I followed the course From chaos to art Desire the horse Depression the cart I sailed like a swan I sank like a rock

Philip Glass & Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing I-II

01 Prologue: I Can't Make the Hills

 02 I Came Down 

 

I can't make the hills
The system is shot
I'm living on pills
For which I thank G-d
I followed the course
From chaos to art
Desire the horse
Depression the cart
I sailed like a swan
I sank like a rock
But time is long gone
Past my laughing stock
My page was too white
My ink was too thin
The day wouldn't write
What the night pencilled in
My animal howls
My angel's upset
But I'm not allowed
A trace of regret
For someone will use
What I couldn't be
My heart will be hers
Impersonally
She'll step on the path
She'll see what I mean
My will cut in half
And freedom between
For less than a second
Our lives will collide
The endless suspended
The door open wide
Then she will be born
To someone like you
What no one has done
She'll continue to do
I know she is coming
I know she will look
And that is the longing
And this is the book

_____________________

From the Mountain Book of Longing est un recueil de poèmes et de dessins de Leonard Cohen écrit en 2006 et mis en musique par le compositeur de musique contemporaine Philip Glass en 2007. En 2006, la rencontre entre Leonard Cohen et Philip Glass a amené le projet commun de mettre en musique les poèmes dans un cycle musical de vingt-deux chansons. Philip Glass fera la première mondiale du Book of Longing le 1er juin 2007 lors du Luminato Festival de Toronto avec le Philip Glass Ensemble dirigé par Michael Riesman et Leonard Cohen récitant.