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 rivers
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.
Written and performed by
Leonard Cohen, Ten New Songs
