To a Teacher Songtext
von Leonard Cohen

Hurt once and for all into silence
A long pain ending without a song to prove it
Who could stand beside you so close to Eden
When you glinted in every eye the held-high
Razor, shivering every ram and son?


And now the silent loony bin
Where the shadows live in the rafters
Like day-weary bats
Until the turning mind, a radar signal
Lures them to exaggerate mountain-size
On the white stone wall
Your tiny limp

How can I leave you in such a house?
Are there no more saints and wizards
To praise their ways with pupils
No more evil to stun with the slap
Of a wet red tongue?

Did you confuse the Messiah in a mirror
And rest because he had finally come?

Let me cry help beside you, Teacher
I have entered under this dark roof
As fearlessly as an honoured son
Enters his father′s house