you don't know where it will take you. It's impossible to know or have foresight on where a life of following Jesus will take you, so you are in effect traveling blind, but it is not without reason.
Since it's early days, Christianity has had a strong emphasis on having a balance of both faith and reason. The founders of the majority of the fields of science were priests and monks. The arena of philosophy, which has a strong emphasis on reason, was for its first 1,700 years made up mostly of Christians, Jews and a small number of Greeks who attained high spiritual heights and believed in God. Many atheists try to attack people who believe in God or who believe in Jesus for having "blind faith" and they try to claim that it's without reason. However, Cohen in this song points out at least one good reason to believe in and follow Jesus: if he has affected you in a positive way.
Another reason is that his teachings are brilliant and were 3,000 years ahead of their time. Most people on both the right and the left in the US today still haven’t caught up with what he taught. For example, most people on the left mostly only want to help people who are located in the US, nearly all of whom are already in the richest third of people in the world. Yet Jesus said the neighbors that we must love are foreignors who are in great physical need, and who we don’t identify with at all and we don’t feel like helping. The Jews and the Samaritans were in different countries and disliked each other. Dozens of other times he said the key criteria for helping people was their being highly poor. He said loving meant helping them in material ways: giving them a coat, feeding them, etc.
Yet 95% of donations made by Americans go to other Americans, almost all of whom are in the richest third (and who have about 700% more than the poorest third). Most donations go to the richest 10% (everyone making over $10k a year), who have about 10,000% more than the poorest 10%. Most people on the both the left and the right are guilty of this.
In the future, people will look back and think it was barbaric and massive discrimination that the poorest third were almost completely ignored and got less than 5% of the donations made. Yet 2,050 years ago, a guy who did physical labor in a tiny fishing village in a rural area of the Middle East was ahead of where we are even at today after 2,000 years of signficant progress in the directions of the things he said we should do. Plus that was when he was only 30 years old. His radical teachings were shared with only a fairly small number of people at a time when books weren’t widely available and most people could read and write. Yet his teachings massively changed the world. While that’s not guaranteed proof that he was divine, it’s a reason to believe he was, especially if you’ve also had a positive personal experience of him.
Another reason is that there is historical proof that his original followers said that they saw him after he was crucified by Rome, and they were willing to be brutally killed just for admitting this. Non-Christian historians of the time wrote about this. Another reason is that anyone who has lived for more than 40 years knows that we humans are messed up and off track in numerous ways and are really in need of help. So it’s reasonably logical that God would enter the world in human form to help.
Thus there is more than one reason to believe in Jesus, and even more reasons to believe in God in general. Indeed, it’s more rational to believe that this incredibly complex, intricate and beautiful world was created by a creator via the incredible big bang and the ensuing process of evolution than “believing” it occured only by total chance. So faith and reason work together. Faith is different from yet related to reason, and many times faith can be more powerful or more important than reason.
Several other things about faith in this song are in these verses:
Several other things about faith in this song are in these verses:
And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water //// And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower //// And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him //// He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them //// But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open //// Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone //// //// The other points are: 1) Only people...
And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water ////
And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower ////
And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him ////
He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them ////
But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open ////
Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone //// //// The other points are: 1) Only people who are really suffering will open their minds enough to see Jesus. So he says that people will be stuck in the small confines of a sailboat and the grueling efforts of operating a sailboat on the sea ... until the sea capsizes or sinks it, resulting in enough suffering to cause them to be open to seeing Jesus. If they’re not suffering enough, Jesus cannot even help free them. So suffering plays a key role. This is partly why Jesus said it is harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven. Because rich people have enough resources to stave off the amount of suffering that is needed to be open to seeing Jesus ... and also have enough resources to keep themselves distracted during suffering. It may help to explain why belief in Jesus has skyrocketed in Africa during the past 50 years, while it's plummeted in rich countries like the US and Europe. At any rate, Cohen’s verse also fits with the famous saying of “there are no atheists in foxholes.” 2) By saying that Jesus was “"forsaken, almost human” Cohen conveys that Jesus is fully divine. And that during the time in which he was forsaken, he was almost human and experienced human emotions. A portion of early Christians thought Jesus was only divine and not really human, but the consensus was that he was both God/divine and also human. Elsewhere in the song, Cohen achieves this balance by saying that even when Jesus was doing divine, miraculous things like walking on water and even though he was so divine that he was only “almost human”, he was at the same time still a human (a sailor, which is the metaphor that Cohen uses for humans in the song). 3) Before the sky would open is likely a reference to Jesus’s ascendance into heaven through the sky. While the Bible says there were clouds in the sky during the ascension, some famous paintings of the ascension show him ascending into an open sky like this Rembrandt painting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_of_Jesus#/media/File:Rembrandt_van_Rijn_192.jpg. It might also refer to the book of revelation’s description of the second coming which says: “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True …” and goes on to describe Jesus returning. But a second coming hasn’t occurred, so I think Cohen is referring to the ascension. 4) The verse about “He spent a long time waiting” refers to Jesus spending the first 30 years of his life watching people, before he began his teaching and ministry at the age 30. Working as a carpenter in a tiny village in a remote, rural area like Gallilee in an era long before telephones, radio, TV, post offices or other forms of communication is akin to being in a lonely wooden tower. 5) Jesus was broken and sunk by weak human wisdom that thought he was dangerous (for advocating things like giving most of our possessions to the poor, loving our enemies, forgiving the people who hurt us) and thus he must be eliminated.
Like many of Mr. Cohen's songs it doesn't have one specific meaning but is many things and can actually change from verse to verse. It's sort of stream-of-consciousness meanings and interpretations. He often spends months and years writing songs and has been known to change songs long after they've been recorded. To me part of this song is about his longing for personal peace and happiness during his long battles with depression. Suzanne was a real person but in the song she's more of a symbol of the obliviousness that people in general have towards his desires and despair. Faith has eluded him, love has eluded him and happiness has eluded him but the only people who understand that are just as lost as he is.
This song brings love as a door to connect with divinity. It's god see through love, so you can recognize there salvation and mysticism When Suzanne has a mirror, then the children can love. This could refer to the discovering of the beauty of self soul through love. Suzanne is a reflection of Cohen's love and it works in both directions. You discover and you are discovered. When you realize the power inside your love you recognize God. Jesus is the spiritual explanation of love between them and, in last instance, is through life and nature and god that we feel love. And maybe, only through pain and suffering begins the looking for meaning.
I have to say, even when I didn´t get this way the song, I feel very related with your description of love as a connection with divinity and a meaning of life. I´m very impressed on the way you have described.
I have to say, even when I didn´t get this way the song, I feel very related with your description of love as a connection with divinity and a meaning of life. I´m very impressed on the way you have described.
I cut and paste from a message I sent to a leonard cohen forum:
"Of course Suzanne goes beyond simple "I wanted her,I couldn't get her" thing.I always thought it was about mystical experience,and the similarity between love/sex and love/god.Mystics are said to have some kind of orgasm feeling when they reach god.Better when they feel the energy of god flowing through them.Body and mind overlap.Maybe I'm just stating the obvious,I'm new to this group,but that's the first thing that this song suggested to me. The water symbolizes feelings and subconscious,so it's associated with Suzanne (=someone you dismiss as "crazy" with your rational intellect)and Jesus (because faith is not a rational thing,but only "drowning men could see him",that could mean "only those who are in distress",but also "only those who dive deep into the subconscius mind)...it's kind of Jungian: it's a song about Anima,I guess.About the feminine part who nurtures ("feeds you tea...") and is deeply associated with water and water-like objects (like the mirror)..."
Wow, brilliant interpretation, I love it! You sound like such an interesting person.
Wow, brilliant interpretation, I love it! You sound like such an interesting person.
I would actually rather think about what this song means than know for certain. My mom sang this song to me when putting me to bed for years along with "Sweet Sir Galahad" by Joan Biaz. I am now 26 and have been singing the same two songs to my children for 7 years. I think both songs give a really peaceful mind set.
yes i feel i am taken to a warm quiet afternoon by the river when i hear this song
yes i feel i am taken to a warm quiet afternoon by the river when i hear this song
Thanks for these insights, LeatherApron and dorareever especially!
I wonder why the poet interweaves Jesus and this very attractive, but 'half-crazy' woman together in the song (beyond the surface connection of the Montreal setting).
It strikes me that he is musing on the imponderables of faith and on attraction. Despite what he says in his interview, there is more than 'just' his physical attraction to Suzanne that apparently puzzles him. He seems at pains to make it clear that Suzanne does not have a 'perfect mind', but *that is 'why you want to be there (as opposed to, or in addition to, her beauty?) - presumably because her behaviour, though hard to grasp, is compelling and intriguing, like the blindness of faith, and ultimately the poet is touched by her mind, whereas it had been the other way around at some earlier time (as in the first stanza).
I simply don't know. It's nice to know that the 'tea and oranges' was actually a brand of tea that had pieces of dried orange in it, though.
i cried the first time i heard this song.
awww!!! (it's one of my ALL time favorites). Amazing isn't it? true beauty, poetry. :)
awww!!! (it's one of my ALL time favorites). Amazing isn't it? true beauty, poetry. :)
can't blame you
can't blame you
And when he knew for certain Only drowning men could see him He said "All men will be sailors then Until the sea shall free them
This, to me, is the most touching part of the song. I think there are levels of meaning behind these lines, as there are with several others in the song... But to me this is the kind of analysis of faith that most preachers and ministers are hesitant to make... We humans so often come to faith through crisis. God notes this and allows us to suffer because it helps us initiate our relationships with him.
I also want to note that the two most beautiful songs (in my opinion) that refer to Jesus are both by Jewish men- "Jokerman" by Bob Dylan and this song.
This is definitely, most certainly Leonard Cohen's song.
I think it's about wanting to believe something that you know can't be. The "ignorance is bliss" line of thinking. He wants to believe in Jesus, but he knows that it is fantasy("He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone "). He wants to believe that he can have his friend's woman, but he knows it can never work out. He wishes he was ignorant. There is also a bit about people only mustering up faith when they really need it. Maybe if he was "drowning", he could go through with banging Suzanne. He sees himself in all the dead people in the river. Their faith brought them nothing, and they sit at the bottom of the river waiting for love to save them. Could also be some suicidal shit in there as well. Pretty depressing stuff.