In a Word . . . Nobel

“They sat together in the park as the evening sky grew dark. She looked at him and he felt a spark, tingle to his bones.’Twas then he felt alone and wished that he’d gone straight. And watched out for a simple twist of fate

They walked along by the old canal, a little confused, I remember well. And stopped into a strange hotel, with a neon burnin’ bright. He felt the heat of the night hit him like a freight train, moving with a simple twist of fate.

A saxophone someplace far off played as she was walkin’ by the arcade. As the light bust through a beat-up shade where he was wakin’ up. She dropped a coin into the cup of a blind man at the gate and forgot about a simple twist of fate.

He woke up, the room was bare. He didn’t see her anywhere. He told himself he didn’t care, pushed the window open wide. Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate. Brought on by a simple twist of fate.

He hears the ticking of the clocks and walks along with a parrot that talks. Hunts her down by the waterfront docks, where the sailors all come in. Maybe she’ll pick him out again How long must he wait?

One more time for a simple twist of fate.

People tell me it’s a sin to know and feel too much within. I still believe she was my twin but I lost the ring. She was born in spring, but I was born too late. Blame it on a simple twist of fate.”

Simple Twist of Fate by Bob Dylan was released on his 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. It has been described as "a true masterpiece of songwriting" and "an incredibly complex revelation contained in six musically identical verses". Dylan's explanation was that it was about a man who falls in love with a prostitute.

It was background music to so much sweetly savoured heartbreak in my youth. And today its author will be presented with the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm. I bow.

Alfred Nobel, a Swedish scientist, invented dynamite. When he died in 1896, aged 63, he bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel prizes. These are now awarded in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and econmics.

inaword@irishtimes.com