Song Lyrics

Many men have loved the bells
You fastened to the rein
And everyone who wanted you
They found what they will always want again
Your beauty lost to you yourself
Just as it was lost to them

Oh, take this longing from my tongue
Whatever useless things these hands have done
Let me see your beauty broken down
Like you would do for one you love

Your body like a searchlight
My poverty revealed
I would like to try your charity
Until you cry, "now you must try my greed"
And everything depends upon
How near you sleep to me

Just take this longing from my tongue
All the lonely things my hands have done
Let me see your beauty broken down
Like you would do for one your love

Hungry as an archway
Through which the troops have passed
I stand in ruins behind you
With your winter clothes, your broken sandal straps
I love to see you naked over there
Especially from the back

Oh, take this longing from my tongue
All the useless things my hands have done
Untie for me your hired blue gown
Like you would do for one that you love

You're faithful to the better man
I'm afraid that he left
So let me judge your love affair
In this very room where I have sentenced mine to death
I'll even wear these old laurel leaves
That he's shaken from his head

Just take this longing from my tongue
All the useless things my hands have done
Let me see your beauty broken down
Like you would do for one you love
Like you would do for one you love

Leonard Cohen

The duration of Take This Longing [Album Version] is 4:05 minutes and seconds.