Steer your way past the ruins of the Altar and the Mall
Steer your way through the fables of Creation and The Fall
Steer your way past the Palaces that rise above the rot
Year by year, month by month, day by day
Thought by thought

Steer your heart past the Truth that you believed in yesterday
Such as Fundamental Goodness and the Wisdom of the Way
Steer your heart, precious heart, past the women whom you bought
Year by year, month by month, day by day
Thought by thought

Steer your way through the pain that is far more real than you
That's smashed the Cosmic Model, that blinded every view
And please don't make me go there, though there be a God or not
Year by year, month by month, day by day
Thought by thought

They whisper still, the injured stones
The blunted mountains weep
As he died to make men holy
Let us die to make things cheap
And say the Mea Culpa, which you probably forgot
Year by year, month by month, day by day
Thought by thought



*The Altar is a symbol of religion and the Mall is a symbol of commercialism. Perhaps Cohen juxtaposes both because he sees in both a form of worship (man bringing sacrifices for something that he deems holy).
* Reference to the first three chapters of the Torah, a narrative of the creation of the world and the first human beings (and their fall into sinfulness)
* Like the ruins, rot and fables in the first verse, Cohen is steering the person to whom he sings past monuments that have lost their relevance somehow.
The Truth here (Fundamental Goodness and the Wisdom of the Way) have a Buddhist sound to them.
Cohen himself was ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk in 1996 in Mount Baldy, where he stayed for several years.
* The person dying ‘to make men holy’ is likely a reference to the story of Jesus' martyrdom.
“Let us die to make things cheap”, then, is a sarcastic or bitter reversal of this event.
also a sarcastic reversal of the glory of the Union soldiers.
* ‘Mea Culpa’ means ‘by my fault’ and is a reference to a traditional Roman Catholic penitential prayer, Confiteor.
The fact that the person in the song has ‘probably’ or ‘gradually’ forgotten this prayer formula suggests a lack of spiritual confession in the previous years.