I love this song by Leonard Cohen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pA5UhNaYw0&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
Below is Leonard Cohen's words about his inspiration for the song. It makes the poetry more meaningful.
'Dance Me To The End Of Love' ... it's curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that's why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, "Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin," meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song -- it's not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity.
Me
Me
About Me
- Soheila
- Highlands Ranch, Colorado, United States
- I was born in Iran. I moved to the US when I was 17. I have black hair, brown eyes and am petite. My interests are varied. An honest look at myself by me and others: I am kind, sometimes needy and clingy, have low self esteem, I am contemplative, deep, compassionate, procrastinator, at times a self-loather, at times gregarious, honest, transparent, gullible, passionate, sweet, emotional, curious, mystical, anxious, conscientious, patient, sometimes interesting, sometimes depressed, resilient, gentle, sometimes funny, intelligent, sometimes dumb.
6 comments:
Did you read Cohen's blurb re: the inspiration for the song? It explains the dark atmosphere, but still far from what I would have guessed.
I love his poetry.
'Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love, dance me to the end of love'
To tdfreeman - No, I don't know the story behind it. You'll have to tell me.
Sean - I love his poetry too. The first few times I heard this song I cried. It is so beautiful and touching.
Under the YouTube video, it says "FINAL NOTE FROM THE MAN HIMSELF:" and if you click on 'Show more' you can read his blurb. I'll warn you that you may not want to... It might change your feelings about the song. And, as he says, "it's not important that anybody knows the genesis of it."
To tdfreeman - Thanks for pointing out his note about the song. Actually once I read it, I understood the poetry better, and the song became more meaningful to me. The symbolism used makes more sense now. I added his comments to the blog entry.
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