"This song is dedicated to my critics and my judges and to all those who rate us everywhere we go, who evaluate our performances in courtrooms or in dressing rooms or in the bedroom.
This song is for those who judge."

.: Leonard Cohen :.

LEONARD COHEN - A SINGER MUST DIE [ 1974 ]

Now the courtroom is silent, but who will confess
Is it true that you betrayed us? The answer is yes.
So read me the list of my crimes,
I will ask for the indulgence you love to deny
And all the women weep and the judge has no choice
a singer must die for the lies of his voice.

And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty,
your guardians of Truth, your keepers of Beauty,
Your way of seeing is right, my way of seeing is wrong,
I’m sorry for having stained the air with my song.

Oh, the night is thick, my defenses hidden
in the clothes of a woman I would like to forgive,
among the rings of her silk, among the hinges of her thighs,
where must I go to beg disguised in beauty.
Oh goodnight, goodnight, my night after night,
my night after night, after night, after night, after night, after night.

It’s night, I’m scared, I listen to your words,
they were your guards with sunglasses;
that’s how they humiliate you, that’s how they crush you,
a knee to the balls and a fist in the face.
Yes, and may the state, however it’s formed, live long
lord, I saw nothing, I was just coming home late.