Happens to the Heart Songtext
von Leonard Cohen

I was always workin′ steady but I never called it art
I got my shit together meeting Christ and reading Marx
It failed my little fire but it spread a dying spark
Go tell the young Messiah what happens to the heart

There's a mist of summer kisses where I tried to double park
The rivalry was viscious, the women were in charge
It was nothing, it was business, but it left an ugly mark
I′ve come here to revisit what happens to the heart

I was selling holy trinkets, I was dressing kind of sharp
I let pussy in the kitchen and a panther in the yard
In the prison of the gifted I was friendly with the guards
So I never had to witness what happens to the heart


I shoulda seen it coming, after all I knew the chart
Just to look at her was trouble, it was trouble from the start
Sure we played a stunning couple, but I never liked the part
It ain't pretty, it ain't subtle, what happens to the heart

Now the angel′s got a fiddle, the devil′s got a harp
Every soul is like a minnow, every mind is like a shark
May have broken every window, but the house
The house is dark, I care but very little
What happens to the heart

Then I studied with this beggar, he was filthy, he was scarred
By the claws of many women he had failed to disregard
No fable here, no lesson, so singing meadowlark
Just a filthy beggar guessing what happens to the heart

I was always workin' steady, but I never called it art
It was just some old convention like the horse before the cart
I had no trouble betting on the flood against the Ark
You see, I knew about the ending, what happens to the heart

I was handy with a rifle, my father′s 303
I fought for something final, not the right to disagree