Lyrics: Master Song
Album: The Songs of Leonard Cohen
Artist: Leonard Cohen
 

I believe that you heard your master sing
When I was sick in bed
I suppose that he told you everything
That I keep locked away in my head
Your master took you traveling
Well, at least that’s what you said
And now do you come back to bring
Your prisoner wine and bread

You met him at some temple
Where they take your clothes at the door
He was just a numberless man in a chair
Who had just come back from the war
And you wrap up his tired face in your hair
And he hands you the apple core
Then he touches your lips, now so suddenly bare
Of all the kisses we put on sometime before

And he gave you a German shepherd to walk
With a collar of leather and nails
And he never once made you explain or talk
About all of the little details
Such as who had a worm and who had a rock
And who had you through the mails
Now you love is a secret all over the block
And it never stops not even
When your master fails

And he took you up in his aeroplane
Which he flew without any hands
And you cruised above the ribbons of rain
That drove the crowds from the stands
Then he killed the lights in a lonely lane
And an ape with angel glands
Erased the final wisps of pain
With the music of rubber bands

And now I hear you master sing
You kneel for him to come
His body is a golden string
That your body is hanging from
His body is a golden string
My body has grown numb
O now you hear you master sing
Your shirt is all undone

And will you kneel beside this bed
That we polished so long ago
Before you master chose instead
To make my bed of snow
Your eyes are wild and your knuckles are red
And you are speaking far too low
No, I can’t make out what your master said
Before he made you go

And I think you’re playing far too rough
For a lady who’s been to the moon
I’ve lain by this window long enough
You get used to an empty room
And your love is some dust
In an old man’s cuff
Who is tapping his foot to a rune
And your highs are a ruin
you want too much
Let’s say you came back sometime too soon

I loved your master perfectly
And I taught him all that he knew
He was starving in some deep mystery
Like a man who is sure what is true
And I sent you to him with my guarantee
I could teach him something new
And I taught him how you would long for me
No matter what he said, no matter what you do

I believe that you heard you master sing
While I was sick in bed
I’m sure that he told you everything
I must keep locked away in my head
Your master took you traveling
Well, at least that’s what you said
And now do you come back to bring
Your prisoner wine and bread.