Let's sing another song, boys, this one has grown old and bitter
Ah his fingernails, I see they're broken
His ships they're all on fire
The moneylender's lovely little daughter
Ah, she's eaten, she's eaten with desire
She spies him through the glasses
While this seems like a simple sentiment of hopelessness, and can also be interpreted along the vein of  “Merchant Of Venice” ,  it may in fact reflect a powerful experience Cohen had in Greece. 
 Cohen  moved to the Island of Hydra in 1960  and bought a small house only 10 minutes from the Aegean sea. Hydra is home to seafaring people with  a peculiar tradition : 
 Every year on Hydra there is a celebration of the Hydriot Navy defeating the Turks with fireships, in which a boat-sized raft is towed into the bay and its ‘sails’, doused in petrol, are ceremoniously set alight. 

Sing Another Song Boys