Leonard Cohen – By The Rivers Dark

By the river’s 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 river’s 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 river’s 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 river’s 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 river’s dark where it all goes on

By the river’s dark in Babylon