“In love for life”: The poet who changed Leonard Cohen’s life
Leonard Cohen has always been the flagbearer for the reams of poetic possibility in songwriting. While a crowd is rarely displeased with a rhyming couplet and its ability to incite catchy singalongs, the world of tradition has always been more expansive. But in the hands of Cohen, the worlds collided further, and the lyrical goalposts were widened.
Cohen’s poet-come-musician trajectory has undoubtedly influenced this. Opposed to crafting a poetic understanding of music retrospectively, Cohen forged his artistic legacy long before his music career started. Days spent on remote Greek Islands, writing countless collections of poetry and novels, helped hone the skills of a lyricist widely considered music’s greatest.
Perhaps what the world of poetry expanded for Cohen was the timbre of his delivery. Without a melody in which lyrics must fit, the rhythm and delivery of words had a far more open interpretation. So when it came to creating music, it informed Cohen’s vocal style that, as Bob Dylan pointed out, had a unique sense of difference from anything else: “When people talk about Leonard, they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius. Even the counterpoint lines—they give a celestial character and melodic lift to every one of his songs.”
Cohen’s delivery framed a style of lyricism packed with nuanced metaphors, which blended the biblical with the everyday, and the humorous with the despondent. So, for someone widely considered the founding father of modern lyricism and who outlined how broader existential questions could be framed into prose, the question of influence is one asked loudly.
A mainstay of Cohen’s lyrical style is his exploration of romance. Be it “You told me again, you preferred handsome men/ But for me you would make an exception” on ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’ or “And she lets the river answer / That you’ve always been her lover” on ‘Suzanne’, Cohen has had an uncanny ability to portray both the tragedy and euphoria of romance.
However, decades before, Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca was forging the path upon which Cohen’s lyrics would follow. Lorca was a member of the ‘Generation of ‘27’, a collection of Spanish poets in the 1920s who spearheaded a movement that showcased romance and tragedy through surrealist imagery. While Cohen’s work has carved him an individual lane in contemporary music, he has often cited Lorca’s work as deeply formative in terms of his influence: “I was fifteen when I began to read Federico Garcia Lorca. His poems perhaps have had the greatest influence on my texts. He summoned up a world where I felt at home. His images were sensual and mysterious: ‘throw a fist full of ants to the sun.’ I wanted to be able to write something like that as well”.
Cohen’s 1988 record I’m Your Man features the track ‘Take This Waltz’ which is an adaptation of Lorca’s ‘Little Viennese Waltz’. When describing the experience of translating the works of his favourite poet, Cohen said: “A few years ago I wrote a musical adaptation of Lorca’s ‘Little Viennese Waltz’. Then I noticed what a complex writer he was: it took me more than a hundred hours just to translate the poem. Lorca is one of those rare poets with whom you can stay in love for life.”
Lorca’s poem weaves conversations of personal love and loss, musing on his own homosexuality through the lens of post-World War I collective trauma. Despite its direct referencing to a period of time, it’s long been considered a piece of work that timelessly depicts the human experience. A skill often assigned to Cohen by fans, who similarly stay in love with his work for life.
