Coward's Explanation

[lazariuk]

In one of his songs Leonard sings

Do not choose a coward’s explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect.

I am curious if others see this the same way that I do.

Every action is threefold.
There is the action
There is the effect
There is the result

The first two happen together and the last takes some time.

The bat hitting the ball is the action and the effect
The result is where the ball comes to rest.

To me the coward is the one who does not leave the mind open to consider the result. The one who asks "why?" but not "to what end?"

Is that the way that everyone else understands those lines?

[iveta]

sounds academic but feels thats correct

[lazariuk]

sounds academic but feels thats correct

Thanks for the confirmation. experience seems like geometry to me and maybe that is why it sounds academic.

[Joney]

This is an interesting question. I'm not too sure of the answer but here's how I interpreted it, as with interpreting anything I may be completely wrong but as the original poet is no longer with us this is Mr Cohen's interpretation of Mr Cavafy's poem anyway and what a wonderful interpretion it is.

For me it's not so scientific, it strikes me that the coward is self-pitying and blaming other outside influences for the result. It's a bit like a young child falling from a bicycle and blaming the bicycle. I think that the whole verse has to be included:

As someone long prepared for the occasion;
In full command of every plan you wrecked –
Do not choose a coward’s explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect.

So I've always judged it as somebody who knew that there would be consequences, ignored what they knew, then blamed things on others or other circumstances. In other words a coward.

Of course I may be completely wrong but thanks for your thoughts on it lazariuk, got me thinking a bit more on the subject.

[lazariuk]

So I've always judged it as somebody who knew that there would be consequences, ignored what they knew, then blamed things on others or other circumstances. In other words a coward.
.

I don't think he is calling the guy by the window a coward. It seems the guy has a choice.
Every time you do something new or unique you will always fail to some extent and there is usually always someone around to point out your failures with their own explanation. What they can't see is what you have learned by your failures or even what your long term aim is.
As a matter of fact he seems to be suggesting that the person himself is one who has had some long term plans that maybe people didn't understand. Now maybe it is being suggested that he consider that he is part of a different plan, a better one.

[hydriot]

As someone long prepared for the occasion;
In full command of every plan you wrecked –
Do not choose a coward’s explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect.

To me, 'hiding behind the cause and the effect' is pretending that what happened was inevitable and there was nothing you could do about it. In other words, abdicating responsibility.

He is telling himself to accept that he knew what would probably happen if he wrecked the plan, and shouldn't now pretend that he is a victim of circumstance.

[Lilifyre]

I like all the explanations given here. Which song is the original quote taken from? I'd like to check out all the words to offer an opinion. I agree that the coward abdicates his responsibility and is therefore only able to see the fault in others, not himself. This is one that I'd like to study a bit further.

Lili

[imaginary friend]

Lilifyre,

The lines are from the song 'Alexandra Leaving', one of my favourites...

[Lilifyre]

Imaginary friend, thanks for the name of the song. I think I have a new favorite! Funny how that happens with Leonard's songs. I just went to YouTube and gave a listen. Chills went all over my body. I need to listen to this a few hundred times and then I'll be back to comment further.

I'm discovering that Leonard Cohen is an addiction...but what a lovely addiction

Lili

[secretchord]

an explanation that relies on the cause and the effect would confine the situation to a mundane world where A follows B with metronomic predictability; choosing to go beyond this cyclic inevitability locates the action in a world where events are less conditioned and more liable to be the result of supernatural, possibly divine intervention; meanings that may be hidden to a superficial interpretation will be revealed to one that accepts that there may be more to life than meets the eye but this is a challenging concept which calls us to look beyond the easy and rational level on which we live most of the time


one of my favourite Leonard lines from one of my favourite Leonard song, as it happens

[GinaDCG]

When I first heard these lines I immediately flashed back to my grandfather telling me that only cowards see a difference between guilt and responsibility. "It may not be your fault, but it is your responsibility." This followed after I complained of the injustice of my being punished for hitting a baseball into a store window. The window in question was a small, ALMOST totally covered by mesh on a large brick wall which backed the parking lot which, when empty, often served as the scene of one of our pick-up baseball games. We never played when cars were about, and in all the years (20+) that kids had been playing there no one had ever come even close to breaking this tiny window. I broke it. Improbable, and pure chance that out of the thousands of balls which had been smacked by hundreds of kids, I was the one who broke the window. My Grandfather firmly declared that it didn't matter if it was fair, or if I was more or less guilty then other kids, I still was, undeniably the one who broke the window.

Personal, and possibly of no interest to anyone else -- but this is what I thought of when I first heard these lines in "Alexandra Leaving." The cause of me, as one of 20 kids playing baseball that day, should produce an effect that got me -- and only me -- into trouble was not fair -- but there it was. I did break the window and I had to pay for it.

My grandfather would approve of these lines.

[Lilifyre]

Gina, I love your story. Your grandfather was a very wise man. In this day of lawsuits against coffee vendors (McDonalds) for being scalded by your own clumsiness in spilling that hot coffee and burning yourself, we see too few who accept their responsibility for their actions. I was a teacher of very young children for over 20 yrs. I saw children morally crippled by not being taught to take responsibility. The parents of a 2 yr old who was not taught to help the rebuild the block structure they accidentally knocked down, were the same parents who 10-15 yrs later couldn't understand why their child was into drugs, alcohol, or teen sex.

As someone long prepared for the occasion;
In full command of every plan you wrecked –
Do not choose a coward’s explanation
that hides behind the cause and the effect.

Beautiful words with a very deep meaning. Thank you for sharing your story. I would have loved to meet your grandfather.

Lili