5/6/10

St George and gypsies


Romi





Romi u Transilvaniji, 19. vek






Romi sebe na svom jeziku nazivaju Romima, dok ih pripadnici nekih drugih naroda nazivaju Ciganima. Sami Romi nikada nisu koristili naziv "Cigani" za svoj narod. Naziv "Cigani" je dugo bio dovođen u vezu sa progonom ovog naroda, čime je stekao pežorativnu konotaciju. Prema ranovizantijskim izvorima, razni nazivi koji se koriste za Rome kao što su cigani, tzigane,zincali, cigány itd., potiču od grčke reči ατσίγγανοι (latinski: adsincani), koja se u doba Vizantijskog carstva koristila da označi Rome, ili, alternativno, od grčke reči αθίγγανοι (= nedodirljivi, koje ne treba dodirnuti), što je u vezi s devetovekovnom jeretičkom sektom koja je bila optužena za to da se bavimagijom i proricanjem budućnosti.Ime [uredi - уреди]

Ne postoji nikakva veza između imena Roma i imena Rumunije (Romania), iako najveći broj Roma živi upravo u Rumuniji.
U većem delu Evrope Romi su poznati kao "Cigani" (francuski: Tsigane ("Cigan"); albanski:Cigan ("Cigan"), Maxhup ("Madžup"), Gabel ("Gabel"); makedonski: Цигани; bugarski:Цигани("Цигани"); češki: Cikáni ("Cikani"); holandski i nemački: Zigeuner ("Cigojner");danski: Sigøjner ("Sigejner"); litvanski: Čigonai ("Čigonai"); ruski: Цыгане ("Цигање");mađarski: Cigány("Ciganj"); grčki: Τσιγγάνοι ("Ciganoi"); italijanski: Zingari ("Cingari");rumunski: ţigani ("Cigani"); srpski: Цигани; poljski: Cyganie ("Ciganie"); portugalski: Cigano("Cigano"); španski:Gitano ("Hitano") i turski: Çingene ("Čingene")). U Iranu ih zovu کولی("Kauli"), u Indiji Lambani ("Lambani"), Lambadi ("Lambadi"), ili Rabari ("Rabari").
U engleskom jeziku se za Rome koristi naziv "Gypsy", za koji se smatra da je izveden od imena "Egipat", zbog nekadašnjeg verovanja da su Romi bili starosedeoci Egipta.
Većina Roma sebe oslovljava po generičkom imenu Rom, što u prevodu znači "čovek" ili "muž/suprug", dok za pripadnike drugih naroda Romi koriste naziv "gadža".

Jezik



Zastava romskog naroda


Većina Roma govori neku od varijanti romskog jezika. Analiza romskog jezika je pokazala da je on blisko povezan sa indo-evropskim jezicima koji se govore u severnoj Indiji iPakistanu (Pendžab). Ova činjenica je važna za utvrđivanje geografskog porekla Roma, pogotovo zbog toga što pozajmljenice u romskom jeziku omogućavaju praćenje šeme njihovih seoba ka zapadu. Telesna fizionomija i ABO krvna grupa Roma su takođe karakteristične odlike severnoindijskih kasta ratnika.
Savremena lingvistika je utvrdila povezanost romskog jezika sa pendžapskim i potoharskimjezikom, koji se govore u severnoj Indiji i Pakistanu. Smatra se da romski jezik spada u grupu centralnoindijskih jezika, u koju između ostalih spadaju i jezici hindi, urdu, itd. Međutim, jedna studija nedavno objavljena u magazinu Nature [1] ukazuje da je romski jezik povezan sa sinhalskim jezikom, koji se govori na Šri Lanki (vidi fusnotu).
Neki Romi su razvili specifične kreolske i/ili mešane jezike, među kojima se izdvajaju sledeći:
Poslednjih godina se pojavio pokret koji zagovara upotrebu "dvostrukog r" pri pisanju imena "RRomi", pošto u romskom jeziku "r" i "rr" predstavljaju dva različita glasa.

Istorija


Putujuća romska porodica 1837.


Romi su tradicionalno nomadski narod. Veruje se da su napustili Indiju oko 1000. godine i da su prošli kroz zemlje koje su danas obuhvaćene granicama Avganistana, Irana(nekadašnje Persije), Jermenije, i Turske. Deo Roma i danas živi na istoku, čak u Iranu, uključujući i neke koji su se selili ka Evropi i potom se vratili. Početkom 14.veka Romi dolaze na Balkan, a početkom 16.veka se sele sve do Škotske i Švedske. Neki Romi su se selili ka jugu kroz Siriju ka Severnoj Africi, dolazeći u Evropu preko Gibraltara. Oba ogranka migracije su se srela u današnjoj Francuskoj. Ljudi slični Romima i danas žive u Indiji, a najverovatnije su poreklom iz pustinjske države Radžastan.
Uzroci seobe Roma su jedna od najvećih misterija u istoriji. Neki naučnici pretpostavljaju da su Romi poreklom iz niske društvene kaste Hindusa bili regrutovani kao plaćenici. Potom su dobili status kšatrija - ratničke kaste i poslati su na zapad kako bi se suprotstavili islamskojvojnoj ekspanziji. Prema drugoj teoriji, Romi su potomci zarobljenika uzetih u roblje od strane muslimanskih osvajača severne Indije i vremenom su razvili posebnu kulturu u zemlji svog zatočeništva. Zabeleženo je da je Mahmud od Gaznija uzeo pola miliona zarobljenika tokom tursko-persijske invazije na Sind i Pendžab uIndiji. Zašto se Romi nisu vratili u Indiju, birajući umesto toga da putuju na zapad u zemlje Evrope, je enigma koja može biti povezana sa vojnom službom pod muslimanima.
Useljavanje Roma u Sjedinjene Države je počelo u kolonijalna vremena u malim grupama na području Virdžinije i francuske Luizijane. Veće useljavanje je počelo posle 1860. godine, sa dolaskom grupa Romnišala iz Velike Britanije. Najveći broj romskih doseljenika je došao početkom dvadesetog veka, uglavnom preko vlaških grupa i Kalderaša. Ove dve grupe se često ne povezuju jedna sa drugom. Veliki broj Roma se takođe naselio u Srednjoj Americi.

Romska populacija



Jedan rumunski poster iz 1852. godine, koji promoviše aukciju za romske robove.


Teško je sa sigurnošću utvrditi broj Roma u svetu. Prema nekim procenama ima ih oko 1.500.000, a prema drugim između 5 i 10 miliona. Smatra se da između 6 i 8 miliona Roma živi u Evropi. Najveća koncentracija Roma je na Balkanskom poluostrvu u jugoistočnoj Evropi, u centralnoj Evropi, Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama, Rusiji i državama bivšegSovjetskog Saveza. Manji broj Roma živi širom Zapadne Evrope, Bliskog Istoka i Severne Afrike.
Zemlje u kojima živi preko pola miliona Roma su: Rumunija, Bugarska, Mađarska, bivšaJugoslavija i Sjedinjene Američke Države. Najveći udeo Roma u ukupnom broju stanovnika ima Slovačka - od 5.400.000 stanovnika Slovačke, 320.000 su Romi.
Romi se među sobom dele po teritorijalnim, kulturološkim i dijalektološkim razlikama na 4 glavne grupe:
  1. Kaldereši (kovači koji su došli sa Balkana u Centralnu Evropu, a zatim se selili i doSeverne Amerike). Predstavljaju najbrojniju romsku grupaciju;
  2. Hitanosi (takođe su poznati i kao Kalé), uglavnom naseljavaju Iberijsko poluostrvo,Severnu Afriku i južnu Francusku. Ističu se kao vrsni zabavljači;
  3. Manuši (poznati i kao Sinti), uglavnom naseljavaju Alzas i okolne regione Francuske iNemačke. Poznati su kao putujući zabavljači icirkusanti;
  4. Romničali (uglavnom naseljavaju Veliku Britaniju i Severnu Ameriku).
Svaka od ovih grupa se dalje deli na 2 ili više podgrupa u zavisnosti od zanimanja kojim se bave i/ili teritorije sa koje potiču. Neke od ovih podgrupa su: Mačvaje, Lovari, Čurari, Sinti,Rudari, Bojaši, Ludari, Luri, Šorašaji, Ungarice, Bašalde i Romungro.

Genetika

Studije o genetskom poreklu bugarskih, baltičkih i vlaških Roma ukazuju da oko 50% proučenih Y hromozoma i mitohondrijske dnk pripadaju muškoj haplo grupi H (ha) i ženskoj haplo grupi M (em), haplo grupama koje su široko rasprostranjene širom Južne i Centralne Azije. Muška haplo grupa R1a1 je retka među Romima, ali je ima oko 50% u muškim Yhromozomima u severnoj Indiji i Pakistanu. Ostatak gena kod proučavanih Roma potiče saBliskog Istoka ili Evrope.

Odbacivanje

A gipsy woman with her child.JPG




Zbog njihovog nomadskog načina života, oduvek je postojalo međusobno nepoverenje između Roma i njihovih sedelačkih komšija. Za njih se verovalo, i još uvek se veruje, da su prosjaci, lopovi, otmičari, neprilagodljivi za sedelački život i posao. Zbog svega toga bili su izlagani progonima. Romi su ponekad u svoje redove prihvatali i društvene otpadnike.
Tokom epohe prosvećenosti Španija je pokušala da promeni otpadnički status Roma zabranom upotrebe reči hitano i asimilacijom Roma u društvo, primoravajući ih da se odreknu svog jezika i načina života. Taj pokušaj je bio neuspešan.
Nepoverenje prema Romima je dostiglo vrhunac za vreme Drugog svetskog rata. Kao iJevrejima, a za razliku od ostalih kategorija proganjanih od strane nacista, Romima je automatski sledovao odlazak u koncentracione kampove, robovski rad i/ili smrt. Veruje se da je na taj način ubijeno preko 500.000 Roma.
Tamo gde je to bilo moguće Romi su nastavili sa svojim nomadskim životom, ali u mnogim slučajevima, pogotovo u Istočnoj Evropi, oni žive sedelačkim životom u gotovo nepodnošljivim životnim uslovima. I dan danas postoje sukobi između Roma i sedelačkog stanovništva koje živi oko njih. Uobičajene žalbe su da Romi kradu i da žive od socijalne pomoći.





Gypsy


Etymology

Main article: Names of the Romani people
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that a gypsy is a
member of a wandering race (by themselves called Romany), of Middle Eastern/Indian origin, which first appeared in England about the beginning of the 16th c. and was then believed to have come from Egypt.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word was first used in English in 1514, with several more uses in the same century, and that both Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare used the word.[1]
The word Gypsy derives from Egyptian, similarly to the Spanish Gitano or the French Gitan. It emerged in Europe in the 15th century.[2] They received the name "Gypsy" from the local people either because they supposedly came from a land named "Little Egypt", or because some of them fit the European image of tan Egyptians. On arrival at numerous places in Europe they claimed to be from Egypt, and were required to travel for seven years as penance for apostasy. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the name was written in various ways:Egipcian, Egypcian, 'gypcian.[3] As the time elapsed, the notion of Gypsy evolved including other stereotypes, like nomadism, exoticism.[4] John Matthews in The World Atlas of Divinationrefer to gypsies as "Wise Women."[5]


[edit]Other groups sometimes called gypsies

A number of groups are commonly included under gypsy even though they are not part of the Romani people proper. This is notably the case with the Dom people and the Lom people of the Middle East and Central Asia. These are known as Kowli (کولی) in Iran and Iraq. The Arabic terms Ghajar (غجر),Salab (صلب) and Nawar (نور) distinguish occupations: the Ghajar or Salabare entertainers, while the Nawar are traders; Nawar is also used as a pejorative term to mean vulgar, or low in North Levantine Arabic, and are used as insults (see also Garachi, Lyuli,Zott).
"Travellers" is a wider term for groups of people with a nomadic lifestyle, traditionally including but not restricted to the Romani. The Irish Travellers and Scottish Travellers are often included under the term "gypsies". In Central and Western Europe, the Yeniche are known as gypsies (or Zigeuner and other local equivalents of the term) although they are not considered part of the Romani people.
Similarly, the Indigenous Norwegian Travellers are unrelated to the Romani, not to be confused with the Romani Norwegian and Swedish Travellers.
In India, the Banjara are sometimes dubbed gypsies. Various ethnic groups in South-East Asia are known as "Sea Gypsies". Colloquially, gypsy names also any person perceived as fitting the Gypsy stereotypes (compare Bohemianism).


Gallery

Gypsy Fortune Teller, 1841 by Taras Shevchenko. Oil on canvas



History

The facts of the two major events in European Romani history — the five and a half centuries of slavery (26) and the Holocaust (27) — are becoming better known and documented all the time. But the details of early Romani history, who our ancestors were and where they came from, are not so well-known. For more than a century and a half, the same stories have been repeated tirelessly and uncritically in each new publication, in particular that the first Gypsies were a group of ten thousand musicians given as a gift by the Maharajah of India to his son-in-law the Shah of Persia in AD 439. In time, this story goes, the people moved away, some remaining in the Middle East, some going into Armenia, and some continuing on into Europe, arriving there in the l3th or l4th century. As early as 1844 the name Rrom was associated with the Indian word Dom, and this was thought to provide a further clue to Gypsy identity, because the Dom are a population of menials and entertainers in contemporary India, and the similarity in social status was easily assumed. Kenrick, however, has shown this to have been a misinterpretation of the word (28).
In recent years, a small group of scholars (29) has been investigating Romani history from a more scientific perspective, and the first new findings in the field since the 1920s are being made. Their technique has been to take the various historical and geographical possibilities and to match them with evidence found in the Romani language itself. The picture which is emerging indicates that the ancestors of the Rroma were a composite population from the very beginning, who were deliberately assembled into a military force to resist the spread of Islam into India. This is how we arrive at these conclusions. Two of the Romani words for "non-Gypsy" are gadjo, which comes from an earlier form gajjha, meaning "civilian, non-military," and das, which in India means "prisoner of war, captive, slave." Words in the Romani vocabulary such as "sword," "spear," "battlecry," "horse," "fight," "gaiters" (xanrro, bust, chingar, khuro, kuriben, patava) are Indian; and were not acquired later from other languages. Words for metalworking and agriculture, on the other hand, are all foreign adoptions. Romani has linguistic features in its grammar, vocabulary and sounds which point to an exodus at the beginning of the early Middle Indian period, not during the Old Indian period, and so a movement out of India before ca. AD 1000 could not have taken place. This means that the story about the fifth-century musicians must apply to quite a different Indian migration, not the migration of the ancestors of the Rroma. We can also determine the route by looking at the sources of the Romani vocabulary. While it is basically Indic, there has been a substantial acquisition of Dardic words, especially from a language called Phalura, as well as a small number apparently from Burushaski, a non-Indic, non-Dardic language spoken only in a small area of the Hindu Kush. Because Dardic and Burushaski words exist in Romani, the migration out of India could only have been through the areas in which they were spoken.
We then have to examine the map to see what possible routes led from here through the mountains to the West. The passes far enough north to match the linguistic factors are at Baroghil and Shandur from here, routes lead down to the Silk Road which runs westwards south of the Caspian Sea. There are two words in Romani for "silk," phanrr and kez again, both of them native Indian terms. The fact that there is practically no influence on Romani from the Truck languages or from Arabic also helps us to determine the route taken, which was along the western shore of the Caspian, because of the Iranian languages represented, and across the southern Caucasus, because of the Armenian, Georgian and Ossete words in Romani, and through the Byzantine Empire — probably along the northern Turkish coast — where Greek items began to be acquired, into Europe. We can also pinpoint the time of departure from India, because while there were seventeen Muslim raids between AD 1001 and AD 1027, only two of them took place in the area which matches the linguistic evidence: in 1013 and again in 1015 at Lohkot, in Kashmir. The existence of a Mongol word (mangin, "treasure") in Romani places the migration through the eastern Byzantine Empire at no earlier than AD 1250, which is when the Golden Horde first became a presence there (30).

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5/5/10

Leonard Cohen





Leonard Cohen

Cohen in 2008
Background information
Birth nameLeonard Norman Cohen
BornSeptember 21, 1934 (age 75)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
GenresFolk, folk rock, rock
OccupationsMusician, songwriter, poet,novelist
InstrumentsVocals, guitar, piano
Years active1956 - Present
LabelsColumbia
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC, GOQ (heb. לאונרד כהן נורמן, born September 21, 1934) is aCanadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry inMontreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often deals with the exploration of religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships.[1] Famously reclusive,[2] having once spent several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and possessing a persona frequently associated with mystique,[3][4] he is extremely well-regarded by critics for his literary accomplishments, for the richness of his lyrics, and for producing an output of work of high artistic quality over a five-decade career.[5][6][7]
Musically, Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1967 album, Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music.[8] In the 1970s, his material encompassed pop, cabaretand world music. Since the 1980s, his high baritone voice has evolved into lower registers (bass baritone and bass), with accompaniment from a wide variety of instruments and female backup singers.
Over 2,000 renditions of Cohen's songs have been recorded. Cohen has been inducted into both theCanadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."[9]


Early life

Cohen was born in 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, into a middle-class Jewish family. His mother, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, emigrated from Lithuania while his great-grandfather emigrated from Poland.[10] He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His father, Nathan Cohen, owned a substantial Montreal clothing store, and died when Leonard was nine years old. On the topic of being a Kohen he said that, "I had a very Messianic childhood," he told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest."[11] He attended Herzliah High School, where he studied with poet Irving Layton. As a teenager he learned to play the guitar, subsequently forming acountry-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. His father's will provided Leonard with a modest trust income, sufficient to allow him to pursue his literary ambitions.

[edit]Poetry

In 1951, Cohen enrolled at McGill University, where he became president of the McGill Debating Union. His literary influences during this time included Yeats, Irving Layton, Whitman, Federico Garcia Lorca and Henry Miller.[12] His first published book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956), was published under Louis Dudek as the first book in the McGill Poetry Series while Cohen was still an undergraduate student. The Spice-Box of Earth (1961) made him well known in poetry circles, especially in his native Canada.
After completing an undergraduate degree, Cohen spent a term in McGill's law school and a year (1956-7) at Columbia University.
Cohen applied a strong work ethic to his early and keen literary ambitions. He wrote poetry and fiction through much of the 1960s, and preferred to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances. After moving to Hydra, a Greek island, Cohen published the poetry collection Flowers for Hitler (1964), and the novels The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966). The Favourite Game is an autobiographical bildungsroman about a young man who discovers his identity through writing.
Cohen's writing process, he told an interviewer in 1998, is "...like a bear stumbling into a beehive or a honey cache: I'm stumbling right into it and getting stuck, and it's delicious and it's horrible and I'm in it and it's not very graceful and it's very awkward and it's very painful and yet there's something inevitable about it." [13]

[edit]Recording career

[edit]1960s and 1970s

In 1967, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk music singer-songwriter. During the 60s, he was a fringe figure in Andy Warhol's Factory crowd. Warhol speculated that Cohen had spent time listening to Nico in clubs and that this had influenced his musical style.[14] His song "Suzanne" became a hit for Judy Collins and was for many years his most covered song. After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records representative John H. Hammond.
Cohen's first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), was too dark to be a commercial success but was widely acclaimed by folk music buffs.[citation needed] He became a cult name in the UK, where the album spent over a year on the album charts.[15] He followed it with Songs from a Room (1969) (featuring the often-recorded "Bird on the Wire"), Songs of Love and Hate (1971), Live Songs (1973) and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974).
In 1971, Cohen's music was used in the soundtrack to Robert Altman's film McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Cohen had been in Nashville when Altman phoned to ask permission to use some tracks off Songs of Leonard Cohen. Coincidentally, earlier that same day, Cohen saw Altman's film,Brewster McCloud in a Nashville theater. He hadn't paid attention to the credits, though; when Altman asked permission to use Cohen's songs in his new film, Cohen asked him who, exactly, he was. Altman mentioned MASH, but Cohen had never heard of it. Altman then told him of the lesser-known Brewster McCloud. Cohen replied, "Listen, I just came out of the theater. I saw it twice. You can have anything of mine you want!"[16]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cohen toured the United States, Canada and Europe. Beginning around 1974, his collaboration with pianist and arranger John Lissauer created a live sound praised by the critics. During this time, Cohen toured twice with Jennifer Warnes as a back-up singer (in 1972 and 1979). Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums and she recorded an album of Cohen songs in 1987,Famous Blue Raincoat.[17]
In 1977, Cohen released Death of a Ladies' Man (note the plural possessive case; one year later, in 1978, Cohen released a volume of poetry with the coyly revised title, Death of a Lady's Man). The album was produced by Phil Spector, known as the inventor of the "wall of sound" technique, which backs up pop music with many layers of instrumentation, an approach very different from Cohen's usually minimalist instrumentation. The recording of the album was fraught with difficulty—Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions, and Cohen said Spector once threatened him with a crossbow. Cohen thought the end result "grotesque,"[18] but also "semi-virtuous."[19]
In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs. Produced by Cohen himself and Henry Lewy (Joni Mitchell's sound engineer) the album included performances by a jazz-fusion band introduced to Cohen by Mitchell and oriental instruments (oud, Gypsy violin andmandolin). In 2001 Cohen released an album of live recordings of songs from his 1979 tour, entitled Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979.

[edit]1980s


Leonard Cohen (1988).
In 1984, Cohen released Various Positions, including "Dance Me to the End of Love" and the often recorded "Hallelujah". Columbia declined to release the album in the United States, where Cohen's popularity had declined in previous years. Throughout his career, Cohen's music has sold better in Europe and Canada than in the U.S. He once satirically expressed how touched he is at the modesty the American company showed in promoting his records.
In 1986, he appeared in the episode "French Twist" of the TV series Miami Vice. In 1987, Jennifer Warnes's tribute album Famous Blue Raincoat helped restore Cohen's career in the U.S., and the following year he released I'm Your Man, which marked a drastic change in his music. Synthesizers ruled the album and Cohen's lyrics included more social commentary and dark humour. It was Cohen's most acclaimed and popular since Songs of Leonard Cohen. "First We Take Manhattan" and the title song became two of his most popular songs.[citation needed]

[edit]1990s

The use of the album track "Everybody Knows" (co-written by Sharon Robinson) in the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume helped expose Cohen's music to a younger audience. The song also featured prominently in fellow countryman Atom Egoyan's 1994 film, Exotica. In 1992, Cohen released The Future, which urges (often in terms of biblical prophecy) perseverance, reformation, and hope in the face of grim prospects. Three tracks from the album - "Waiting for the Miracle", "The Future" and "Anthem" - were featured in the movie Natural Born Killers.
In the title track, Cohen prophesies impending political and social collapse, reportedly as his response to the L.A. unrest of 1992: "I've seen the future, brother: It is murder." In "Democracy", Cohen criticizes America but says he loves it: "I love the country but I can't stand the scene." Further, he criticizes the American public's lack of interest in politics and addiction to television: "I'm neither left or right/I'm just staying home tonight/getting lost in that hopeless little screen."
Nanni Moretti's film Caro diario (1993) features "I'm Your Man", as Moretti himself rides his Vespa along the streets of Rome.
In 1994, following a tour to promote The Future, Cohen retreated to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what became five years of seclusion at the center.[17] In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the Dharma name Jikan, meaning "silence". He served as personal assistant to Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi. He left Mount Baldy in 1999. Japanese songwriter and poet Masato Tomobe stated he admires Cohen and made him more recognized in Japan around this time.

[edit]2000s

[edit]Ten New Songs

In 2001, following the five years' seclusion at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center, Cohen returned to music with Ten New Songs, featuring a heavy influence from producer and co-composer Sharon Robinson. With this album, Cohen shed the relatively extroverted, engaged, and even optimistic outlook of The Future (the sole political track, "The Land of Plenty", abandoning stern commandment for yearning but helpless prayer) to lament and seek acceptance of varieties of personal loss: the approach of death and the departure of love, romantic and even divine. The cohesive musical style of Ten New Songs (perhaps absent from Cohen's albums since Recent Songs) owes much to Robinson’s involvement.[citation needed] The album includes the song "Alexandra Leaving", a striking transformation of the poem "The God Abandons Antony", by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. Although not Cohen’s bitterest album, it may rank as his most melancholic.

[edit]Dear Heather

In October 2004, Cohen released Dear Heather, largely a musical collaboration with jazz chanteuse (and current romantic partner) Anjani Thomas, although Sharon Robinson returns to collaborate on three tracks (including a duet). As light as the previous album was dark, Dear Heather reflects Cohen's own change of mood - he has said in a number of interviews that his depression has lifted in recent years, which he attributes to the aid of Zen Buddhism. Dear Heather is perhaps his least cohesive, but also most experimental and playful album to date. The stylings of some of the songs (especially the title track) frustrated many fans, but were enthusiastically welcomed by others. In an interview following his induction into the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame, Cohen explained that the album was intended to be a kind of notebook or scrapbook of themes, and that a more formal record had been planned for release shortly afterwards, but that this was put on ice by his legal battles with his ex-manager.

[edit]Blue Alert

Blue Alert, an album of songs co-written by Anjani and Cohen, was released on May 23, 2006 to positive reviews. The album is sung by Anjani, who according to one reviewer "...sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman...though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke."[20] The album includes a recent musical setting of Cohen's "As the mist leaves no scar", a poem originally published in The Spice-Box of Earth in 1961 and adapted by Spector into "True Love Leaves No Traces" on Death of a Ladies' Man.

[edit]Book of Longing

Cohen's book of poetry and drawings, Book of Longing, was published in May 2006; in March a Toronto-based retailer offered signed copies to the first 1500 orders placed online. All 1500 sold within hours. The book quickly topped bestseller lists in Canada. On May 13, 2006, Cohen made his first public appearance for thirteen years, at an in-store event at a bookstore in Toronto. Approximately 3000 people turned up for the event, causing the streets surrounding the bookstore to be closed. He sang two of his earliest and best-known songs: "So Long, Marianne" and "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", accompanied by the Barenaked Ladies and Ron Sexsmith. Also appearing with him was Anjani, the two promoting her new CD, along with his book.[21]

[edit]2008 concert tour


2008 concert tour
January 13, 2008, Cohen quietly announced a long-anticipated concert tour [22]. The tour, Cohen's first in 15 years, began May 11 in Fredericton, NB to wide critical acclaim, and was prolonged until spring of 2010.[23] The schedule encompassed Canada and Europe, including performances at The Big Chill (music festival),[24] the Montreal Jazz Festival, and on the Pyramid Stage at the 2008Glastonbury Festival on 29 June 2008.[25] His performance at Glastonbury was hailed by many as the highlight of the festival[26], and his performance of "Hallelujah" as the sun went down received a rapturous reception and a lengthy ovation from a packed Pyramid Stage field.[27] He also played in Dublin in what has come to be regarded as a "milestone concert." The London performance was later released on CD and DVD under the title Live in London.
The Sydney Entertainment Centre show on January 28 sold out rapidly, which motivated promoters to later announce a second show at the venue. The first performance was well-received, and the audience of 12,000 responded with five standing ovations. Cohen gave generous credit to his touring band, his long-time collaborator and vocalist Sharon Robinson, and the "sublime" Webb Sisters.[citation needed] In January 2009, the tour arrived in New Zealand. Simon Sweetman in TheDominion Post (Wellington) of 21 January wrote "It is hard work having to put this concert in to words so I'll just say something I have never said in a review before and will never say again: this was the best show I have ever seen." The first concert of the Australian tour took place at Rochford Winery in Victoria's Yarra Valley on January 24 in perfect weather in front of an audience of about 7,000.

[edit]Hallelujah

On March 7, 2008, Jeff Buckley's version of Cohen's "Hallelujah", went to number 1 on the iTunes chart after Jason Castro performed the song on the seventh season of the television series American Idol.[28] Another major boost for Cohen's song exposure came when singer-songwriterKate Voegele released her version of "Hallelujah" from her 2007 album Don't Look Away and appeared as a regular character, named Mia, on season five of the teenage television show One Tree Hill.
A few days later, Cohen was inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in recognition of his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."[9]. He was introduced by fellow musician Lou Reed.
In December 2008, two versions of "Hallelujah" placed No. 1 and 2 in the UK Christmas singles chart, with X Factor winner Alexandra Burke at No. 1 and Jeff Buckley at No. 2, following an campaign by Buckley fans to get his version to no. 1 rather than the X Factor version. As a result, online downloads of Cohen's original version placed it at No. 36, 24 years after its initial release. Not since the early days of the UK Singles Chart had three versions of the same song charted simultaneously.
John Cale performed this song in the 2001 Dreamworks movie Shrek. The cover when watching the actual movie was by John Cale, but the original soundtrack for the movie had a Rufus Wainwright version. John Cale's version was also featured on the television series Scrubs.
The Jeff Buckley version of "Hallelujah" was used during the final minutes of the West Wing episode Posse Comitatus, the last episode of season 3. On February 12, 2010, k.d. lang performed this song at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.

[edit]Live in London

On March 21, 2009, Cohen released Live in London, recorded on July 17, 2008 at London's O2 Arena and released on DVD and as a two-CD set. The album contains 27 songs and is over two-and-a-half hours long.

[edit]2009 concerts

On February 19, 2009, Cohen played his first American concert in fifteen years at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.[29] He also performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday, April 17, 2009, in front of one of the largest Outdoor Theatre crowds in the history of the festival. His performance of Hallelujah was widely regarded as one of the highlights of the festival.
In February 2009, in response to hearing about the devastation to the Yarra Valley region of Victoria in Australia, he donated $200,000 to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal in support of those affected by the extensive Black Saturday bushfires that razed the area just weeks after his performance at the Rochford Winery in the A Day on the Green concert.[30] Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported: "Tour promoter Frontier Touring said $200,000 would be donated on behalf of Cohen, [fellow performer Paul] Kelly and Frontier to aid victims of the Victorian bushfires."[31]
A scheduled concert in Ramallah was cancelled after Palestinian human-rights activists objected to the fact that Cohen had also scheduled a concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, contrary to a proposed cultural boycott of Israel.[32] Tickets for the Tel Aviv concert, Cohen's first performance in Israel since 1975, went on sale on August 1, 2009, and sold out in less than 24 hours.[33] It was announced that proceeds from the sale of the 47,000 tickets would go into a charitable fund in partnership with Amnesty International and would be used by Israeli and Palestinian peace groups for projects providing health services to children and bringing together Israeli veterans and former Palestinian fighters and the families of those killed in the conflict.[citation needed] However on August 17, 2009, Amnesty International released a statement saying they were withdrawing from any involvement with the concert or its proceeds.[34] Amnesty International later stated that its withdrawal was not due to the boycott but "the lack of support from Israeli and Palestinian NGOs."[35] The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) led the call for the boycott, claiming that Cohen "is intent on whitewashing Israel's colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel."[36]
On September 18, at a concert in Valencia, Spain, Cohen collapsed halfway through performing his song "Bird on the Wire".[37] It was reported that Cohen had stomach problems, and possibly food poisoning.[38]
On September 24 at the Ramat Gan Stadium, Israel, Cohen was highly emotional about the Israeli-Palestinian NGO Bereaved Families for Peace. He mentioned the organization twice, saying "It was a while ago that I first heard of the work of the 'Bereaved Parents for Peace'. That there was this coalition of Palestinian and Israeli families who had lost so much in the conflict and whose depth of suffering had compelled them to reach across the border into the houses of the enemy. Into the houses of those, to locate them who had suffered as much as they had, and then to stand with them in aching confraternity, a witness to an understanding that is beyond peace and that is beyond confrontation. So, this is not about forgiving and forgetting, this is not about laying down one's arms in a time of war, this is not even about peace, although, God willing, it could be a beginning. This is about a response to human grief. A radical, unique and holy, holy, holy response to human suffering. Baruch Hashem, thank God, I bow my head in respect to the nobility of this enterprise."[39] At the end of the show he blessed the crowd by the Priestly Blessing, a Jewish blessing offered by Kohanim, Cohen being of the Priestly caste.[40]
Altogether, the tour earned a reported $9.5 million, putting Cohen at number 39 on Billboard magazine's list of the year's top musical "money makers."[41]

[edit]Themes


"Sisters of Mercy", according to the sleeve notes of his Greatest Hits evokes his encounter with two women named Barbara and Lorraine in a hotel room in Edmonton, Canada. Claims that "Chelsea Hotel #2" treats his affair with Janis Joplin without sentimentality are countered by claims that the song reveals a much more complicated and mixed set of feelings than straightforward love. Cohen discusses the song in an interview filmed for the tribute-concert movie Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man. He confirms that the subject is indeed Janis with some evident embarrassment. "She wouldn't mind", he declares, "but my mother would be appalled". The title of "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On" speaks for itself.Recurring themes in Cohen's work include love and sex, religion, psychological depression, and music itself. He has also engaged with certain political themes, though sometimes ambiguously so. "Suzanne" mixes a wistful type of love song with a religious meditation, themes that are also mixed in "Joan of Arc". "Famous Blue Raincoat" is from the point of view of a man whose marriage has been broken (in exactly what degree is ambiguous in the song) by his wife's infidelity with his close friend, and is written in the form of a letter to that friend, to whom he writes, "I guess that I miss you/ I guess I forgive you … Know your enemy is sleeping/ And his woman is free", while "Everybody Knows" deals in part with social inequality ("...the poor stay poor/ And the rich get rich"), and the harsh reality of AIDS: "… the naked man and woman/ Are just a shining artifact of the past".
Cohen comes from a Jewish background, most obviously reflected in his song "Story of Isaac", and also in "Who by Fire", whose words and melody echo the Unetaneh Tokef, an 11th century liturgical poem recited on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Broader Judeo-Christian themes sound throughout the album Various Positions. Hallelujah, which has music as a secondary theme, begins by evoking the biblical king Davidcomposing a song that "pleased the Lord", and continues with references to Bathsheba and Samson. The lyrics of "Whither Thou Goest", performed by him and released in his album Live in London, are adapted from the Bible (Ruth 1:16-17, King James Version). If it be Your Willalso has a strong air of religious resignation.
In his concert in Ramat Gan, Israel, on the 24th of September 2009 Cohen spoke to the audience in Hebrew when using Jewish prayers and blessings. He opened the show with the first sentence of Ma Tovu. At the middle he used Baruch Hashem, and he ended the concert reciting the blessing of Birkat Cohanim.[42]
In his early career as a novelist, Beautiful Losers grappled with the mysticism of the Catholic/Iroquois Catherine Tekakwitha. Cohen has also been involved with Buddhism at least since the 1970s and in 1996 he was ordained a Buddhist monk. However, he still considers himself also a Jew: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism."[43]
He is described as an observant Jew in an article in The New York Times:
Mr. Cohen is an observant Jew who keeps the Sabbath even while on tour and performed for Israeli troops during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. So how does he square that faith with his continued practice of Zen?
"Allen Ginsberg asked me the same question many years ago," he said. "Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief."[44]
Having suffered from depression during much of his life (although less so with the onset of old age), Cohen has written much (especially in his early work) about depression and suicide. The wife of the protagonist of Beautiful Losers commits a gory suicide; "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" is about a suicide; the darkly comic "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" mentions suicide; "Dress Rehearsal Rag" is about a last-minute decision not to commit suicide; a general atmosphere of depression pervades such songs as "Please Don't Pass Me By" and "Tonight Will Be Fine". As in the aforementioned "Hallelujah", music itself is the subject of many songs, including "Tower of Song", "A Singer Must Die", and "Jazz Police".
Social justice often shows up as a theme in his work, where he seems, especially in later albums, to expound a leftist politics, albeit with culturally conservative elements. In "Democracy", he laments "the wars against disorder/ … the sirens night and day/ … the fires of the homeless/ … the ashes of the gay. He concludes that the United States is actually not a democracy. He has made the observation (in Tower of Song) that, "the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor/ And there's a mighty judgment coming." In the title track of The Futurehe recasts this prophecy on a pacifist note: "I've seen the nations rise and fall/ …/ But love's the only engine of survival." In "Anthem", he promises that "the killers in high places [who] say their prayers out loud/ … [are] gonna hear from me."
Several Cohen songs speak of abortion, always either as something distasteful or even atrocious. In "The Future", he sings sarcastically "Destroy another fetus now/ We don't like children anyhow." In "Stories of the Street" Cohen speaks of "The age of lust is giving birth/ And both the parents ask/ The nurse to tell them fairy tales/ from both sides of the glass."
"Diamonds in the Mine" is often described as a song about abortion because of the lyric, "The only man of energy/ Yes the revolution's pride/ He trained a hundred women/ Just to kill an unborn child." However, extensive research suggests this song is actually about the demise of the hedonism of the 1960s. The "man of energy" referred to is Charles Manson and the "unborn child" is Sharon Tate's unborn baby when the Manson "Family" committed the atrocities in 1969.[citation needed]
In "The Land of Plenty", he characterizes the United States (if not the opulent West in general) of benightedness: "May the lights in The Land of Plenty/ Shine on the truth some day."
War is an enduring theme of Cohen's work that—in his earlier songs and early life—he approached ambivalently. Challenged in 1974 over his serious demeanor in concerts and the military salutes he ended them with, Cohen remarked: "I sing serious songs, and I'm serious onstage because I couldn't do it any other way...I don't consider myself a civilian. I consider myself a soldier, and that's the way soldiers salute."[45] In "Field Commander Cohen" he imagines himself (perhaps metaphorically) as a soldier/spy socializing with Fidel Castro in Cuba—where he had actually lived at the height of US-Cuba tensions in 1961, allegedly sporting a Che Guevara-style beard and military fatigues. This song was actually written immediately following Cohen's front-line stint with the Israeli air force, the "fighting in Egypt" documented in an (again perhaps metaphorical) passage of "Night Comes On". In 1973, Cohen, who had traveled to Jerusalem to sign up on the Israeli side in the Yom Kippur War, had instead been assigned to a USO-style entertainer tour of front-line tank emplacements in the Sinai Desert, coming under fire. A poetic mention of then-General Ariel Sharon delivered in the same mode as his Fidel Castro allusions, has given birth to the legend that Cohen and Sharon shared cognac together during Cohen's term in the Sinai.
Deeply moved by encounters with both Israeli and Arab soldiers, he left the country to write "Lover Lover Lover", which has often been interpreted as a personal renunciation of any part in such conflict, nonetheless ending with the hope his song will serve an unspecified listener as "a shield against the enemy". He would later remark, "'Lover, Lover, Lover' was born over there; The whole world has its eyes riveted on this tragic and complex conflict. Then again, I am faithful to certain ideas, inevitably. I hope that those of which I am in favour will gain."[46] Asked which side he supported in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Cohen responded, "I don't want to speak of wars or sides ... Personal process is one thing, it's blood, it's the identification one feels with their roots and their origins. The militarism I practice as a person and a writer is another thing. ... I don't wish to speak about war."[47]
His recent politics continue a lifelong predilection for the underdog, the "beautiful loser." Whether recording "The Partisan", a French Resistancesong by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier, or singing his own "The Old Revolution", written from the point of view of a defeated royalist, he has throughout his career through his music expressed his sympathy and support for the oppressed. Although Cohen's fascination with war is often as metaphor for more explicitly cultural and personal issues, as in New Skin for the Old Ceremony, by this measure his most "militant" album.
Cohen blends a good deal of pessimism about political/cultural issues with a great deal of humour and (especially in his later work) gentle acceptance. His wit contends with his stark analyses, as his songs are often verbally playful and even cheerful: In "Tower of Song", the famously raw-voiced Cohen sings ironically that he was "… born with the gift/ Of a golden voice." The generally dark "Is This What You Wanted?" nonetheless contains playful lines "You were the whore and the beast of Babylon/ I was Rin Tin Tin." In concert, he often plays around with his lyrics (for example, "If you want a doctor/ I'll examine every inch of you" from "I'm Your Man" will become "If you want a Jewish doctor …")He may introduce one song by using a phrase from another song or poem—for example, introducing "Leaving Green Sleeves" by paraphrasing his own "Queen Victoria": "This is a song for those who are not nourished by modern love."
Cohen has also recorded such love songs as Irving Berlin's "Always" or the more obscure soul number "Be for Real" (originally sung by Marlena Shaw), chosen in part for their unlikely juxtaposition to his own work.[citation needed]

[edit]Lawsuits

On October 8, 2005, Cohen alleged that his longtime former manager, Kelley Lynch, misappropriated over US $5 million from Cohen's retirement fund leaving only $150,000.[48] Cohen was sued in turn by other former business associates.[48] These events placed him in the public spotlight, including a cover feature on him with the headline "Devastated!" in Canada's Maclean's magazine. In March 2006, Cohen won the civil suit and was awarded US $9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch, however, ignored the suit and did not respond to a subpoena issued for her financial records.[49] As a result it has been widely reported that Cohen may never be able to collect the awarded amount.[50] In 2007, U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock dismissed a claim by Cohen for more than US $4.5 million against Colorado investment firm Agile Group, and in 2008 he dismissed a defamation suit that Agile Group filed against Cohen.[51] Cohen has been under new management since April 2005.

[edit]Family life

In the 1960s, during his stay at Hydra, Cohen befriended the Scandinavian novelists Axel Jensen and Göran Tunström. He lived there with Axel's wife Marianne Jensen (now: Ihlen Stang) and their son Axel after they broke up. The song "So Long, Marianne" is about her.
According to biographer and filmmaker Harry Rasky, Cohen has been married once, to Los Angeles artist Suzanne Elrod. Although the two did have an important relationship in the 1970s, Cohen himself has said that "cowardice" and "fear" have prevented him from ever actually marrying[52][53]. He had two children with Elrod: a son, Adam, was born in 1972 and a daughter, Lorca, named after poet Federico García Lorca, was born in 1974. Adam Cohen began his own career as a singer-songwriter in the mid-1990s and currently fronts a band called Low Millions. Elrod took the cover photograph on Cohen's Live Songs album and is pictured on the cover of the Death of a Ladies' Man album.
Cohen and Elrod had split by 1979. Contrary to popular belief, "Suzanne", one of his best-known songs, refers to Suzanne Verdal, the former wife of his friend, the Québécois sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, rather than Elrod.[54] In 1990, Cohen was romantically linked to actress Rebecca De Mornay. He is now romantically involved with (and working with) Anjani Thomas.

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[edit]Books

[edit]Film and Television

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