Mosquitoes

« Ho acceso una candela verde e sottile, per renderti gelosa di me; ma la stanza si è riempita subito di zanzare, hanno sentito che il mio corpo era libero....»

Inizia così una delle canzoni più belle di Leonard Cohen, ballata sarcastica sull'amore perduto con forte insistenza sulla freddezza di lei che lo ha lasciato. Si sa, in amore capita. Essere lasciati non è mai bello, i dettagli li lascio a chi conosce l'inglese ma Cohen commette un errore e come entomologo (sia pur dilettante) sono costretto a rimarcarlo: le zanzare non sono attirate dalla luce. Con la luce accesa entrano nella stanza tanti insetti di tutti le specie, ma le zanzare (mosquitos) cercano proprio noi, e sanno come trovarci anche al buio. Purtroppo.

One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong 
 ( un clic qui )

I lit a thin green candle, to make you jealous of me.
But the room just filled up with mosquitos,
they heard that my body was free.

Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night

and I put it in your little shoe.

And then I confess

that I tortured the dress

that you wore for the world to look through.

I showed my heart to the doctor:

 he said I just have to quit.

Then he wrote himself a prescription,

and your name was mentioned in it!

Then he locked himself in a library shelf

with the details of our honeymoon,

and I hear from the nurse

that he's gotten much worse

and his practice is all in a ruin.

I heard of a saint who had loved you,

so I studied all night in his school.

He taught that the duty of lovers

is to tarnish the golden rule.

And just when I was sure

that his teachings were pure

he drowned himself in the pool.

His body is gone

but back here on the lawn

his spirit continues to drool.

An Eskimo showed me a movie

he'd recently taken of you:

the poor man could hardly stop shivering,

his lips and his fingers were blue.

I suppose that he froze

when the wind took your clothes

and I guess he just never got warm.

But you stand there so nice,

in your blizzard of ice,

oh please let me come into the storm.


 qui qualcosa sulla genesi della canzone                                   (disegno di Waldemar Bonsels)