Slowly I Married her - Leonard Cohen




Slowly I married her
slowly and bitterly married her love
Married her body,
boredom and joy

Slowly I came to her
slow and resentfully came to her bed
Came to her table in hunger and habit
came to be fed

Slowly I married her
sanctioned by none
with nobody’s blessings, in nobody’s name
amid general warnings, amid general scorn
Came to her fragrance, my nostrils wide
Came to her greed with seed for a child
Years in the coming and years in retreat

Slowly I married her
slowly I kneeled
And now we are wounded so deep and so well
that no one can hurt us except Death itself
And all through Death’s dream I move with her lips
The dream is a night but eternal the kiss
And slowly I come to her
slowly we shed the clothes of our doubting
and slowly we wed




I copied this from a recital so punctuations could be off. Leonard Cohen recites this in the context of his song "Where is my Gypsy wife", as you can see in this following clip. Recital starts at 2:56 min marker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2byWWMmf20