Trying to analyze a Leonard Cohen poem, help?

Question

I am not well-versed in world history and so I am finding "On Hearing a Name Long Unspoken" difficult to decipher in places.

In particular, this stanza:

"Now a name that saved you

has a foreign taste

claims a foreign body

froze in last year's waste"

For some reason this made me think of the Cold War but perhaps that wouldn't make sense?

Thanks for any insight....

Answer 1

I think the main point of the poem is not to isolate any specific point in history, but to say instead that when acts and events that once were vibrant slip into memory and history they make us numb to them. As the poem later says: And what is living lingers.

I think there is another line about history putting us to sleep. It is our reaction to events after they have slipped into the past. It is also about living in the moment and not for the monuments.

There is a lot in this poem and I haven't done it justice, but I think that's the track you may want to consider as a opposed to trying to link it to a specific time like the cold war...though it is possible that Cohen is making a reference to the Soviet empire who "saved us" in WW2 but now is suddenly something new (not my interpretation, but still possible and valid)