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By The Rivers Dark - Lyrics by Leonard Cohen


Lyrics
By the rivers dark
I wandered on.I lived my life
In babylon.
And I did forget
My holy song:
And I had no strength
In babylon.
By the rivers dark
Where I could not see
Who was waiting there
Who was hunting me.
And he cut my lip
And he cut my heart.
So I could not drink
From the river dark.
And he covered me,
And I saw within,
My lawless heart
And my wedding ring,I did not know
And I could not see
Who was waiting there,
Who was hunting me.
By the rivers dark
I panicked on.I belonged at last
To babylon.
Then he struck my heart
With a deadly force,
And he said, ¡
®this heart:
It is not yours.’
And he gave the wind
My wedding ring;
And he circled us
With everything.
By the rivers dark,
In a wounded dawn,I live my life
In babylon.
Though I take my song
From a withered limb,
Both song and tree,
They sing for him.
Be the truth unsaid
And the blessing gone,
If I forget
My babylon.I did not know
And I could not see
Who was waiting there,
Who was hunting me.
By the rivers dark,
Where it all goes on;
By the rivers dark
In babylon.

Book: Reflection on the Important Things