The song Suzanne by
Leonard Cohen starts off with a timeless moment between friends becoming
sublime. The author creates an oddly romantic, penetrating setting of great
personal importance. Three verses and chorus is all the song needs to
create profound mystery. This is a deeply spiritual song and by the end of the
first verse the metaphors from a scene with a girl at a houseboat becomes
quickly interchangeable with the divine.
The first double entendre of meaning is the authors’ confession of having no
love to give her…but finds out…they had always been lovers.
This is biblical in that we have nothing to offer God, yet we find out God
foreknew us from the beginning. From the chorus, the line travelling
blind is about walking by faith not by sight. Our perfect body is
obviously our spirit, being touched by another soul and by the perfect mind of
God. By the second verse Jesus is walking thru time and space on earth; but
only drowning men could see Him. Cohen’s poetic line is directly
from the Olivet discourse (Sermon on the Mount) of Jesus who says-- Blessed
are the poor in Spirit [Matt. 5:3]. And Mr. Cohen sings that we become
free when we realize our brokenness. But the wisdom of God is missed by many,
sinking also into the sea—heroes in the seaweed. But Jesus mission
was a solitary one-- on a lonely wooden tower… Forsaken, almost human,
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone.
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That comes all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.
Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbor
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.
--- By Leonard Cohen
