What do the lyrics to Rufus Wainwrights song "Hallelujah" mean?

[KiwiZ]

There is a hauntingly beautiful song called "Hallelujah" that I heard in "Shrek" (when Fiona is about to marry the wrong guy). For those of you who know the lyrics, what does this song mean? Is it about someone who is losing faith in their religion or a relationship? I can't tell and its driving me bonkers LOL

[lynsage]

"hallelujah" was originally written and recorded by leonard cohen. jeff buckley did a cover of it that leaves rufus wainwright's version in the dust, by the way.

it's more of a song about love and relationships, but there's a religious tone to it as well.

[Selissa]

I'm jsut gonna ditto Lynsage I love LEonard Cohen..and the JEff Buckley cover of that song is probably the best cover ever made....in my oh so humble opinion :LOL

[captain optimism]

I found the lyrics, here.

http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Leo...allelujah.html

They are replete with biblical allusions.

Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah Lyrics
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Okay, so here is a reference to David writing the psalms. "The fourth, the fifth, the major lift"--those are all types of chord progressions. The image of "the baffled king composing" is really strong!

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There are allusions here to two different Bible stories: Batshevah, the woman with whom David committed adultery and later married, and then also Delilah in the story of Samson and Delilah. I think the speaker is speaking to someone else, not David or Samson, but alluding to their stories. The love affair the speaker alludes to in this verse is somehow tied to the mystical experience in the first verse. This is very cool! Though I guess that the speaker could be speaking to David again.

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

This is a reference to Jewish practices around not using the divine name, and also to kabbalistic ideas about the divine spirit resting in the shards of matter.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

So in the last verse he ties the whole thing together: song writing as an act of mystical seeking, love as an act of mystical seeking, the accidental recitation of the divine name--there is a lot here!

As I was googling looking for more on this song (this was just my initial reaction) I found this discussion:

http://www.songfacts.com/ubbthreads/...42&type=thread

I clicked on the links and found an interview with Cohen:

http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/rte.html

and an article analyzing the song and different recent performances of it:

http://www.entertainment.timesonline...9850_1,00.html

The lyrics that are posted here are different than the ones I just reacted to. Hmph. Maybe the version I saw was slightly censored?

[Selissa]

the lyrics in the link are the ones i am familiar with...but a sound interpretation even with the cecored lyrics...I'd love to hear what you have to say about the other parts

[captain optimism]

Here's the version of the last verse that Selissa thinks is the right one. I went and looked and we don't have this album, though we have two other Leonard Cohen albums.

Well there was a time when you let me know
what's really going on below
but now you never show that to me do you
but remember when I moved in you
and the holy dove was moving too
and every breath we drew was hallelujah
Well, maybe there's a god above
but all I've ever learned from love
was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
it's not a cry that you hear at night
it's not somebody who's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
Hallelujah...

There is a way in which the speaker saying to someone (the lover?) you used to let me know what was going on down below -- sounds like God speaking to Israel or to the divine Presence (which is always female). it also sounds like a sexual encounter, why I thought it might have been censored from the other version of the lyrics! The holy dove is some kind of holy spirit, on the website where I found this they had a heavily Christian interpretation of that.

Cohen says in the interview I linked:

Finally there's no conflict between things, finally everything is reconciled but not where we live. This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess and that's what I mean by Hallelujah. That regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and you throw open your arms and you embrace the thing and you just say 'Hallelujah! Blessed is the name.' And you can't reconcile it in any other way except in that position of total surrender, total affirmation.

As you know, the word "hallelujah" means "(you plural) praise God". By "blessed is the name"=blessed is the name of God. There is a whole series of psalms with that word as the first word or the last word, including psalm 150, the last one:

http://www.hebrewsongs.com/psalm150.htm

50:1 Hallelujah. Praise God in His sanctuary;praise Him in the firmament of His power.

150:2 Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to His abundant greatness.

150:3 Praise Him with the blast of the horn; praise Him with the psaltery and harp.

150:4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and the pipe.

150:5 Praise Him with the loud-sounding cymbals; praise Him with the clanging cymbals.

150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

Why I thought of that: the whole song seems to be about continuing to praise God in the face of really harsh emotional pain. There's a sort of overlapping of the love affair and the lovers' inability to connect and understand each other, and the speaker's continuing attempts to connect with God.

This isn't the first time I've thought Leonard Cohen was a mystic.

[KiwiZ]

Interesting! Thanks for the thoughts and links!

[Irishmommy]

Moving this to Books, Music and other Media...

[annakiss]

Wow, captain optimism - thanks for all that research! I love love love this song.

Leonard Cohen is a buddhist monk living in California.

[mrzmeg]

Another Cohen fan here. It's great to read all the interpretations!

Cohen was born and raised Jewish in Montreal. He does live (at least part time) with Buddhist monks in California, but it's my understanding that he isn't a monk himself, ie he hasn't taken vows or anything. Last I heard, he cooked for them. I know he still maintains a residence in Montreal, though.

I've heard that his lyrics/poems (he was originally a poet, went to music in the mid '60s) have been blind analyzed by Jewish scholars, who've said that they read as though they were written by a Rabbi.

He just came out with yet another album. It's great, btw, like everything he does

[ladylee]

A heads up for another excellent Hallelujah
cover - KD Lang on her Hymns of the 47th Parallel (great cd, too-she covers other Canadian singer/songwriters like Joni, Jane Siberry, Neil Young, etc.)

My husband and I love love love Leonard Cohen.

And Jeff Buckley.

This is one of those songs I don't need to understand.

[kama'aina mama]

Captain O... English major?