Lyrics By the Rivers Dark - Leonard Cohen

By the Rivers Dark

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.