By The Rivers Dark by Leonard Cohen (original lyrics)

By the rivers dark
i wandered on.
i lived my life
in babylon.
And i did forget
my holy song:
and i had no strength
in babylon.
By the rivers dark
where i could not see
who was waiting there
who was hunting me.
And he cut my lip
and he cut my heart.
so i could not drink
from the river dark.
And he covered me,
and i saw within,
my lawless heart
and my wedding ring,
I did not know
and i could not see
who was waiting there,
who was hunting me.
By the rivers dark
i panicked on.
i belonged at last
to babylon.
Then he struck my heart
with a deadly force,
and he said, ‘this heart:
it is not yours.'
And he gave the wind
my wedding ring;
and he circled us
with everything.
By the rivers dark,
in a wounded dawn,
i live my life
in babylon.
Though i take my song
from a withered limb,
both song and tree,
they sing for him.
Be the truth unsaid
and the blessing gone,
if i forget
my babylon.
I did not know
and i could not see
who was waiting there,
who was hunting me.
By the rivers dark,
where it all goes on;
by the rivers dark
in babylon.