Leonard Cohen has a gorgeous song called "Alexandra Leaving". Here are the lyrics:
"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 goodby 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.
Equisite 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;
Alexanda 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 cuase and the effect.
And you who were bewildered by the 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."
This song is based on a poem by Constantine P. Cavafy entitled: "The god abandons Antony".
"When suddently, at midnight, you hear
an invisible procession going by
with exquisite music, voices,
don't mourn you luck that's failing now,
work gone wrong, your plans
all proving deceptive--don't mourn them uselessly.
As one long prepared, and graced with courage,
say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving.
Above all, don't fool yourself, don't say
it was a dream, your ears deceived you;
don't degrade yourself with empty hopes like these.
As one long prepared and graced with courage,
as is right for you who were given this kind of city,
go firmly to the window
and listen with deep emotion, but not
with the whining, the pleas of a coward;
listen--your final delectation--to the voices,
to the exquisite music of that strange procession,
and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing."
(1911) (Translated by Edmonund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)
Note that in the original Cavafy poem it is about a city lost - Alexandria; in the Cohen song it is a woman - Alexandra. Cavafy's poem is about Marc Anthony (based on Plutarch's story). The night before Octavian took the city, Marc Anthony heard a silent troup leaving the city - then he passed out (it is the god Bacchus that deserts Anthony). The poem is about courage in the face of loss (of a city, of a woman, . . . of life). It calls on nobilty in the face of inevitable loss.
"When suddently, at midnight, you hear
an invisible procession going by
with exquisite music, voices,
don't mourn you luck that's failing now,
work gone wrong, your plans
all proving deceptive--don't mourn them uselessly.
As one long prepared, and graced with courage,
say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving.
Above all, don't fool yourself, don't say
it was a dream, your ears deceived you;
don't degrade yourself with empty hopes like these.
As one long prepared and graced with courage,
as is right for you who were given this kind of city,
go firmly to the window
and listen with deep emotion, but not
with the whining, the pleas of a coward;
listen--your final delectation--to the voices,
to the exquisite music of that strange procession,
and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing."
(1911) (Translated by Edmonund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)
Note that in the original Cavafy poem it is about a city lost - Alexandria; in the Cohen song it is a woman - Alexandra. Cavafy's poem is about Marc Anthony (based on Plutarch's story). The night before Octavian took the city, Marc Anthony heard a silent troup leaving the city - then he passed out (it is the god Bacchus that deserts Anthony). The poem is about courage in the face of loss (of a city, of a woman, . . . of life). It calls on nobilty in the face of inevitable loss.
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