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.
Leonard Cohen , von dem Album „Ten New Songs“ (2001)
