Well I stepped into an avalanche
It covered up my soul
When I am not this hunchback that you see
I sleep beneath the golden hill
You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn, learn to serve me well

You strike my side by accident
As you go down for your gold
The cripple here that you clothe and feed
Is neither starved nor cold
He does not ask for your company
Not at the centre, the centre of the world

When I am on a pedestal
You did not raise me there
Your laws do not compel me
To kneel grotesque and bare
I myself am the pedestal
For this ugly hump at which you stare

You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn what makes me kind
The crumbs of love that you offer me
They're the crumbs I've left behind
Your pain is no credential here
It's just the shadow, shadow of my wound

I have begun to long for you
I who have no greed
I have begun to ask for you
I who have no need
You say you've gone away from me
But I can feel you when you breathe

Do not dress in those rags for me
I know you are not poor
And don't love me quite so fiercely now
When you know that you are not sure
It is your turn, beloved
It is your flesh that I wear


Lyrics submitted by Hosimosi, edited by Wyzygy, tobeortobe, Mignon

Avalanche Lyrics as written by Leonard Cohen

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network

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Avalanche song meanings
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  • +1
    Song Meaning

    Sorry, I should have made this a comment instead of a reply:

    "You who wish to conquer pain, you must learn, learn to serve me well." The Christ is the manifestation of God in the world we perceive as objects (or more abstractly, of form). When Jesus looks at a person, He sees beyond the person's body, and sees only the Christ within ("Jesus" symbolizes any person imprisoned in the (false)reality of exteral objects, as most of us do; but our true reality is the eternal Christ that dwells within each of us). When we view the world as a world of objects, we see illusion. But what we really are (the Christ) trancends the world of objects. If we refuse to view the true reality of the unity of all people as the Christ, we suffer (as the Buddha said). We suffer only when we do not obey the law of our true being. Many use the word "God" as the symbol that created the laws of being (or of existence). When Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, they entered the world of objective "reality," and began to suffer pain. Adam and Eve are symbols which represent any of us currently imprisoned in the world of pain. Adam and Eve disobeyed the law of God. So if a person wishes to conquer pain, that person must learn to serve God well. The word "satan" symbolizes darkness, the absence of the Christ light. Satan is the belief in the world of objects as an external reality. The world of the belief in objects is hell.

    I will continue later.

    woodshadowon December 26, 2008   Link

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