As the mist leaves no scar
On the dark green hill
So my body leaves no scar
On you and never will
Through windows in the dark
The children come, the children go
Like arrows with no targets
Like shackles made of snow
True love leaves no traces
If you and I are one
It’s lost in our embraces
Like stars against the sun
As a falling leaf may rest
A moment on the air
So your head upon my breast
So my hand upon your hair
And many nights endure
Without a moon or star
So we will endure
When one is gone and far
True love leaves no traces
If you and I are one
It’s lost in our embraces
Like stars against the sun
Reusing two stanzas from a 1961 poem ‘As Mist Leaves No Scar’, this song from Death Of A Ladies’ Man (1977) reads on the page like a typical Cohen lyric of his early period. The musical treatment given it by Phil Spector, in one of his more manic phases, shows the distance Cohen had travelled musically at that time, but also suggests that he had travelled involuntarily. As such, historically if not lyrically, it represents a nadir in Cohen’s career.