by the rivers dark

• leonard cohen'in ten new songs albümünde yer alan parçası.
• sözlerini yazayım da tam olsun^*:
  
  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.
• bir röportajdan:
  
  'this is a reference to the book of psalms (psalm 137): the children of ısrael are in exile, their captors asked them to sing, but they refuse because they can not celebrate sacred songs in a foreign land. ın the psalm it is said: ‘ıf ı forget thee, o jerusalem, let my arm fall, my tongue cleave to my palate.’ ı got this idea of applying jerusalem to babylon. this song is about reconciliation between the profane and the sacred.'