Book of Mercy #8-10

[mat james]

DB,

Why don't they call the "Songs of Solomon" the Psalms of Solomon?

I can't think of any other writings in the Christian Bible that come near this set of poems for "romance".
I would say it was the first romantic splurge in human literature that I am aware of.
St. John of the Cross seems to draw his inspiration from them.
They are so Leonardesque for me.

Does anyone else see this too?

Matj

[Simon]

I’ve asked Hank Williams, how lonely does it get

For those interested, I am going to bring into the discussion now new elements that I think will widen our perspective on psalm I.9 and on the whole book. This post will require some work, but I hope you will find it worth it. You should set aside some quiet time for yourself to go through it and espacially to read the essay entitled Interior Landscapes and the Public Realm: Contingent Mediations in a Speech and a Song by Leonard Cohen, by Winfried Siemerling. Some of you may have read it already. You will find the link to that essay further down below. It revolves around many things that we have approached so far in this thread: zen, judism, God, prayer, exile, loneliness, Martin Buber, and also A. M. Klein. This essay also refers to a speech LC gave, I think in 1964, entitled Loneliness and History. The original of that speech is in box # 9 at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.

But first Abraham Moses Klein.

Klein was one of LC’s mentors in Montreal and at McGill. Poet, essayist, brilliant orator, LC admired him very much and may have been influenced by him considerably. For example, Klein had published a collection of poetry entitled The Hitleriad which may later have found an echo in Flowers for Hitler. Klein also published in 1944 a series of psalms entitled The Psalter Of Avram Haktani. It consisted of 36 psalms. Klein was 33 at the time. There may have been other psalms too, I am not sure. Klein’s psalms were more in the form of traditional poetry and were in rhyme, unlike those of LC. Each psalm was titled, unliked LC’s. So maybe BoM can also be seen as an homage to A. M. Klein and the dedication at the beginning of BoM, "for my teacher", may in fact be addressed to A. M. Klein. It is important to remember, as it was stressed before that LC was in a low period when he wrote BoM and that he felt silenced. Klein toward the end of his life suffered from severe depression and was also silenced. Maybe LC in that particular moment of his life feared he might share the same predicament as his mentor, and "your name, which is beyond all consolations that are uttered on this earth", may also involve mourning over Klein.

Here is one exemple of Klein’s psalms. It is the psalm that will be refered to in the article below and also in the essay by Winfried Siemerling:

PSALM XXII

A prayer of Abraham, against madness:

Lord, for the days alloted me,
Preserve me whole, preserve me hale!
Spare me the scourge of surgery.
Let not my blood nor members fail.

But if Thy will is otherwise,
And I am chosen such an one
For maiming and for maladies
So be it; and Thy will be done.

Palsy the keepers of the house;
And of the strongmen take Thy toll.
Break down the twigs; break down the boughs
But touch not, Lord, the golden bowl!

O, I have seen these touched ones—
Their fallow looks, their barren eyes—
For whom have perished all the suns
And vanished all fertilities;

Who, docile, sit within their cells
Like weeds, within a stagnant pool.

Now, to put things into context, here is another extract from the 1986 Matrix interview that was quoted a couple of times before in the first pages of the thread (so I wont give the source again here).

MB -- When did you meet A. M. Klein for the first time?

LC -- It must have been ’53-’54.

MB -- He was already in his decline?

LC -- It had to be between 1950 and 1955, around ’53 or ’54. I think he had been sick, and – this is very inaccurate – I don’t want to flavour it with any of my own speculations, but he was making some kind of attempt to return to a public life in some small degree. He gave a reading at McGill, and I met him then. After the reading I went up and said: “You wrote this review some years ago,” and he said, “Oh yes”, and he remembered him (this essay was of a book by Cohen’s maternal grandfather, Rabbi Solomon Klonitzki-Kline) and asked after my grandfather. I think my grandfather had died by that point, and then I visited Klein with Irving Layton several times at his house. He was in the hospital and then at his house… So that was the curious connection I had with Klein.

MB -- Did his poetry fascinate you?

LC -- Everything touched me. I lived the world of Montreal poetry. That’s mostly what I tought about, and that was my univers. There was a line – there were different lines which I thought I inherited: there was a Jewish line; there was Montreal; there was that kind of consecrated expression called poetry; there were a number of lines which I though I had inherited, and they crossed all over the city; and also there was the priestly hierarchy, which I took quite seriously. In some part of my young soul I took that very seriously.

MB -- I think I notice a great deal of punning on “priest” an “Cohen” in your work, am I correct?

LC -- Probably, yes I don’t know if its punning, but there are references. I took it seriously, probably still do. But that was the world I lived as a young man in Montreal. So that confluence involved quite a few of those genealogies – the Jewish one, the Montreal Jewish one, the one that connected A. M. Klein to my grandfather and my own family, McGill University, and this consecrated expression of poetry. In A. M. Klein there were a lot of those lines that converged, so he was a very important figure to me, beyond the actual poem on the page. I was never interested in mastering a man’s entire work -- I’m talking about everybody from Homer to A. M. Klein, and I’d see the work in probably a very superficial way, but with a certain kind of hungry eye, and I would seize on things that became very important: a line, two lines, a poem, a phrase, a reflection, and that’s what my reading was about, and that’s what my education involved. I never asked for more than three or four things in a guy’s work to speak to me and that was enough for me to fall in love with him. I had no appetite to master his oeuvre, none whatsoever. I still don’t. So in A. M. Klein there were a number of poems that really spoke to me.

M.B. – Which ones for example?

LC – Well, one thing was the Hitleriad, just as the gesture. The other thing was one or two of the psalms, especially the one involving madness – “Touch not the golden dome.” There’s a poem where he prays to be exempt from madness. He prays not to be mad. He prays -- he makes his willingness known to God to accept any kind of affliction -- but he prays that it won’t be a mental affliction. It’s a very moving poem especially in the light of his predicament. That poem touched me very much, and I had read The second Scroll, and I was moved by the book. Also all the poems in The Rocking Chair -- the poem that ends up with something of race, about Camillien Houde -- I remember that as being an uncharacteristic line of his, to come at the end of a poem, and it really hits you. So there were real connections.

…

MB -- Klein was interested in Caughnawaga. Did that trigger off anything in you?

LC – No. I had many perceptions of A. M. Klein. His fate was very important to me – what happened to and what would happen to a Jewish writer in Montreal who was writing in English, who was not totally writing from a Jewish position. I’ve never been so interested in people who write from a position, although I really recognize the excellence of many writers who write about Glengarry County, Cork County, you know, the people who write specifically -- local writers. I love many of them, but I always was more interested in exile, somebody who can’t claim the entire landscape as his own; and I saw Klein as one of those figures, as a guy who came out of the Jewish community of Montreal, but who had a perspective on it and on the country, and on the province. He made a step outside the community. He was no longer protected by it, much less protected than Richler, for instance. I mean Richler speaks squarely from a Jewish community, and his people go out of the Jewish community. The rhythms are Montreal Jewish rhythms. It really comes out of the neighbourhood, whereas Klein is very much less associated with a locale, you know, with the corner store, with the neighbourhood. His stance is Hebraic, rather than Yiddish. It’s not a shtetl that he’s talking about; it’s not the shtetl sensibility. It’s Hebraic; it’s Biblical.

MB -- That’s what appeals to you is it?

LC -- Well that made his position more risky, more dangerous.

MB -- That’s what Layton does. He talks about his brotherhood with the prophets. He goes back to the Old Testament.

LC -- Definitely. Layton was influenced by Klein’s predicament. There was a period in his life when he was very close to Klein. Layton and I have talked about Klein for hours and hours.

So now that the table is set, I invite you to take the time to read Winfried Siemerling’s essay at the following link. You’ll see, many things seem to fall into place:


Winfried Siemerling's essay>>>


As a closing line for this rather long post, Klein was not without a sense of humour. This is from one of his notebooks;

“God invented Adam and has lived since on the royalties”

It’s late, I’m signing off.

[lazariuk]

You’ll see, many things seem to fall into place:


Winfried Siemerling's essay>>>

That was a very interesting read Simon. Thanks

[DBCohen]

So maybe BoM can also be seen as an homage to A. M. Klein and the dedication at the beginning of BoM, "for my teacher", may in fact be addressed to A. M. Klein.

You may be right there, Simon; "To A Teacher" on Dear Heather is also dedicated to A. M. Klein.

Thanks for a great job. It will take some time to digest it all and respond aproprietly.

[DBCohen]

Mat,

I am not sure about the terminology, which is different in Hebrew and other languages. “Song of Songs” is the more “correct” translation of the Hebrew title. The book contains love songs, which were perhaps sung during wedding rituals in biblical times. We have a record of a debate among Jewish sages whether to include the book in the Bible at all, because of its obvious secular nature. It was included eventually because it could be interpreted allegorically, not as speaking of love between a woman and a man, but between the people of Israel and God. Christianity followed suite, interpreting it as speaking of the love between Christ and the Church. In Jewish tradition it became an endless source for mystical interpretations. The erotic and the mystical are often related, and perhaps this is what reminds you of LC’s work in this context; but perhaps you’d care to elaborate further? It certainly is a most magnificent book.

And by the way, there is a far more ancient, but much less know, body of romantic poetry, which was written in Sumerian during the late third millennium and the early second millennium BCE, more than a thousand years before the Bible.

[lizzytysh]

Thanks, too, from me, Simon. The word exile is being so interestingly expanded, already. I've not read the link, yet; just the visible article, last night. Didn't get to bed till past 3 AM and kept trying to stay caught up here, in midst of in-house preparations for the computer guy, who arrived el prompto at 6 AM, per our agreement. He's on a 20-minute run for some more stuff, so I took this opportunity to try to get/stay caught up. It's a toughie. Thanks, immensely, though... I'm really looking forward to everyone's input as we take still another, new direction.


~ Lizzy

[LaurieAK]

Thanks much for the Siemerling link. Not an easy read but worth the slow march, for this reader.

The thing I thought was monumental in regards to Leonard's platform was:

I feel most comfortable when I think of myself as the leader of a government-in-exile. Sometimes I like to think of myself that way. It gives me a position that I can work from. It is not whether I take it seriously or not seriously, we are not speaking about a rational operation. It is just that one feels that one can embody the unspoken aspirations of both oneself and the people you know as somebody who takes responsibility for the predicament, and presents not a solution but an approach. That leads you to some interesting kinds of positions.
(Interview 1990)

Personally, I will never be educated in the details of the religious roots as so many here are. But, the above helps put into perspective my sense of "community" that speaks to me as an individual...despite the dichotomy of the concept.

An aside: What is: a prioris ?
a quick google didn't define it for me and I could not decipher it through context. thx.

L

[Tim]

An aside: What is: a prioris ?
a quick google didn't define it for me and I could not decipher it through context. thx.

Knowing that it's a priori helps though. I cheated and googled it though, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_priori gives various definitions, although I could have hazarded a guess at the gist of it, thinking it looked like Latin.

HTH
TIM

[LaurieAK]

Thanks Tim~

It seems this:

A priori and a posteriori (philosophy), used to distinguish two types of propositional knowledge

is the version being utilized in the article. Mainly between the roles of 'I-You, I-It which seems to be closely tied to the described "priest/prophet" ideas in the article.

Sorry about the tangent...
as you was...
L

[mat james]

DB,
Thanks for your response to my querie on "Song of Songs" (Songs of Solomon)
But I suppose I was asking:
"What makes a song a song
and what makes a psalm a psalm?" from a traditional perspective.

And Leonard writes "songs" and "psalms" and I think maybe he blends the two methods: or am I "lost in translation" !

The erotic and the mystical are often related, and perhaps this is what reminds you of LC’s work in this context; but perhaps you’d care to elaborate further? It certainly is a most magnificent book.

DB Cohen.

San Juan de la Cruz seems to utilise these forms also. Leonard often reminds me of Cruz as well as Solomon's Songs. But he (Leonard) takes the sexual reference further.

"now you can drink it or you can nurse it
it don't matter how you worship
as long as your down on your knees"

So I suppose I go back to:

"What makes a song a song
and what makes a psalm a psalm?" ....from a traditional perspective.

Thanks and regards, Matj

[tomsakic]

Thanks, Simon, to returning us back to AM Klein and Siemerling's article; I will have to find time to read it (done that so long ago). Btw, Siemerling's another (later) article and Leonard's famous speech are reprinted in Michael Fournier and Ken Norris's 1994 tribute anthology TAKE THIS WALTZ. A CELEBRATION OF LEONARD COHEN. As the 2nd article was written three years later, it brings much more insight, I think, as there's also Siemerling's 1990 interview with LC, metioned in this online article. Alas, I don't have the place to scan it, but maybe you can find the book in McGill Library. (The problem with that anthology is that it's presented as tribute book. It is, but beside many poems and letters, many authors sent excellent scholar artciles, so this book is not much different than Scobie's Intricate Preparations: Writing Leonard Cohen, which is also anthology of tribute poems & letters and scholar work, but it's adverstised and labelled as scholar/reference book.)

[Diane]

There is a lot to catch up with here, but just finishing off what I was saying last week from a psychological perspective:

Tchoc, I have looked around the link you provided. I like the description there of consummate love ('perfect' love) which has three aspects: passion, commitment and intimacy.

There is a description of fatuous love (unreal, illusory), defined as having the passion and the commitment but not the intimacy component. "This type of love does not have the stabilizing influence of intimacy."

It is necessary for human beings to have emotional intimacy on a regular basis for them to develop and maintain good mental health.

And so, the missing link, the root of our suffering, in love, and within ourselves, is difficulty with trust and intimacy. if we did not have problems with this, we would not be lonely, we would not be attracted to other lonely people, our relationships would not fail, and we would not fall into depression. That is the essence of it.

Sounds so simple. It isn't simple. If your heart is broken when you are a child, you decide to be alone. It's a painful place to be, and sometimes very difficult to recover from.

Loneliness is a "shield" against direct communication with someone/God heart to heart, because 'it is very painful to share my true self, and I deeply fear you would reject me if you knew how bad I really feel (am) inside, so I keep myself separate'.

"Strengthen my loneliness": make me more aware of the feelings behind my separation, so that I can face up to them with you.

"Only when this loneliness is yours can I lift my sins towards your mercy": Only when you recognise and accept my fear and despair, that which keeps me lonely, am I no longer lonely.

Diane

(too much what, Jack?)

[DBCohen]

Mat,

I’ll try to answer your question and clarify the terms, although the problem may remain a little obscure. “Psalm” is from Greek, and originally meant “a song sung to musical (harp) accompaniment”; I guess it gained the meaning of a “sacred song” through its use in the Christian Bible. In Hebrew, the Book of Psalms is called Tehilim, roughly meaning “praises”. Each individual poem is usually known as mizmor, which also mean a song accompanied by music. The original psalms were indeed sung daily at the Jerusalem temple with musical instruments. Perhaps this is the reason that the word psalmoi was used in the Greek translation of the Bible, from which it passed on to other languages.

Song of Songs is in Hebrew shir hashirim (the best of all songs). The word shir can mean a song either recited or sang. In Modern Hebrew too shir can mean either a “poem” or a “song”; there is no distinction, which sometimes makes life difficult. Why were the songs (or poems) in this book were called shir and not mizmor? Weren’t they accompanied by music as well? They probably were. But perhaps the distinction between the mizmor (psalm) as a religious song used in the temple, and the shir (song) of more secular nature, existed already in biblical times.

Now, in this thread we got into the habit of calling each of the 50 chapters a “psalm” (I first used the word “section”, but later gave in to the common use), but did LC ever use this term in relation to his book? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe he always talked about it as a book of prayers. I think this also may be the reason for the shape of the book: the text is not printed as verse, but as prose, which is the common way in the Jewish prayer book. Perhaps we too should use the word “prayer” for each section of BoM, rather than “psalm”.

[tomsakic]

Now, this is a good question indeed. When you said it, I think that "psalm"# as reference was first used by blurb on back cover of original M&S edition (something like "this is a book of modern psalms..."). We should check all Leonard's interviews from the period and Nadel's book.

[DBCohen]

And so, the missing link, the root of our suffering, in love, and within ourselves, is difficulty with trust and intimacy. if we did not have problems with this, we would not be lonely, we would not be attracted to other lonely people, our relationships would not fail, and we would not fall into depression. That is the essence of it.

Sounds so simple. It isn't simple. If your heart is broken when you are a child, you decide to be alone. It's a painful place to be, and sometimes very difficult to recover from.

Diane,

Once again I’m grateful for your wisdom and your keen psychological insight. Your interpretation of I.9 is most valuable, but what you wrote in the above quote brought to my mind very strongly a novel by the popular Japanese author Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood (which I happened to translate into Hebrew some years ago). It exists in two different English translations, and it has a strong , maybe a little strange appeal for readers of different tastes and from different generations. It has little to do with what we are doing here (and although many western singers from the 1960’s are mentioned in it, LC is not one of them, unfortunately), but I felt I ought to mention it.