August 3, 2015

Song of Prophecy: "Destroy another fetus now / We don't like children anyhow"

Leonard Cohen: The Future

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture

Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!

Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture

Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide,
Slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul

When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible

I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival

Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going any further

And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future: it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road

and the white man dancing

You'll see a woman hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson

and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima

Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

Posted by gerardvanderleun at August 3, 2015 11:06 AM
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Prophecy is a burden.

Posted by: Fat Man at August 3, 2015 7:49 PM

He did not spare His chosen people from a terrible rod, so then can we expect mercy? We have poured the cup and we will drink it to its dregs. Christ or Hiroshima, indeed...

Posted by: Kurt at August 3, 2015 8:07 PM

I would not expect too much mercy in this world, unless you are willing to grant others mercy. Life in this world is supposed to be a humbling experience, for whatever you gather to yourself in this life, you will also lose before the end.
The father of my brother in law was a man of great ability and achievement in his life. And now, at the end, a sad shell of himself, lost in dementia. It is heartbreaking, but then, this world is heartbreaking for most.
It is the relentless answer to the timeless questions which Job asked also.

Posted by: David at August 4, 2015 10:15 AM

I believe that more than anyone else of our era, Cohen and Auden have been granted the gift of prophecy.

Posted by: el baboso at August 4, 2015 11:31 AM
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