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Suddenly the night has grown colder.
The god of love preparing to depart.
Alexandra hoisted on his shoulder,
They slip between the sentries of the heart.
Upheld by the simplicities of pleasure,
They gain the light, they formlessly entwine
And radiant beyond your widest measure
They fall among the voices and the wine.
It's not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
A fitful dream, the morning will exhaust
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
Even though she sleeps upon your satin
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined
Do not stoop to strategies like this.
As someone long prepared for this to happen,
Go firmly to the window. Drink it in.
Exquisite music. Alexandra laughing.
Your firm commitments tangible again.
And you who had the honor of her evening,
And by the honor had your own restored
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving
Alexandra leaving with her lord.
Even though she sleeps upon your satin
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined
Do not stoop to strategies like this.
As someone long prepared for the occasion
In full command of every plan you wrecked
Do not choose a coward's explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect.
And you who were bewildered by a meaning
Whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
The god of love preparing to depart.
Alexandra hoisted on his shoulder,
They slip between the sentries of the heart.
Upheld by the simplicities of pleasure,
They gain the light, they formlessly entwine
And radiant beyond your widest measure
They fall among the voices and the wine.
It's not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
A fitful dream, the morning will exhaust
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
Even though she sleeps upon your satin
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined
Do not stoop to strategies like this.
As someone long prepared for this to happen,
Go firmly to the window. Drink it in.
Exquisite music. Alexandra laughing.
Your firm commitments tangible again.
And you who had the honor of her evening,
And by the honor had your own restored
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving
Alexandra leaving with her lord.
Even though she sleeps upon your satin
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined
Do not stoop to strategies like this.
As someone long prepared for the occasion
In full command of every plan you wrecked
Do not choose a coward's explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect.
And you who were bewildered by a meaning
Whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
Lyrics submitted by killingjuliet
Track duration: 05:22
"Alexandra Leaving" as written by Leonard Cohen, Sharon Robinson
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Alexandra Leaving - Chandra Levy sounds like a play on words. There is a poem about the fall of Marc Anthony in Alexandra, Egypt when the Romans took back the city, and it is surely an inspiration for this song, however, I imagine that Leonard and Sharon were thinking about Chandra while they wrote this song.
She remains alive in his heart but Alexandra is symbolic of loss.
Wakes you with a kiss refers to a dream he is having about her but is warned not to believe it is only a dream.
She is leaving for unconditional love be it from a lover or God.
Cohen said that he did not want his songs to be like slogans so I think he left room for interpretation but the song is about loss and it defines loss.
I really think it is mostly about loss through death but with the hope that our loved ones are still there.
Interesning! but how do you expain then that Alexandra lies upon your (not: her) satin? the I / the man provides the satin, it is his. he wants her to lie on it, but even that doesn 't make her stay
I like especially your quote from : Anthem".
.I like especially qour quote from : Anthem".
To me, Alexandra is a lady who doesn't find the love she wants/needs with her partner, so she chooses true Love.
Her name alone: Alexandra, a name for queens! it's not (f.e.) Penny leaving...and: A leaves with her (not: 'a') lord, so she must be a lady. And she is sophisticated: evenings with her are an honor, there is company, wine and exquisite music. It's not about the nights, it's all about the magic evenings.
She brings beautiful things in his life and she is sweet: she wakes him with a kiss. What more could a man want?
And now: what is his input? She sleeps upon his satin so that means luxury. I think that's not what she wants. He is a broken man, his honor is gone or damaged (how? when? why?) : not a solid base for a relationship. He wrecks every plan, not by accident but in full command: he is destructive and he doesn't keep of remember his first commitment, only when it is too late. He clearly is no lord, the code is broken and the crucifix uncrossed.
I think it is his doing the relationship doesn't work out. It is not: A left (her doing) no it's A lost (by him and his doing). He didn't return the gifts she brought him.
No wonder she concludes: I have tried everything, now move on, and leave with Love itself. She doesn't believe anymore in this man, but still believes in love. Impossible to force someone to love or keep loving you, not even by putting sentries near the heart! Love will slip through.
The man realizes what is happening and although he saw it coming he is in denial: this can't be real, this is too awful to be real, when I wake up I'll find it was a nightmare... only now he remember his first commitments but alas: too little, too late.
But even in leaving A is gracious. She does it in the open, she gives him the opportunity one last time to hear the music of her laughter and to say goodbye with some dignity.
I feel sorry for the man, but I understand A: a girl's gotta do what a girl 's gotta do
Multiple meanings are an inherent part of the appeal of literature and here we cannot tell what kind of loss it is but only very clearly that this is about facing iminnent loss. Representing a city by a woman is a traditional literary device (it's Biblical even). There's support for losing the woman to another man, for her dying, for Alexandra to be the historical city and because of these ambiguities the song is therefore about all loss and especially Alexandra represents life itself and her loss is the occasion for which each is long prepared. So it transcends the mere historical event and makes it timeless and something with which we can all empathise.
As others have pointed out, it is based on the preceeding work of Plutarch and Cavafy. You cannot completely understand it without reference to that work. (See refs others have already posted).
I would just like offer an explanation of some lines which others seem to have been struggling with, and for which in my opinion, no-one has yet posted the correct interpretation, namely
Even though she sleeps upon your satin;
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined;
First to re-interate something fundamental. The song is called Alexandra Leaving, although the recurrent lines are
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
Why is the song "Alexandra Leaving" and not "Alexandra Lost"? Because it is set at the moment in time when Alexandra is about to be lost but before she is actually lost. The song is about embracing imminent loss, not about the moment of loss itself. In the Plutarch/Cavafy scenario that time is during and just after the ghostly procession.
So with this established, the meaning of these lines is obvious.
The "moment" referred to here, is the ghostly procession, the sign that predicts imminent loss. The next morning, waking up with Alexandra still next to you, you might be tempted to say that you imagined this moment, this procession last night, and that everything is going to be alright. The song is telling you not to do that. It is exactly the same idea as
It’s not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
A fitful dream, the morning will exhaust –
Finally, for a long time I wondered what the final lines were telling us.
And you who were bewildered by a meaning;
Whose code was broken, crucifix uncrossed –
The reference to a crucifix - the paraphernalia of the Roman Catholic church - in the context of the classical Greek and Roman gods like Bacchus seemed distinctly incongruous. My tentative explanation is this. Throughout the song, at least in one layer of meaning, the "you" is the historical Anthony and the song is addressed to him. Then in the last verse, Cohen is turning from Anthony to address his modern day audience, and reminding them that they have to face loss too. Or possibly he has turned to address Cavafy, perhaps this is why the crucifix is uncrossed. At any case there does not seem to be any counterpart in the Cavafy poem for this verse, whereas it is quite obvious from where each of the preceeding verses is derived.
This was written in Greece and is based on mythology from an earlier poem.The Greeks/Roman had many Gods, all caprcious, and who would suddenly intervene in your life as the mood took them.
In this story, the God of Love takes Alexandra away, therefore, 'her leaving with her lord' is not about her death, but about the end of the affair.
The lyric(poem) concentrates on the range of emotions that flash up in that moment: longing,disbelief, self -pity,blame (every plan you wrecked) denial,resolution,recollection,reflection stoicism - but all in the end having to acknowlege this love 'Alexandra' is 'lost' in the nano second the God of Love intervenes - the love just walks out the door, carried off, inexplicably.
Anyone who has suddenly been thorugh this circumstance (most of us) will relate to all that he suggests - and the idea of a 'god of love' intervening is as good an explanation as any for that moment when the real becomes surreal, when everything is turned on its head - accept it, says Leonard, there is nothing you can do about it.Look back on it fondly, drink it in.
First of all, I agree about the poem "God Abandons Antony." This is what I would refer to as the "first," or leteral level interpretation. Easy enough to do in this instance, I know that Leonard Cohen is not at all that superficial! He is a poet. He seeks his and, respectively, our inner workings and how we view and intertact with the world around us. Alexandra could ba ANY city, country, state, village or whatever. It really does not matter as, I am certain, each of you has already related to some place where you have been, especially the most exotic of all. This is our own projection of ourselves into the song (we each have an Alexandra city, friend, lover, and so on).
Next, given the personas that we have created to personalize this song, we then seek to find any connections to the events of the song and our own lives. This is natural. We do this all of the time or we really don't relate to anything in the world outside of our own experience.
This is not rocket science, so far. I can agree with interpretation of the man ripped off in love and his bitterness; I can agree with someone's sense that this is life (our ultimate lover, our final lover beyond ourselves at that "long, last moment," as Lucinda Williams describes it). It could be a first love, a one-night stand and so on . . . So, I am not here to say that anyone is "wrong" as this would be untrue!
Now, I go into the history of the music of Leonard Cohen! I fing Alexandra to be a reflection of the other side of the coin of "Suzanne." The vacuous, unattainable lover who also figures in Leonard Cohen's life as his first "super hit." She is exotic. She has tea and oranges "all the way from China" to offer us. She wears "rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters." The sun shines down upon her like "honey" and she is the "Lady of the Harbor" [caps mine] (The Statue of Liberty). Suzanne is someone anyone can love, someone free enough that anyone can absorb or sense it and it more than intrigues us as well as attracts us to her and so on. Suzanne is not real! She is further compared to Jesus, "a sailor, when he walked upon the water." He watches the world from a lonely wooden tower (while Suzanne is a copper one on an island alone in the middle of New York's harbor. However, just as fleeting, he sees only one way to deal with the world around them with a single answer in the utmost simplicity that "when he knew for certain that only drowning men could see him/He said 'All men shall be sailors then, until the sea shall free them." However, even Jesus could not bear the burden of this "love" as a savior as "He, himself was broken . . . . forsaken almost humen, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone." (I will only suggest that, as a person who seriously studied the Old Testament, the role of Wisdom and Apocalyptic literature comes to play here and is quite a bit of work to put it all together.)
Both Suzanne and Jesus are charismatic characters, both present some form of saving grace to those whom they meet. Both seem large, yet all too human. Can they deliver on their promises or are their promises only something that we try to see or believe in?
In the final and concluding fulfillment of our sense of Suzanne and Jesus, Suzanne "shows us where to look amonng the garbage and the flower," further telling us that "there are heroes are in the seaweed/ there are children in the morning/they are leaning out for love/and they shall lean that way forever/while Suzanne holds the mirror."
What we get with Suzanne is a totally actionless love (just like the love of Jesus with conditions, so too does Alexandra require her temporary flirtation to look through the garbabge and the flowers, to find the dead heroes in the seaweed and to look at the "children" of the morning (rebirth, rising of the sun, perpetual things in the world--as far as we know). Both of them leave it up to us and each is as demanding as the other. There seems to be an overall "take it or leave it" quality. However, when we strive to love (hopefully to fornicate with Suzanne) Suzanne, we are presented quite starkly that thsi will NEVER happen and that is that.
Suzanne is what Alexandra was 40 years ago!
Now, we reach Alexandra! Suzanne has "evolved" over the years, changing her name and showing us how "different" she as become as she has grown older and wiser.
The first thing that we are reminded about is that "suddenly the night's have grown colder." Alexandra has become more real, more jaded and no longer flirting with fantasy. She is now a "real" person with real flesh as well as a real lover! She is not seeking the attenton of everyone as she did when she stood in the harbor of New York City, showing us, telling us, presenting herself with her "best" physical side and beauty. Her love is not some kind of mental or psychological grip that she has created with her persona. Now, Alexandra is who she is! Now, she has found her love (whether if be a god of love or whatever, this is the ultimate love for her and probably the one that she spent time hoping for over the years. She no longer needs boundaries or sentries to protect her; she is now open to all of the experiences of love with all of the willingness, trust and care that only true love can allow.
We learn quickly, with "tangible" evidence, that this is real love. The "simplicity of pleasure," that they "formlessly entwine," that this love is "radiant beyond . . . [the] widest measure" (with the full implication that, as they are infinitely bright, they are also infinitely "hot") and then in this passion they fall between the "voices and the wine." While this may be something that one would think could only be a dream, we are, again, reminded or the concreteness of this love when we are told that it's "not a trick," that she is not deceived, that it is not a "fitful dream" than, and that, when awakening, the morning will not be able to take away the reality of this event, of this complete fulfillment. As a matter of fact, she awakens her lover with a kiss so that one cannot use this sense of the night before being "imagined" as a strategy to escape the truth and the reality of this love. Then, we see Alexandra, so ready for a real, down-to-earth love in her life, being prodded to look out the window, to drink in the life and living and the reality that she sees as well as the "exquisite music." Here, she has completely felt this love with all of her senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing as well as the reality of love itself.
ALso, her "lord" the one she loves, is basically learning the same thing, except, now, it is presented in terms that he uderstande. He has had the "honor" of time with her and, in turn, has had his own honor restored: his sense of love which he has not had before has been validated. The final declaration of his own sense of this "not a dream,"is physically validated by his actually going off with Alexandra in real life! What more could he require?
We are now left with the refrain, "Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving./Say goodbye to Alexandra lost." What does it mean for Alexandra "leaving"? Well, earlier, I made a point that Suzanne is in a certain place. We did not hear of her going anywhere at all. We only heard that she is poised on the islend in the NYC harbor. We know that Suzanne is unattainable for a real relationship. We can only love her from afar; we can only love her from the shore! She is a figure that people expect to see on that island, come hell or high water. She must remain. She can't go anywhere at all. However, she has grown up, grown older and has learned something along the way. She is free. She has no sentries to control whether or not she will or will not love, whether or not she will physically feel another person (no space between her and her "lord" as they consumate their love) and she also has freedom of movement, to change the scenery, so to speak, and to sense ALL of the reality around her wherever she goes with ALL of her senses as well as psychological and phenomenological interaction between her and her lover as well as the world around her and within. So, Alexandra is lost to those who only saw her as static in the physical realm, unattainable, beyond the reach of everyone and so on.
Well, I hope that this helps you. Please, critique, ask questions and be kind. Thank you for reading and I hope that you got something out of this as well as a bit of enjoyment.
Take care,
Anyse (pronounced as "uh-NIECE" with the stress on "NIECE")
A while back I had the unusual experience ( for me) of falling in love unexpectedly with a woman half my age(that would be 56/28 to be precise. I was with the young lady in question on a mission trip. I am a happily married man and not one to take his commitments lightly. To me it was clear from the outset that a flesh-and-blood relationship with this woman was a very bad idea, positively guaranteed to cause harm to my wife, my small kids, the girl. And for me the inevitable humiliation of her moving on.
In the middle of this comes Alexandra Leaving on my iPod, the first time I listened carefully. It was immediately clear to me that the song was about an older man who had "the honor of her evening" with the beautiful young Alexandra but was having to gradually come to terms with the realisation she was moving on. The god of love hoisting Alexandra on his shoulder is an image of virile passion that an older man can likely only watch from the sidelines. She's still living at his house but the older man can feel the younger man moving in on his turf preparing to take his girl. And there is really nothing the older man can do to save his dignity except to appreciate the beautiful inevitability of this young passionate love, and be glad for the time he got to spend with this beautiful girl.
Now this might sound stupid, but experiencing the beauty of this Cohen song seemed to allow me to essentially experience the whole cycle of an intimate relationship with my beautiful love interest without having to go through the despair of divorce, broken- hearted children and my inevitable humiliation. She and I never "did" anything but we still count each other as very intimate acquaintances, and I have never yet been unfaithful to my wife. In a larger context the song lightens my personal burden of aging, because there will always be beautiful young passion to come along.
The god of the eternal empty beginning to start.
Alexandra laying in the AIDS ward,
in the hospital bed, she cuts a nasty fart.
Letdown by the emptyness of her lifestyle,
She lost the light, she formerly entwine;
And the radiator blewout by the window
Her sleazy boyfriend drank the last of the wine.
It's not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
A fitful dream, the morning will exhaust -
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving on the AIDS train.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.
RJ