This has always been one of my favorites, and I've always understood it to be from the perspective of the person who was first left/sexually betrayed in a three-way relationship, using Cohen's wonderful way of mythologizing the small importances of an individual life. "You" have left me and followed your master, because you found ecstasy with him (been to the moon). And I here am still your prisoner, and now you know how it feels, because he has sent you away as well because he doesn't feel he has your complete loyalty, since part of you continues to long for me. But even so, you aren't coming back to me fully, so I will likely only get a bare level of sustenance from your return (I am sick in bed / your thighs are ruined/ and you only bring me wine and bread.)
I agree with BlackEyedAngel that this song is in many ways a partner with Famous Blue Raincoat -- it asks the same essential question: What do you do/how can you feel when you are betrayed and then your lover returns?
This has always been one of my favorites, and I've always understood it to be from the perspective of the person who was first left/sexually betrayed in a three-way relationship, using Cohen's wonderful way of mythologizing the small importances of an individual life. "You" have left me and followed your master, because you found ecstasy with him (been to the moon). And I here am still your prisoner, and now you know how it feels, because he has sent you away as well because he doesn't feel he has your complete loyalty, since part of you continues to long for me. But even so, you aren't coming back to me fully, so I will likely only get a bare level of sustenance from your return (I am sick in bed / your thighs are ruined/ and you only bring me wine and bread.)
I agree with BlackEyedAngel that this song is in many ways a partner with Famous Blue Raincoat -- it asks the same essential question: What do you do/how can you feel when you are betrayed and then your lover returns?