I finally broke into the prison,
I found my place in the chain.
Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows,
All the brave young men
They're waiting now to see a signal
Which some killer will be lighting for pay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture,
You whom I cannot betray.
I fought in the old revolution
On the side of the ghost and the King.
Of course I was very young
And I thought that we were winning;
I can't pretend I still feel very much like singing
As they carry the bodies away.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture
Lately you've started to stutter
As though you had nothing to say.
To all of my architects let me be traitor.
Now let me say I myself gave the order
To sleep and to search and to destroy.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture
Yes, you who are broken by power,
You who are absent all day,
You who are kings for the sake of your children's story,
The hand of your beggar is burdened down with money,
The hand of your lover is clay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture
I found my place in the chain.
Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows,
All the brave young men
They're waiting now to see a signal
Which some killer will be lighting for pay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture,
You whom I cannot betray.
I fought in the old revolution
On the side of the ghost and the King.
Of course I was very young
And I thought that we were winning;
I can't pretend I still feel very much like singing
As they carry the bodies away.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture
Lately you've started to stutter
As though you had nothing to say.
To all of my architects let me be traitor.
Now let me say I myself gave the order
To sleep and to search and to destroy.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture
Yes, you who are broken by power,
You who are absent all day,
You who are kings for the sake of your children's story,
The hand of your beggar is burdened down with money,
The hand of your lover is clay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture
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I finally broke into the prison,
I found my place in the chain.
Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows,
All the brave young men
They're waiting now to see a signal
Which some killer will be lighting for pay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture,
You whom I cannot betray.
(this song reflects themes of oppression and the "beautiful losers" of the world. Thanks for the props Leonard! Breaking out of prison to find your place on the chain to me means aggressively breaking free from physical oppression only to gladly welcomes it back into your life in the form of mental prison. But even then, there is hope, yes, even in damnation. Given the fact that all the young men are going off to war to die, Cohen invites us to descend into the existential furnace of a churning, grinding nonsensical life that could actually support this happening, in order to take a look at why we allow this to happen. He will meet you there, and here there is no betrayal, only truth. And truth is that war is insane).
I fought in the old revolution
On the side of the ghost and the King.
Of course I was very young
And I thought that we were winning;
I can't pretend I still feel very much like singing
As they carry the bodies away.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture,
Of course war, social/cultural commentary, magic and love are alive in Cohen's work. Which is great, because otherwise he'd just be another cynic. He once believed in kings and queens as a young man, but the depression of life, especially after WW2, like the dead young soldiers, invites despair and steals away his creativity. Still, he invites us to venture into the furnace, to meet life head on, in all it's sickness and mystery).
Lately you've started to stutter
As though you had nothing to say.
To all of my architects let me be traitor.
Now let me say I myself gave the order
To sleep and to search and to destroy.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture
(I'm probably so dead wrong about this song, like I was with "Avalanche." Here the furnace venturing people lose their voice, their identity. They shake through the "awful descend into the wound," and "the dark night of the soul." But he's got your back, he understands, for he is a traitor to his conditioning, imploring you to find a new way to be in the world, one that makes sense for contemporary man, whose task it is to sleep, search and destroy timeworn, archaic thoughts structures, such as religion.)
Yes, you who are broken by power,
You who are absent all day,
You who are kings for the sake of your children's story,
The hand of your beggar is burdened down with money,
The hand of your lover is clay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture
(to the underdog's, the oppressed, you are heroic, like Lennon's "working class hero" or Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom," you are heroic (rich) just the way you are, in spirit, in your commitment to family. From the ashes of marital mediocrity you can still build meaning and mystery into the awesomeness of life).
Or, then again, having said that I believe it is Cohen asking us to go into the sites of atrocities to take lessons to learn so these horrors can never be repeated. Hence the line: Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows.
I love the version of this done by the walkmen too.
"All the brave young men" would be the only ones in war, not women. I don't think he's speaking about Jews entering the gas chamber, I think it's more abstract than that, and also there would be women and children entering the gas chamber.
Maybe breaking into the prision (during the Vietnam War) means not going to war and facing prison if refusing to go when drafted. There would be other draft dodgers in prison and that might be finding his "place in the chain."
I think this song , should be listen in parallel with the partisan. If the partisan is a song praise to guerrilla/freedom fighters , this one is to pay the respects to the other guys: The ones that stayed in the wrong side of history, and because of that, were cursed by her. The Russian white guards, the Germans, the confederate Americans etc etc.
” And if you see, he is not complaining (that would be expected of a person that is going to be executed with reason, for example a jew that is going to be killed by the nazis)
Should be:
” And if you see, he is not complaining (that would be expected of a person that is going to be executed with NO reason, for example a jew that is going to be killed by the nazis)