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.
|
|
-----------------
|
By The Rivers Dark
|
| Leonard Cohen |
