Many men have liked the little bells
that you secured to the reins,
and all those who wanted you
discovered what they would have always wanted.
Your beauty lost within you
just as it was lost for them.

Oh, receive this desire from my tongue,
ignore the useless things these hands have done.
Show me your broken beauty
as you would to those you love.

Your body like a torch
my meagerness revealed
I would like to taste your charity
until you scream: “Now you must feel my greed.”
And it all depends on how
close you sleep to me.

Oh, receive this desire from my tongue,
all the lonely things these hands have done.
Show me your broken beauty
as you would to those you love.

Hungry like a bow
through which the troops have passed,
I remain in ruins behind you
with your winter clothes, your sandals with torn laces.
I love to see you naked up there
especially from behind.

Oh, receive this desire from my tongue,
all the useless things these hands have done.
Loosen for me your second-hand blue dress
as you would to those you love.

You trust the almost wedding witness,
I fear he has gone.
So let me judge your love story
in this room where I have condemned
mine to death.
I will even wear these old laurel leaves
that she dropped from her head.

Oh, receive this desire from my tongue,
all the useless things these hands have done.
Show me your broken beauty
as you would to those you love.

As you would to those you love.
Leonard Cohen dedicated to Nico.