A million crimes committed by my country, and my religion; a million crimes unpunished by my god.
–???????
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Leonard Cohen was born in a Jewish family, and therefore must have been familiar with Judaeo-Christian traditions, and scriptures. His songs delve into religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and romantic relationships. He composed the song “You Want it Darker” in 2016, not long before his death. It is one of those poems where the author hints, insinuates, and makes statements using symbolic language, in a way that only the writer knows exactly what he is trying to communicate. The rest of us can only interpret it
Some things can be safely assumed, though. The speaker is preparing for his death, believes in the god of the Bible, in Jesus-Christ, and in life after death. The poem alludes to Jewish and Christian concepts relating to death, sacrifice, and salvation. By mixing Christian and Jewish symbolism into the song, Cohen goes beyond religious denominations. He is not making peace with his god. The poem rather seems to be an indictment of his god, his religion, and his scriptures; a resignation to his will and power, before which he can’t do anything. It is a monologue; he is talking to his god; a god that does not listen, or does not answer. The speaker seems to be having a crisis of conscience, or engaging in an argument with his god; an argument that has been going on for thousand of years; an argument that accuses the gods of being responsible for human suffering. The song could be construed as an expression of ambivalent anger—and ultimate surrender—towards a god that cannot be ignored, but at the same time, cannot be loved. Below are some possible interpretations of the poem.
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If you are the dealer, I’m out of the game.
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame.
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame.
You want it darker,
We kill the flame.
Magnified, sanctified be thy holy name.
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame.
A million candles burning, for the help that never came.
You want it darker.
Hineni, hineni,
I'm ready, my lord.
There's a lover in the story,
But the story's still the same.
There's a lullaby for suffering,
And a paradox to blame.
But it's written in the scriptures,
And it's not some idle claim.
You want it darker,
We kill the flame.
They're lining up the prisoners,
And the guards are taking aim.
I struggled with some demons,
They were middle class and tame.
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim.
You want it darker,
Hineni, hineni,
I'm ready, my lord.
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If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game.
“You Want It Darker” begins with a personal criticism against God that accuses Him of refusing to alleviate the speaker’s suffering. He seems to be saying: “If you are the dealer, I don’t want any part in this cruel game.” Or, “I am powerless in front of you. I already lost. There is no point in playing the game.”
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If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame.
If you are my only hope, then I don’t stand a chance. If I think you are the healer I must be mentally insane.
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If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame.
If your glory is letting people suffer, while the churches and the priests sing your glory, and assign the blame to those suffering people: then I prefer the shame. Cohen might be asking God for explanations of why we live in such a cruel world.
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You want it darker,
We kill the flame.
Human violence has been used as a vehicle to sanctify God’s name. Maybe God intends for humans to suffer. That’s how you want it; we act accordingly, we obey.
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Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name.
This is a straight English translation of the first four words of the Mourner's Kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the dead.
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Vilified, crucified, in the human frame.
This is obviously a reference to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the belief that it results in the magnification of God, the worship of Him, and the possibility of redemption for humans. The belief that what was really an act of extreme cruelty on the part of God, was an act of supreme love, because he sacrificed his son, for our own sake.
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A million candles burning for the help that never came.
Millions of people pray to their gods, asking for help. But the gods don’t listen or answer. The universe is silent. Millions of Amerindians were exterminated by the European Christian powers; millions of Africans were kidnapped and enslaved by the European Christian powers; over one million Tutsi were slaughtered by the Hutu animist-Christian regime in Rwanda; over one million Armenians were killed by the Muslim Ottoman Empire; millions were killed in China by the communist-atheist regime, under the leadership of Mao Zedong; millions were exterminated in the Soviet Union by the atheist-communist regime, under the leadership of Josef Stalin; over one million were massacred in Cambodia by Hindu-Buddhist Khmer Rouge regime, under the leadership of Pol Pot; millions were exterminated in Europe by the Christian Nazi regime under the leadership of Adolf Hitler; over one million were killed in North Korea by the communist-atheist regime of Kim Il Sung; hundreds of thousands has been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan by local Muslims, and Christian invading powers, during the so called “war on terror”; hundreds of thousands has been killed in Syria under the Muslim regime of Bashar Al-Assad; about 20 millions have been killed, in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II, by the American empire, directly, or through its proxy governments, and puppet regimes ; more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Christian Orthodox Serbs, in and around the town of Srebrenica, during the Bosnian War; thousands of children has been physically and sexually abused by catholic priests. A million crimes committed by my country, and my religion; a million crimes unpunished by my god.
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There's a lover in the story,
But the story's still the same.
There's a lullaby for suffering,
And a paradox to blame.
Believers have struggle with the paradox of a loving god and the existence of suffering, for a long time. A version of the “Epicurean paradox” goes this way: “God does not exist; or if he exists, he wants to eliminate evil, but he does not have the power to do it, in which case, he is not almighty, in which case he is not a god. Or, he exists, has the power to eliminate evil and suffering, but does not want to, in which case, he is a psychopath”.
If god is so loving (the lover)), then how come the story (the scriptures) is nothing but a lullaby for suffering? It is a paradox, it doesn’t make sense. But the priests and the churches don't see it that way. For them it is a case of “god’s mysterious ways”. They put the blame onto the suffering people instead.
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But it's written in the scriptures,
And it's not some idle claim.
Cohen sees human suffering as inherent to the scriptures, which is a paradox, because they are supposed to have been handed down to us from a loving God, by beans of his prophets. And yet, religions incite to violence, death, and destruction. For example: the genocide of the Canaanites; imposing the Cross on the Amerindians by the force of the Sword; The unholy alliances of churches and states; the wars of religion; the violence among the various religious groups. In many cases, suffering, death, and destruction are inflicted on humans by humans in the name of their gods and religions. But this is not exactly a case of religious fanaticism, a case of people twisting their god’s will and words for their own purposes. It is not just that they are misinterpreting the sacred books. It is actually written.
According to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), when God called forth his people out of slavery in Egypt and back to the land of their forefathers, he directed them to kill all the Canaanite clans who were living in the land (Deut. 7.1-2; 20.16-18). The destruction was to be complete: every man, woman, and child was to be killed. The book of Joshua tells the story of Israel’s carrying out God’s command in city after city throughout Canaan.
Other so-called sacred books incite their followers to violence against the unbelievers, or infidels: “Kill the disbelievers wherever we find them” ; “Murder them and treat them harshly”; “Fight and slay the Pagans, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem”; “Slay or crucify or cut the hands and feet of the unbelievers, that they be expelled from the land with disgrace and that they shall have a great punishment in the world hereafter”; “Smite them above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them”. They also say that: “Non-believers will go to hell and will drink boiling water”; “For them (the unbelievers) garments of fire shall be cut and there shall be poured over their heads boiling water whereby whatever is in their bowels and skin shall be dissolved and they will be punished with hooked iron rods”.
The American physician, and evolutionary anthropologist John Hartung, expressed a similar view when he wrote: “The Bible is a blueprint for in-group morality, complete with instructions for genocide, enslavement of out-groups, and world domination. But the Bible is not evil by virtue of its objectives or even glorification of murder, cruelty, and rape. Many ancient works do that – The Iliad, the Icelandic Sagas, the tales of the ancient Syrians, and the inscriptions of the ancient Mayans, for example. But no one is selling the Iliad as a foundation for morality. Therein lies the problem. The Bible is sold, and bought, as a guide to how people should live their lives. And it is, by far, the world’s all-time best seller.”
In the words of American physicist Steven Weinberg, “Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it, you would have good people doing good things, and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion”.
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They're lining up the prisoners,
And the guards are taking aim.
This could be interpreted as, “my time has come and I know I'm about to die”; or “there's always some killing done in the world, justified by whatever reasons.”
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I struggled with some demons,
They were middle class and tame.
The speaker could be saying: “I know I've done some bad things in my life, however nothing as bad as those done by the ruling classes. My transgressions pale when compared to the crimes committed by the Church, and the State.
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I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim.
Cohen’s confession that he didn’t know he had “permission to murder and to main” suggests that people are killing others in God’s name, using their faith as a means to justify violence. Peoples, Churches, and States commit crimes, justifying them, as if they had the authority and permission for it. This sarcastic verse seems to say: “I didn’t know you gave the Powers of the Earth permission to murder and maim”. But, if the Kings rule by divine right and the religious leaders are the vicars of God here on earth, then Evil becomes not only human, but also divine. By causing human beings physical harm, and death, God gives human beings implicit permission to do the same. Imitatio Dei, the imitation of God, the doctrine that humans can and should be godlike in their conduct, transcends Judaism. This line, then, is not about anything that Cohen has done. It is about what God has done. And when it comes to human beings causing people harm in the same way that God has, Cohen lays the responsibility of human Evil at God’s feet: If you wanted things different, God, you would have made it so. God allows suffering, and while people cause suffering in His name, ultimately it is God Himself who has to answer for these human crimes.
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Hineni, hineni.
I'm ready, my lord.
The Hebrew word Hineni means, “Behold!” or “Here I am!” Cohen was almost certainly thinking of the Abraham/Isaac story, where he responds “Hineni” to God, at the beginning, when he is called. He is then commanded to sacrifice his own son. This verse could be interpreted as: “But who I am to question your designs. I summit to your will. Here I am my lord. I am ready”. It could also be construed as Cohen saying he's had enough of seeing the pain of human kind and that he is ready for Resurrection or afterlife of some kind; that he is actually preparing himself for death. It could also mean there is no sense in revolting: “I am powerless; you are the one who decides”. He is saying implicitly: if you are the one who decides how things are, then we are doomed.” They could be words of resignation, meaning: “Here I am, kneeling down, bowing my head and begging for mercy”. Or they could be words of rebellion: “Behold! Here I stand. I'm ready to go; not because I blindly accept what I was told, but because I don't want to take part in this farce any more. I want out of the game. It never was my game anyway.”
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In the end, there is no resolution for the speaker’s conundrum. He concludes that any relationship between the human and the divine will inevitably lead to suffering, because this is the inherent nature of a relationship characterized by a disparity of power. Cohen recognizes that he has no choice but accepting his mortality. God is still addressed to as “my Lord:” God exercises control over Cohen, and Cohen accepts that he will always be in the dark about how the world works, about death and suffering. This feeling is not unique; everybody is in some way or another coping with the reality that they are going to die, and depending upon whether they are religious or not, they face this task in different ways. Cohen surrenders to a relationship in which he will forever be in the dark—because that’s how God wants it.
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© Text, William Almonte Jiménez, 2021
© Image: Rwandan Genocide; painting by Julius Guzy, 2013
© I hereby give due credit to the web sites that I researched.
