Take This Longing

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 --- Take This Longing - Leonard Cohen