Lyrics of 'The Traitor' by Leonard Cohen

The Traitor is a song by Leonard Cohen whose lyrics have countless searches, so we decided it deserves its place on this website, along with many other song lyrics that internet users want to know.

If you've been searching for the lyrics of the song The Traitor by Leonard Cohen for a long time, start warming up your voice, because you won't be able to stop singing it.

Now the Swan it floated on the English river
Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
and the judges watched us from the other side
I told my mother "Mother I must leave you
preserve my room but do not shed a tear
Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere"

But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
and the Swan I tempted with a sense of shame
She said at last I was her finest lover
and if she withered I would be to blame

The judges said you missed it by a fraction
rise up and brace your troops for the attack
Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action
Oh see the men of action falling back

But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment
I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still
My falsity had stung me like a hornet
The poison sank and it paralysed my will

I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers
that they had been deserted from above
So on battlefields from here to Barcelona
I'm listed with the enemies of love

And long ago she said "I must be leaving,
Ah but keep my body here to lie upon
You can move it up and down and when I'm sleeping
Run some wire through that Rose and wind the Swan"

So daily I renew my idle duty
I touch her here and there -- I know my place
I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty
and people call me traitor to my face

The most common reason to want to know the lyrics of The Traitor is that you really like it. Obvious, right?

Knowing what the lyrics of The Traitor say allows us to put more feeling into the performance.

If your motivation for searching for the lyrics of the song The Traitor was that you absolutely love it, we hope you can enjoy singing it.

In case your search for the lyrics of the song The Traitor by Leonard Cohen is because it makes you think of someone in particular, we suggest you dedicate it to them somehow, for example, by sending them the link to this website, they'll surely get the hint.

Something that happens more often than we think is that people search for the lyrics of The Traitor because there is some word in the song they don't quite understand and want to make sure of what it says.

We hope we have helped you with the lyrics of the song The Traitor by Leonard Cohen.

Remember that whenever you need to know the lyrics of a song, you can always turn to us, as has happened now with the lyrics of the song The Traitor by Leonard Cohen.