Leonard Cohen STRANGER MUSIC Leonard Cohen was born in Montreal in 1934. While attending McGill University, he formed a country-and-western trio called The Buckskin Boys and published his first book of poetry. His career spans nearly forty years, during which he has produced an impressive body of work: he has published nine books of poetry and two novels, and has made eleven records, including Various Positions, I’m Your Man, and, most recently, The Future. BY LEONARD COHEN BOOKS Let Us Compare Mythologies 1956 The Spice-Box of Earth 1961 The Favourite Game 1963 Flowers for Hitler 1964 Beautiful Losers 1966 Parasites of Heaven 1966 Selected Poems, 1956–1968 1968 The Energy of Slaves 1972 Death of a Lady’s Man 1978 Book of Mercy 1984 Stranger Music 1993 RECORDS Songs of Leonard Cohen 1967 Songs from a Room 1969 Songs of Love and Hate 1971 Live Songs 1972 New Skin for the Old Ceremony 1973 The Best of Leonard Cohen 1975 Death of a Ladies’ Man 1977 Recent Songs 1979 Various Positions 1984 I’m Your Man 1988 The Future 1992 FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, NOVEMBER 1994 Copyright © 1993 by Leonard Cohen and Leonard Cohen Stranger Music, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and subsequently by McClelland & Stewart, Inc., Toronto, in 1993. Poems and prose excerpts were taken from books originally published by McClelland & Stewart, Inc., and are reprinted by permission of the author. Songs are copyright © by Leonard Cohen Stranger Music, Inc., and are reprinted by permission. The Library of Congress has cataloged the Pantheon edition as follows: Cohen, Leonard, 1934– Stranger music: selected poems and songs/Leonard Cohen. p. cm. eISBN: 978-0-307-79468-0 I. Title. PR9199.3.C57S74 1993 811’.54 — dc20 93—751 v3.1 To Adam and Lorca CONTENTS Cover Other Books by This Author Title Page Copyright Dedication Let Us Compare Mythologies Poem Letter Lovers Prayer for Messiah When This American Woman These Heroics Warning The Fly The Spice-Box of Earth As the Mist Leaves No Scar Beneath My Hands I Have Not Lingered in European Monasteries I Long to Hold Some Lady Owning Everything Song For Anne You Have the Lovers Song for Abraham Klein Song to Make Me Still Summer Haiku My Lady Can Sleep Gift I Wonder How Many People in This City Travel I Have Two Bars of Soap The Cuckold’s Song Morning Song The Flowers That I Left in the Ground A Kite Is a Victim There Are Some Men Isaiah Flowers for Hitler What I’m Doing Here I Wanted to Be a Doctor The Drawer’s Condition on November 28, 1961 The Invisible Trouble Opium and Hitler It Uses Us! Heirloom All There Is to Know about Adolph Eichmann Sky Hitler The Failure of a Secular Life Wheels, Fireclouds The Music Crept by Us Hydra 1960 Queen Victoria and Me I Had It for a Moment The Way Back On Hearing a Name Long Unspoken Style Disguises Cherry Orchards Streetcars Nothing I Can Lose Front Lawn The Big World The Lists Promise For E.J.P. Parasites of Heaven One Night I Burned I See You on a Greek Mattress Snow Is Falling Fingerprints A Cross Didn’t Fall on Me Songs of Leonard Cohen Suzanne Teachers Winter Lady So Long, Marianne One of Us Cannot Be Wrong Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye Master Song Sisters of Mercy The Stranger Song Selected Poems 1956–1968 A Person Who Eats Meat Marita This Is for You The Reason I Write You Do Not Have to Love Me You Live Like a God Beautiful Losers Be with Me What Is a Saint A Great Feast in Quebec Magic Is Alive All Right, Edith Believe Me, Edith Songs From a Room Story of Isaac Lady Midnight You Know Who I Am Seems So Long Ago, Nancy Bird on the Wire Songs of Love and Hate Joan of Arc Avalanche Diamonds in the Mine Famous Blue Raincoat The Energy of Slaves Welcome to These Lines The Only Poem Portrait of a Girl I Perceived the Outline of Your Breasts The Escape I Am Dying 1967 Ugly in My Own Eyes There Are No Traitors I Left a Woman Invisible Tonight Love Is a Fire You Tore Your Shirt Threat Dark at Four O’clock Far from the Soil My Room The Road to Larissa I Am Punished Aquarian Age The Killers Purest of Occasions You Went to Work Any System One of These Days I Try to Keep in Touch My Greed Your Eyes This Is War I’d like to Read The Poems Don’t Love Us Any More Stay Etiquette A Veil A Future Night Morocco Song for My Assassin The Wrong Man One This Is My Voice New Skin for The Old Ceremony Chelsea Hotel Take This Longing Field Commander Cohen There Is a War Is This What You Wanted Why Don’t You Try I Tried to Leave You Who by Fire? A Singer Must Die Death of A Ladies’ Man Memories Paper-Thin Hotel True Love Leaves No Traces I Left a Woman Waiting Don’t Go Home with Your Hard-On Death of A Lady’s Man I Knelt Beside a Stream The Café Commentary – The Café 222 The Change Commentary – The Change Death to This Book Commentary – Death to This Book Another Room Commentary – Another Room Death of a Lady’s Man My Wife and I Commentary – My Wife and I The News You Really Hate Commentary – The News You Really Hate I Decided The Beetle Commentary – The Beetle The Altar Commentary – The Altar This Marriage Commentary – This Marriage Commentary II -This Marriage The Photograph It’s Probably Spring Commentary – It’s Probably Spring Another Family The Asthmatic Commentary – The Asthmatic A Woman’s Decision I Bury My Girlfriend A Different Drum A Working Man Commentary – A Working Man The Unclean Start Angelica The Next One A Marvellous Woman The Event You Have No Form The Dream I Like the Way You Opposed Me Beside My Son Commentary – Beside My Son She Has Given Me the Bullet Commentary – She Has Given Me the Bullet The Good Fight The Dove The Rose Not Going Back Montreal French and English O Wife Unmasked The Window Your Death Petitions The Rebellion The Price of This Book Roshi This Wretch Hurry to Your Dinner Commentary – Hurry to Your Dinner 279 Slowly I Married Her The Transmission End of My Life in Art Roshi Again How to Speak Poetry Commentary – How to Speak Poetry The Politics of This Book You’re Not Supposed to Be Here Final Examination Commentary – Final Examination Recent Songs Came So Far for Beauty The Window Our Lady of Solitude The Gypsy Wife The Traitor The Guests Ballad of the Absent Mare Book of Mercy I Stopped to Listen When I Left the King I Heard My Soul Singing Sit Down, Master In the Eyes of Men Blessed Are You You Have Sweetened Your Word I Draw Aside the Curtain Friend, When You Speak My Teacher Israel You Who Pour Mercy into Hell When I Have Not Rage We Cry Out You Who Question Souls It Is All Around Me It Is to You I Turn Holy Is Your Name Not Knowing Where to Go All My Life I Lost My Way Various Positions Dance Me to the End of Love Coming Back to You The Captain If It Be Your Will The Night Comes On Hallelujah I’m Your Man First We Take Manhattan Take This Waltz Ain’t No Cure for Love I’m Your Man I Can’t Forget Everybody Knows The Tower of Song The Future Democracy The Future Anthem Light as the Breeze Closing Time Waiting for the Miracle Uncollected Poems To a Fellow Student Fragment
