Leonard Cohen

A Singer Must Die

A Singer Must Die - meaning Summary

Guilt and Performative Confession

Cohen stages a mock trial in which the poet-singer confesses moral and artistic failings, offering himself as the scapegoat for a compromised voice. The poem mixes courtroom rhetoric, erotic imagery, and wry choruses to show guilt, self-abasement, and the painful bargain between truth and performance. Irony and resignation dominate: the speaker both submits to judgment and exposes the mechanics of public shaming and artistic culpability.

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Now the courtroom is quiet, but who will confess Is it true you betrayed us? The answer is Yes Then read me the list of the crimes that are mine I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline And all the ladies go moist, and the judge has no choice A singer must die for the lie in his voice And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty You keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty Your vision is right, my vision is wrong I'm sorry for smudging the air with my song La, la, la... Oh, the night it is thick, my defences are hid In the clothes of a woman I would like to forgive In the rings of her silk, in the hinge of her thighs Where I have to go begging in beauty's disguise Oh goodnight, goodnight, my night after night My night after night, after night, after night, after night I am so afraid that I listen to you Your sun glassed protectors they do that to you It's their ways to detain, their ways to disgrace Their knee in your balls and their fist in your face Yes and long live the state by whoever it's made Sir, I didn't see nothing, I was just getting home late La, la, la...

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