For Wilf And His House | “Jesus like a butterfly”

For Wilf And His House

When young the Christians told me
how we pinned Jesus
like a lovely butterfly against the wood,
and I wept beside paintings of Calvary
at velvet wounds
and delicate twisted feet.

But he could not hang softly long,
your fighters so proud with bugles,
bending flowers with their silver stain,
and when I faced the Ark for counting,
trembling under the burning oil,
the meadow of running flesh turned sour
and I kissed away my gentle teachers,
warned my younger brothers.

Among the young and turning-great
of the large nations, innocent
of the spiked wish and the bright crusade,
there I could sing my heathen tears
between the summersaults and chestnut battles,
love the distant saint
who fed his arm to flies,
mourn the crushed ant
and despise the reason of the heel.

Raging and weeping are left on the early road.
Now each in his holy hill
the glittering and hurting days are almost done.
Then let us compare mythologies.
I have learned my elaborate lie
of soaring crosses and poisoned thorns
and how my fathers nailed him
like a bat against a barn
to greet the autumn and late hungry ravens
as a hollow yellow sign.

Comments
This is the second poem in Cohen's first book of poetry: “Let Us Compare Mythologies.” The images are moving, disturbing, and full of tension.

When Leonard Cohen wrote this, he was studying at McGill University in Montreal. Apparently, Wilf was a Christian friend of his, and "his house” was the house of the Student Christian Movement at McGill that Wilf was in charge of. One can imagine the difficult conversations they must have had comparing and contrasting Jewish and Christian mythologies.

Mythologies are foundational stories. They can be religious or secular, true or false, or a mixture of both. The Christian story that Cohen most likely heard was that the Jewish people, his people, were the ones who “pinned Jesus like a lovely butterfly against the wood." And the Jewish story he would have been familiar with, in turn, tells about the followers of Jesus oppressing his people, “proud with bugles” on “bright crusade.”

Both stories have historical credence. But Cohen is aware of how we can exaggerate our mythologies and turn them into an “elaborate lie” to justify our hatred and violence. This does not cause Cohen to move on from these mythologies. If one considers the broader context of his work, he ends up taking a closer look at them. And that look converges where these two mythologies collide: the butterfly/bat of this poem.

In the beginning, Jesus is a “lovely butterfly” pinned against the wood, and at the end, he is nailed “like a bat against a barn.” Both images are tragic, but the first is bright and beautiful while the second is dark and ugly. These could be interpreted as two opposing views of Jesus, the Christian and the Jewish. They could also be understood as two sides of the same person.

The beauty of Jesus touched Cohen deeply (see Suzanne and Quotes), as did the ugly darkness of his death: “vilified, crucified, in the human frame … You want it darker, we kill the flame” (“You Want it Darker”). He saw and felt both sides, and his words and music help me do the same.

Share your responses to the above lyrics and commentary here. Different points of view and disagreements are welcome, but please be respectful.