The Traitor Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

The Traitor Lyrics

    Now the swan it floated on the english river
    Ah the rose of high romance it opened wide
    A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
    And the judges watched us from the other side

    I told my mother "mother i must leave you
    Preserve my room but do not shed a tear
    Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
    It was half my fault and half the atmosphere"

    But the rose i sickened with a scarlet fever
    And the swan i tempted with a sense of shame
    She said at last i was her finest lover
    And if she withered i would be to blame

    The judges said you missed it by a fraction
    Rise up and brace your troops for the attack
    Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action
    Oh see the men of action falling back

    But i lingered on her thighs a fatal moment
    I kissed her lips as though i thirsted still
    My falsity had stung me like a hornet
    The poison sank and it paralysed my will

    I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers
    That they had been deserted from above
    So on battlefields from here to barcelona
    I'm listed with the enemies of love

    And long ago she said "i must be leaving,
    Ah but keep my body here to lie upon
    You can move it up and down and when i'm sleeping
    Run some wire through that rose and wind the swan"

    So daily i renew my idle duty
    I touch her here and there -- i know my place
    I kiss her open mouth and i praise her beauty
    And people call me traitor to my face

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