Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.
Meaning of the quote
The quote is saying that when we pray, we are translating our thoughts and feelings into words, just like a child learning to speak a new language. Even though we may not be fluent in the "language" of prayer, we are still trying to ask for everything we need from a higher power. It's like we're becoming a child again, learning to communicate in a way that's not fully mastered yet.
About Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen was a renowned Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist. His work explored themes of faith, mortality, isolation, love, and social and political conflict. He was inducted into various music halls of fame and received prestigious awards for his contributions to literature and music.
More quotes from Leonard Cohen
Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph; killing will be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
I am an old scholar, better-looking now than when I was young. That’s what sitting on your ass does to your face.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
To every people the land is given on condition. Perceived or not, there is a Covenant, beyond the constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee, beyond the nation’s sweetest dreams of itself.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
The term clinical depression finds its way into too many conversations these days. One has a sense that a catastrophe has occurred in the psychic landscape.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
I don’t consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)
There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter (1934-2016)