Leonard Cohen – Who by Fire Lyrics

“Who By Fire” is adapted loosely from the Hebrew prayer “ונתנה תוקף קדושת היום” [“U’Netaneh Tokef Kedushat Hayom” (“Let Us Tell How Utterly Holy This Day Is”)], chanted on Yom Kippur. The Jewish narrative says Rabbi Amnon of Mainz was punished for not converting to Christianity by having his hand and feet cut off, and as he was dying from his wounds, he had a vision of God sitting and writing in a book. In his dying hours,
Rabbi Amnon wrote the prayer that begins with “Who by fire? And who by water?”

Like the original, Cohen’s song tells of a litany of ways and reasons one might meet their death: fire, water, suicide, drugs, and so on-some of which appear in the original prayer.

In Leonard’s own words:

On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquillity and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted.

The prayer’s full text

Who by Fire Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

And who by fire, who by water
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial
Who in your merry merry month of May
Who by very slow decay
And who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt
And who by avalanche, who by powder
Who for his greed, who for his hunger
And who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident
Who in solitude, who in this mirror
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand
Who in mortal chains, who in power
And who shall I say is calling?