Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
Babylon
English answer:
city of immorality
Added to glossary by
Nick Lingris
Jul 12, 2005 18:21
18 yrs ago
English term
Alex
moving like they do in Babylon
English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
phrase in a love song
This is a line in a Leonard Cohen love song.
What would be the meaning in English?
"Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
***Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon***
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love"
Thank you all for your ideas.
What would be the meaning in English?
"Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
***Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon***
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love"
Thank you all for your ideas.
Responses
Change log
Jul 12, 2005 18:22: NGK changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
Responses
+7
24 mins
Nick Lingris
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Specializes in field
United Kingdom
The word is my oyster
Native in: Greek 
Works in: English to Greek, Greek to English, Greek
Related KudoZ points
:
44
Selected
that city of immorality
I think Leonard goes for allusion, Babylon as sin city.
He uses biblical allusion in the previous stanza:
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove...
So all he wants is a lascivious dance, "like they do" in a place that fits the metre and the rhyme.
He uses biblical allusion in the previous stanza:
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove...
So all he wants is a lascivious dance, "like they do" in a place that fits the metre and the rhyme.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Great! Thank you!"
4 mins
Clauwolf
Specializes in field
you...acting like a millionaire
:)
5 mins
jccantrell
United States
United States
Native in English
&
English
United States
Was nicht ist, kann noch werden.
Native in: English (Variant: US)
Works in: German to English
Related KudoZ points
:
44
maybe no meaning at all....
Maybe it was a word that had the right number of syllables and rhymed with 'gone.'
The phrase itself does not have any real meaning in the USA.
The phrase itself does not have any real meaning in the USA.
+1
27 mins
Babylonian dancers
where considered sacred, mainly because of their symmetrical movements.
The line you mention may be a way to show the enchantment coming from the dancing woman
The line you mention may be a way to show the enchantment coming from the dancing woman
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Ken Cox
: the immediate association this calls up with me is dancers, specifically belly dancers, but (especially as this is Leonard Cohen) I would understand it in a graphic and specifically erotic sense. Cohen essentially regards the erotic as sacred.
1 hr
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thanks
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+2
1 hr
Mihaela Brooks
Canada
Canada
Canada
PRECISION at PREFERENTIAL TARIFF RATES
Native in: Romanian 
Works in: English to Romanian, Romanian to English
see explanation
Cohen has been a devotee of the erotic as well as the spiritual all his life. Indeed, he is surely better known for both his loves and his despairs than for his Judaism. He has always been obsessed with the beauty of women and has loved many,
He has a reputation, however, for passion not for seduction. In both his life and his poetry he is neither a Don Juan nor a Casanova. He has generally remained close to the women in his life and rather than treating them as conquests, has worshipped them – then fled to regain his freedom and creative solitude
The muse of his most mature work was Dominique Isserman, in the 1980s. He met her on Hydra in 1982 and she soon became his lover. His album I’m Your Man (1988) was dedicated to her
The lyrics carry us limpidly through 3,000 years of the erotic sublime, from the archaic Biblical world to a dream of violins under summer stars on the cusp of the future:
Let me see your beauty
When the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving
****Like they do in Babylon***
Show me slowly what I only
Know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love.
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/paulmonk.html
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs 54 mins (2005-07-13 00:15:48 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
In ancient Mesopotamia, where women had similar rights to men\'s, the world was thought to have been created by ___goddess Tiamat____ (until 1700 BC when men had claimed more sexual and economic powers, ....turned her into a demon ).
The greatest of all the mother goddesses of the Mesopotamians. Goddess of fertility, goddess of sex, goddess of the moon, goddess of war.
____________________________________________________________________
Tiamat
Within that work her physical description includes, a tail, a thigh, _____\"lower parts\" (which shake together), a belly, an udder, ribs, a neck, a head, a skull, eyes, nostrils, a mouth, and lips. She has insides, a heart, arteries, and blood. The clamor of the younger gods disturbed her, but she continued to indulge them.
http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/assyrbabyl-faq.html#Tiamat
He has a reputation, however, for passion not for seduction. In both his life and his poetry he is neither a Don Juan nor a Casanova. He has generally remained close to the women in his life and rather than treating them as conquests, has worshipped them – then fled to regain his freedom and creative solitude
The muse of his most mature work was Dominique Isserman, in the 1980s. He met her on Hydra in 1982 and she soon became his lover. His album I’m Your Man (1988) was dedicated to her
The lyrics carry us limpidly through 3,000 years of the erotic sublime, from the archaic Biblical world to a dream of violins under summer stars on the cusp of the future:
Let me see your beauty
When the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving
****Like they do in Babylon***
Show me slowly what I only
Know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love.
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/paulmonk.html
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs 54 mins (2005-07-13 00:15:48 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
In ancient Mesopotamia, where women had similar rights to men\'s, the world was thought to have been created by ___goddess Tiamat____ (until 1700 BC when men had claimed more sexual and economic powers, ....turned her into a demon ).
The greatest of all the mother goddesses of the Mesopotamians. Goddess of fertility, goddess of sex, goddess of the moon, goddess of war.
____________________________________________________________________
Tiamat
Within that work her physical description includes, a tail, a thigh, _____\"lower parts\" (which shake together), a belly, an udder, ribs, a neck, a head, a skull, eyes, nostrils, a mouth, and lips. She has insides, a heart, arteries, and blood. The clamor of the younger gods disturbed her, but she continued to indulge them.
http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/assyrbabyl-faq.html#Tiamat
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Can Altinbay
: For the explanation that most exquisitely describes Cohen, you win my agree. My favorite among many (I think this one was just a poem) is the one where he says he is jeolous of the water caressing a woman as she dives in for a swim.
2 hrs
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Thank-you so much Can. Cohen's words show the relationship btw erotism & spirit, body & mind, sensual appetites & transcendental aspirations.
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| agree |
Sinziana Paltineanu (X)
10 hrs
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Thank-you Dragaica!!
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11 hrs
is there a hint to the Harlot Babylon? to the mother of prostitutes?
Some 1500 years after Abraham, the children of Abraham (the people of Israel) ended up in exile in Babylon. *****Babylon, the world empire of that time, took Israel into captivity.**** Then came the day God set them free.
http://www.ancasterchurch.on.ca/sermons/aug2904.html
could this mean that Cohen`s lover took him into captivity?
Harlot-Babylon proudly called herself "the mother of prostitutes."
http://www.ancasterchurch.on.ca/sermons/aug2904.html
I listened to Cohen`s songs and read some of his books, I know the song, but I`ve never questioned myself about the meaning of this verse. I think the answer to your question should be related to the Bible...I`m also waiting for other interpretations...
http://www.ancasterchurch.on.ca/sermons/aug2904.html
could this mean that Cohen`s lover took him into captivity?
Harlot-Babylon proudly called herself "the mother of prostitutes."
http://www.ancasterchurch.on.ca/sermons/aug2904.html
I listened to Cohen`s songs and read some of his books, I know the song, but I`ve never questioned myself about the meaning of this verse. I think the answer to your question should be related to the Bible...I`m also waiting for other interpretations...
Reference:
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