Leonard Cohen

O pasado día 7 morreu Leonard Cohen (1934-2014). Entre as moitas cancións que escribiu e interpretou escollemos unha, The partisan (Le complaint du partisan), nunha grabación da televisión francesa do ano 1969.

Un compañeiro de 2º de Bachalerato envía o seguinte comentario sobre Leonard Cohen. Moitas grazas pola túa achega, Jorge:

Leonard Cohen: Musician and poet 
Lyrics are a major part of songs. They are often overlooked, but they are a way to show feelings, express emotions, transmit ideas… Language is powerful and those who understand it are the best songwriters. Leonard Cohen is one of those. Although he is mostly known as a musician, he is also a very prolific writer. He started his music career in his thirties, but before that he had written several books ande developed his poetry which heavily influenced his music. His lyrics are full of symbols, metaphors, hidden meaning… In this paper I will analyse one of his songs, to see how Cohen uses all those lyrical resources to create a very powerful message. The song that I am going to discuss is “Story of Isaac”.

"Story Of Isaac"

The door it opened slowly,
my father he came in,
I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
5 his blue eyes they were shining
and his voice was very cold.
He said, "I've had a vision
and you know I'm strong and holy,
I must do what I've been told."
10 So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
and his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
the lake a lady's mirror,
15 we stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
and he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
20 but it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
he looked once behind his shoulder,
he knew I would not hide.

25 You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
30 by a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
your hatchets blunt and bloody,
you were not there before,
when I lay upon a mountain
35 and my father's hand was trembling
with the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
forgive me if I inquire,
"Just according to whose plan?"
40 When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
45 I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
man of peace or man of war,
the peacock spreads his fan.

The most obvious reference of this song is the biblical one. Religious references are common in Cohen’s work, for example in the well-known song “Hallelujah” which deserves his own analysis. Anyway, in “Story of Isaac” the divine message of the song is quite clear, as it is a reference to that biblical passage in which God orders Abraham to kill his son Isaac. When Abraham takes Isaac to the altar of sacrifice, God stops him because this was only a way to test his faith. The song tells almost the same story, except that there is no holy intevention at the end. Also, the story is told from Isaac’s perspective and it shows his feelings when faced with imminent death. In lines 11-17 we see how, for Isaac’s frightened eyes, reality is distorted (“the trees got much smaller” in contrast with Abraham, who grows in height as Isaac’s fear grows in intensity).

Considering the sociopolitical context in which this song was written, it is often understood as an antiwar message and in my opinion, the way that Cohen merges both biblical and political message is brilliant. From the religious perspective, the vision mentioned between lines 7-9 is of God, but from a political point of view it represents the man’s own political beliefs, his patriotism. In the third stanza, the religious message is used as a metaphor for the antiwar idea; in line 27 it clearly says “you must not do it anymore”, a reference to those who sacrifice their children, who send their sons to war. The idea expressed in lines 28-30 is that one’s beliefs do not serve as a moral justification. The line about the god or demon temptation means that everybody should take responsibility for their acts, they cannot blame any holy or demonic being. But it does not stop there, there are other political references within the song. For example, the most explicit one is in lines 19-21,: the eagle symbolizes the US patriotism and the vulture represents the ideological decadence of a nation wich sends their young men to kill and be killed in the name of a supposed greater good. The last three verses criticise the military charade, the game of heroes and villains that surrounds the war.

As a conclusion, this song is proof of the songwriting mastery of Leonard Cohen and I know that this piece of work has many more nuances and symbols than the ones I mentioned but this song, as every other song or poem, is open to interpretation. So now is your time, reader, to think about one of Leonard Cohen’s works of music and poetry and discover what it means to you.

Jorge Exp.