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One of Us Cannot Be Wrong Lyrics
I lit a thin green candle, to make you jealous of me.
But the room just filled up with mosquitos,
they heard that my body was free.
Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night
and I put it in your little shoe.
And then I confess that I tortured the dress
that you wore for the world to look through.
I showed my heart to the doctor: he said I just have to quit.
Then he wrote himself a prescription,
and your name was mentioned in it!
Then he locked himself in a library shelf
with the details of our honeymoon,
and I hear from the nurse that he's gotten much worse
and his practice is all in a ruin.
I heard of a saint who had loved you,
so I studied all night in his school.
He taught that the duty of lovers
is to tarnish the golden rule.
And just when I was sure that his teachings were pure
he drowned himself in the pool.
His body is gone but back here on the lawn
his spirit continues to drool.
An Eskimo showed me a movie
he'd recently taken of you:
the poor man could hardly stop shivering,
his lips and his fingers were blue.
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes
and I guess he just never got warm.
But you stand there so nice, in your blizzard of ice,
oh please let me come into the storm.
But the room just filled up with mosquitos,
they heard that my body was free.
Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night
and I put it in your little shoe.
And then I confess that I tortured the dress
that you wore for the world to look through.
Then he wrote himself a prescription,
and your name was mentioned in it!
Then he locked himself in a library shelf
with the details of our honeymoon,
and I hear from the nurse that he's gotten much worse
and his practice is all in a ruin.
so I studied all night in his school.
He taught that the duty of lovers
is to tarnish the golden rule.
And just when I was sure that his teachings were pure
he drowned himself in the pool.
His body is gone but back here on the lawn
his spirit continues to drool.
he'd recently taken of you:
the poor man could hardly stop shivering,
his lips and his fingers were blue.
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes
and I guess he just never got warm.
But you stand there so nice, in your blizzard of ice,
oh please let me come into the storm.
Song Info
Submitted by
hosimosi On Mar 26, 2002
More Leonard Cohen
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Famous Blue Raincoat
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DrewKatsikas has it I believe. I also never thought of the doctor, saint, and eskimo representing himself-- that seems interesting but I don't know about that, could be just three other ex-lovers. This song is so poetic.
"I lit a thin green candle, to make you jealous of me" I think the narrator started dating other people to make her jealous, the green candle represents maybe the money he can spend on women on dates, gifts, etc....
"But the room just filled up with mosquitoes, they heard that my body was free." The 'candlelight' just attracted mosquitoes or just random women that are using him for his money possibly. The important part is that these new women mean nothing to him.
"Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night and I put it in your little shoe." This line always confused me. The 'dust from a long sleepless night' might represent all those thoughts you think of after a break-up that keep you up all night because you're not over it yet. Putting it in her shoe? I don't know, maybe that represents haphazardly telling her all these feelings one night and having her step on them like they are nothing....
"And then I confess that I tortured the dress that you wore for the world to look through." He talked bad about her to others so that they saw her in a negative light. The dress represents her image that people saw of her.
"showed my heart to the doctor...." I thought the doctor represented someone close to the narrator that he confided in to help cope with his broken heart, and then this friend ended up getting together with her in the end and winded up just as broken as the narrator.
"I heard of a saint..." I believe the saint is a past lover that the narrator talks to in order to get a better understanding of the woman. The golden rule, for me, has always been to never cheat. So I think the saint cheated on the woman, somewhat like the narrator 'lighting the thin green candle' in the beginning; and likewise they both completely regret pushing her away in the end.
"An Eskimo showed me a movie he'd recently taken of you:" The Eskimo seems like a current or recent lover of the woman. It is used to emphasize how amazing she is at hurting men when she can figuratively make an Eskimo shiver. Her love is then compared to a freezing storm, and the narrator is willing to get hurt again just to be with her.
God I love this song.
@Beksinski I think your explaination of the song is nice, but the doctor part I disagree on.
@Beksinski I think your explaination of the song is nice, but the doctor part I disagree on.
"He shows his hart to the doctor" is representing a person who should know better. He knows that the narrator "has to quit" cause he has already been together with her. But the story of the narrator reminds him of the time he was together with the same girl. He still needs to heal, but can't let go and gets jelaous about the narrator and his time with the woman.
"He shows his hart to the doctor" is representing a person who should know better. He knows that the narrator "has to quit" cause he has already been together with her. But the story of the narrator reminds him of the time he was together with the same girl. He still needs to heal, but can't let go and gets jelaous about the narrator and his time with the woman.
I guess both ways makes sense tho!
I guess both ways makes sense tho!
@Beksinski Thanks Beksinki Your interpretation makes a lot of sense
@Beksinski Thanks Beksinki Your interpretation makes a lot of sense
The first verse refers to voodoo. Cohen was into candles and spells during the 1960's, and the context suggests that he hopes to force the lover to return to him by lighting a green candle for jealousy. "Green" is always associated with envy, and "jealousy candles" could once be found on Beale Street and probably in Black communities across the South. "The dust of a long sleepless night" is very poetic, but putting it in the lover's shoe further increases the "hexing" imagery, and "torturing the dress" vaguely sounds like sticking pins in a voodoo doll in the hopes that it would cause physical suffering or induce the lover to return. The second verse refers to a "doctor", who as the story unfolds has clearly been in love with the same lover as the narrator, presumably Cohen. The verse shows remarkable points of similarity with Bob Dylan's "Leopard-Skinned Pill-Box Hat" in which a doctor tells the narrator that seeing the lover is bad for his health, analogous to "he said I'd just have to quit." The third verse refers to a saint that had loved you, and studying in his school. Cohen was interested in religious retreats, studies and monastic orders most of his life, and the verse clearly uses imagery from this, imagery that seems drawn more from Zen Buddhism or Hinduism than Catholicism, from which the concept of "saint" arises. All the verses seem to collectively be a roundabout put-down of a woman who has hurt the narrator deeply- he mentions his own hurt that she caused, describes how she ended a physician's career after an affair, how the "saint" killed himself on her account, and how the Eskimo "couldn't get warm" after the "wind took her clothes" (perhaps a reference to infidelity, although couched in terms that remind one of Hiawatha's conception by the west wind). Still, somewhat helplessly, Cohen yearns to be allowed "into the storm." Even knowing what this woman does to men, he wants her.
One of us (the singer, the doctor, the saint, and the Eskimo) cannot be wrong. We hear the tales and love stories of 4 people toward one person. The singer says maybe I am crazy that I'm madly in love with her. But what are you going to say about others: the doctor, the saint and the Eskimo. There's something magical about her and loving her. Which is driving all of us crazy.
Sounds like a more sophisticated version of Hall and Oates' "Maneater." This woman overpowers all men who meet her, they end up frozen to death or killing themselves. It's a metaphor for the pain and suffering she brings. Yet, Cohen still wants to "come into the storm." There's some extremley intriguing elements to her, also.
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes and I guess he just never got warm.
I always took those lines as sarcasm. She cheated on the "eskimo", and cohen is bitterly commenting that the wind took her clothes.
@TheOldRevolutionary Good TheOldRevolutionary!
@TheOldRevolutionary Good TheOldRevolutionary!
Naa, I know why the eskimo froze. Some women do that.
listen to him in the end of this song, when he sings lalala... his voice cracks and he sounds drunk as hell, mourning over this. it's funny the first time, and the second time around the raw emotion of it hits you.
It's funny every time for me.
It's funny every time for me.
listen to him in the end of this song, when he sings lalala... his voice cracks and he sounds drunk as hell, mourning over this. it's funny the first time, and the second time around the raw emotion of it hits you.
she dumped him, the doctor, the saint and the eskimo are himself representing the contradictions he feels, and in the end he just gets very very wasted
the woman of this song is just a metaphor for lust.