Leonard Cohen – Throne Of Desire Variations lyrics

(Written By Cohen, Performed In "Night Magic")

Let me start with you Miss Shy
Bundled up in your mother's lie
Tip toe, tip toe
Hiding your silky pleasure

Miss Shy come to me
Along the snowy paths of modesty
Tip toe, tip toe
Hiding your silky treasure

Come to me with downcast eyes
Come to me and claim the prize
Of your outrageous pleasure

How I like you Miss Shy
Bundled up in your mother's lie
Tip toe --
Claim your outrageous pleasure!

O o o

And you I want strong
With your hatred intact
With your father's pipe
And your brother's bat
And your quaint belief
In holy authority

With your discipline
And your Darwin claws
And your legal eye
On the peacock's flaws
I see what fallen man
Was meant to be

With your absolute
No man can refute
Your absolutely unique
Contempt for the weak
Down on our paws
There are no laws
Kiss me where I can not speak

You I want strong
With your hatred intact
With your father's pipe
And your brother's bat
Now kiss me
Where I cannot speak!

O o o

You I want for my friend
To gossip with me and drink tea
To walk down by the river's bend
You I want for my friend

To watch the water going by
The swallows climbing above
To tell me that I lie
When I tell you I cannot love,
Cannot love

To know my heart better than me
To be my friend in charity
To speak of lovers old and new
To say to me, what they've done to you

You I want for my friend
To make some sense of our difference
To eat and drink together
To comfort one another,
And may our conversation never end!

O o o

And you
I want your
Beauty hidden
From all
Sight but my
Own
So none may know
Your womanhood
Or hear you moan
Your pleasures
To an infant thumb

You will be
True to me
There will be no
Infidelity
For I will weave
A cloak so tight
About your loveliness
No man will ever guess
The wild commands you whisper
From your childhood to the night

And what
Drops the moon
About a man
And draws
Him tidal to
Your lips
And lets your nipples
Harden I can
Hear you moan
Your pleasures
To an infant thumb

And you I want
To wink at me
And you I want
To think of me
You I want above
I want you below
You I want veiled
And you to know
I want you clumbsy
I want you skilled
You be ferocious
You be mild...

You be foolish
You be wise
You stay here
You stay outside
You comb out your hair
You keep it curled
I want, I want, I want
I want to know the world
You comb out your hair
You keep yours curled
I want, I want to know the world!

O o o

And you
Who did not come tonight
I will wait for you
And you
Who are not born
I will write for you
And you
Who must appear
In veils of chance
And mystery
I will kneel
I will kneel
Like a child
Who's watching Mary
As she stands
Upon the air
In gentle splendour
In the black
Mouth of a cave
Open-armed and radiant
To save mankind
And all the broken
World to mother

And I swear
By the obscure
Truth
Of this
Enfolded heart
I swear
By
The unrequited greed
Of this
Human heart
And all
Its
Disappointed pleasures
I swear
By
The deep light
Of my soul
Stained
And covered over
With
Intrigues of pride
Whose mercy is
To let me sing
I swear
That I will be
For the one
Who will not come
To me
I swear that
I will be
Her lover
Her eternal
And imperfect
Spirit lover.