Leonard Cohen – Avalanche Lyrics

Considered one of Cohen’s classic songs, the anguished lyrics are based on his poem ‘I Stepped Into An Avalanche’ (included in Parasites of Heaven).

Cohen has remarked about the original recording and the song in general,

there is something in the voice that is really wiped out… it’s a disturbing voice… there is anxiety there.

(source: Maurice Ratcliff, Leonard Cohen: The Music and the Mystique, 2012, Omnibus Press)

Avalanche Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

Well I stepped into an avalanche
It covered up my soul;
When I am not this hunchback that you see
I sleep beneath the golden hill
You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn, learn to serve me well

You strike my side by accident
As you go down for your gold
The cripple here that you clothe and feed
Is neither starved nor cold;
He does not ask for your company
Not at the centre, the centre of the world
When I am on a pedestal
You did not raise me there
Your laws do not compel me
To kneel grotesque and bare
I myself am the pedestal
For this ugly hump at which you stare

You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn what makes me kind;
The crumbs of love that you offer me
They’re the crumbs I’ve left behind
Your pain is no credential here
It’s just the shadow, shadow of my wound

I have begun to long for you
I who have no greed
I have begun to ask for you
I who have no need
You say you’ve gone away from me
But I can feel you when you breathe

Do not dress in those rags for me
I know you are not poor
You don’t love me quite so fiercely now
When you know that you are not sure
It is your turn, beloved
It is your flesh that I wear