Thursday 25 December 2008

On the meaning of Leonard Cohen & The Hallelujah: A Tribute

Poets rarely reveal the under pinnings of their lyrics, least of all L.Cohen, who will only acknowledge the accolade 'poet' if it is bestowed upon him by others.

Such humility. Only the great ones have it.

His last anthology, aptly titled 'Book of Longing'(as his legion of fans were no doubt longing for its completion for many years) is published without footnotes. 

And so it was intriguing to read a recent exposition of his song 'Hallelujah' (from the album Various Positions) by the master himself.

I first heard the dulcet tones of his self proclaimed 'Golden Voice' singing his signature song, which at that time was 'Suzanne', on an FM radio station when i was living in Montreal in the late 70's.

Since then, for over 30 years, i have re mastered my listening ear many times to assimilate his evocative words, and imbibe the beauty of his simple chord progressions. 

Without ever totally comprehending the profundity of his lyrics, i have suffered his search for meaning. With this brief explanation of Hallelujah he seems to have provided us all, with the master key to understanding his life's work, and even life itself. We should be so thankful.

Actually I can thank L.Cohen for many things. 

For launching me on a travel pilgrimage to the Greek Island of Hydra, for his apocryphal rhapsodic novel 'Beautiful Losers' for introducing me to Federico Garcia Lorca, for offering Zen as a disciplined way to smile at the seriousness of the world. And in the 2 concerts i have seen him perform live (Sydney circa 1985 after Various Positions was released, & more recently as a spry 74 year old in Sweden this summer of 2008) I can thank him for all the songs he has written.

Credit also goes to IntegralOptionsCafe for directing me to the article by Neil McCormick of The Telegraph where Cohen elucidates the meaning of Hallelujah. 

I quote in part from the interview (my italics);

"Finally there's no conflict between things,finally everything is reconciled but not where we live. This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled, but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess and that's what i mean by 'Hallelujah'"

He goes on to conclude;

"The only moment that you can live here comfortably in these absolutely irreconcilable conflicts is in this moment when you embrace it all and you say 'Look, I don't understand a f***ing thing at all 

- Hallelujah!' 

That's the only moment that we live here fully as human beings."


I believe in years to come that Cohen's art, music, musings & poetry will be studied by contemplatives of the great juxtaposition, namely in Buddhist terminology: The Samsara; as a way to reconcile the Great Mystery of G-d and man here on earth. 

And far from what was once his claim to fame in the recording industry at least, as 'Music to slit your wrists to...' they will discover a wry humor, a timeless humility, and a joyous proclamation of Hallelujah!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Loved this one... Love Cohen.

Hallelujah! It always seemed to me to have much more depth than I could logically find.