THE ALTAR

[…] Near the beginning of the Bible I am told how to build the Altar. It is to be raised with unhewn stones. You are such a sad hewer of stones. And you are an amusing enemy. Especially when you discover for us all your standards of hewn stone. You may worship here. You can rip a heart out on this paragraph.

COMMENTARY – THE ALTAR

There are many hearts baking on this altar. There is the heart behind the beautiful brown nipple that would not erect itself. […] There is the heart that did not believe in the stone knife. There is the heart that envied and the heart that surrendered to the anonymity of this miracle. Among these few that I have offered there is my own, the heart of a translator who has tried to render into common usage the high commands of pure energy, who has not denied his own inclination to obey. If these hearts of mine are badly carved it is because THE ALTAR seduced me into a mood of happy careless butchery.

                                                          LEONARD COHEN, Stranger music, 1993