Random Thoughts: By The Rivers Dark

By The Rivers Dark / Leonard Cohen

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.

Leonard Cohen這首歌源自Psalm 137，一篇著名的聖詩，講述猶太人在耶路撒冷遭巴比倫攻陷後被俘虜，在幼發拉底河畔哭泣、將豎琴懸掛在樹枝上，不願為敵人演唱家鄉的歌。

這首詩充滿悲傷與憎恨，但Cohen給了它另一層意涵，善惡不再如古老的敵意那般分明，
愛與恨，傷與癒合，對神意的堅信和無力感：

祂切了我的唇、我的心，
我因而不能從黑暗的河流中飲水。

祂庇護我，我從中看見
我無法可束的心，以及婚戒。

祂以致命的力量刺穿我的心，祂說，
這顆心並不屬於你自己。

然後祂給了風我的婚戒，
祂以一切環繞我們。


Cohen連結宗教的歌詞裡總是有一種奇異的投射，首先，他詞裡的神總是舊約耶和華的暴君形象；再者，明明說的是神，卻讓你最終理解到那其實關於愛情。
是愛情，是慾望，也是宗教施加於人的力量，不衝突，也不褻瀆。

（另，wedding ring有個脈絡，傳統猶太婚禮上，新郎要在婚禮最末說一段這首聖詩）

姊姊很喜歡這首歌，猶太人的流亡悲歌被她投射在原住民的處境上。
何嘗不是呢？
在黑暗的河流旁，故土成異鄉，族人們在自己的土地上流亡，敵人要他們歌舞取悅嘉賓。

Cohen唱了更多對Babylon曖昧朦朧的言詞。
是恨也是愛，殘酷與不安裡雜揉引起內在衝突的慾望。
古老的聖詩不會這麼告訴我們，但人心的真相確實如此－－
那一切都並非絕對。
我想他是這麼思索過這個西元前的故事。猶太詩人會不會愛上巴比倫女子？你怎知不會呢？
愛情是不是信仰的一個部分？
一次一次說過誓詞，證明的究竟是人信念的堅定，還是軟弱？

或者恨，該要如此寫下以便不忘。

彷彿忘了，你便不再是你。