"Oh love, aren't you tired yet?"

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:11 am

I decided I might as well start a new thread for this one, rather than tacking it onto my more recent post in this section.

So, to whom do you think the song is being addressed with the "Oh love....." ~ to a real person; or to the concept/phenomena 'love' and its healing, curative powers, and real/imagined endurance ~ and the challenges and obstacles we have given it to overcome throughout history, and how we could easily have caused love to be 'exhausted' by this point? Or, is it through faith that love also remains?

Now, how the last line works in ~ geeeeeez! Is it saying that "Love" has been around all that time, through all of it? Historically speaking, millions [or however old they consider Homo sapien life on earth to be] of years. That would certainly make "Love" as an entity [vs. the addressing of a particular person, via that affectionate reference] very long-standing and old and, hence, "tired"? In other words, love has been around forever. Trying to deal with all that, that entails, is and has been a battle for 'all time.'

I have some more ideas on the "Oh love......" ~ what do you think, Paula? And, everyone else, of course.

~ Lizzy

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:39 pm

My first reading of "The faith" certainly lent towards "love" as an abstract concept rather than to an individual person. I also felt that the line/question "O love, aren't you tired yet?" is delivered with some irony. His question struck me as rhetorical, he knows the answer is no, love is not tired, love is indefatigable! This contrasts with the flesh, which grows old, tired and will pass away, love remains eternal. These could be the words of a man who is fully aware of his own mortality and is still in awe at loves immortality.

Byrons "Go no more a-roving" can have a similar reading, of the weakening flesh contrasting with eternal love.
Rob.

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:39 pm

You whisper, “You have loved enough,
Now let me be the Lover.”

from You Have Loved Enough - TNS

In an interview LC said that in You Have Loved Enough he was addressing some vague Universality or Universal spirit or Totality (I can't remember the exact words)
Methinks he is addressing the same Totality or Universality in "O Love, aren't you tired yet?"

Of course, why he feels the need at all to ponder over the imponderables is another issue. But it makes for a nice and typically Cohenesque lyric.

"You were so good with words
And at keeping things vague" - Joan Baez in 'Diamonds and Rust'

Helven · Post by **Helven** » Sat Sep 25, 2004 1:56 am

It's always delighted me, this diversity of perceptions and interpretations - and it always will!

As for me, having read the text for the first time, I definitely perceived these words as addressed to a person - to a listener with whom the author, probably, shared his views upon the life as a whole, the historical process, etc. He askes, "Aren't you tired yet from all of that?" And, for me, that sounds like a kind of rhetorical question, too. But it's interesting that I was sure - even with no doubts and questions - that the answer was "Yes": "Oh yes, all of us are sooo tired..." And that would imply the author's response, "Oh yes, me too."
Such a simple perception...

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Sat Sep 25, 2004 2:12 am

Rob, I like your point of view.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sat Sep 25, 2004 2:21 am

Geez, Rob. Your response has been here for three days, and I've only just now seen it

! Even though I usually tend to agree with your insights, Helven, it really seems to me that Rob's perspective aligns with mine. You've expressed it so beautifully, as well, Rob

~ Lizzy