Lyrics The Traitor.lrc Leonard Cohen
[id: wnewwhel]
[ar: Leonard Cohen]
[al: Recent Songs]
[ti: The Traitor]
[length: 06:16]
[00:22.57]Now the swan it floated on the English river
[00:32.09]Ah, the rose of high romance, it opened wide
[00:41.99]A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
[00:51.19]And the judges watched us from the other side
[01:00.92]I told my mother, “Mother, I must leave you
[01:10.13]Preserve my room but do not shed a tear
[01:19.58]Should rumor of a shabby ending reach you
[01:28.55]It was half my fault and half the atmosphere”
[01:38.04]But the rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
[01:47.30]And the swan I tempted with a sense of shame
[01:56.69]She said at last I was her finest lover
[02:06.12]And if she withered I would be to blame
[02:15.98]The judges said, “You missed it by a fraction
[02:25.35]Rise up and brace your troops for the attack”
[02:34.22]Ah, the dreamers ride against the men of action
[02:43.61]Oh, see the men of action falling back
[02:52.52]But I lingered on her thighs, a fatal moment
[03:01.99]I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still
[03:11.07]My falsity had stung me like a hornet
[03:19.85]The poison sank and it paralyzed my will
[03:28.74]I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers
[03:37.61]That they had been deserted from above
[03:46.15]So on battlefields from here to Barcelona
[03:55.50]I’m listed with the enemies of love
[04:06.88]And long ago she said, “I must be leaving
[04:16.36]Ah, but keep my body here to lie upon
[04:25.18]You can move it up and down and when I’m sleeping
[04:34.14]Run some wire through that rose and wind the swan”
[04:43.78]So daily I renew my idle duty
[04:52.82]I touch her here and there, I know my place
[05:01.85]I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty
[05:10.86]And people call me traitor to my face
[05:17.01]Year of Release: 1979