#145 Wedding Song (Bob Dylan)

Ayer era el cumpleaños de Bob Dylan y leí la deliciosa lista con la que el dylanófilo Pablo Velasco celebró el año pasado los 80 de Dylan: "80 razones para escuchar a Bob Dylan". A mí Dylan me gusta mucho, pero sólo conozco lo más mainstream, lo suficiente para no dudar que nuestro trovador contemporáneo se mereciera el Nobel. El poema - canción de hoy, por ejemplo, no lo conocía. Me lo ha sugerido Pablo, como uno de sus favoritos, y me ha emocionado. Lo he leído primero, sin la música y sí, ¡poema! Seguro todos hemos tenido la experiencia de leer letras de canciones que pierden toda el alma sin la música. Creo que Dylan ha escritos poemas a los que no ha puesto música, pero no es por ellos por lo que pasará a la historia.

Ayer en el metro he escuchado la conferencia con motivo del Nobel en la que se pregunta "¿qué tiene que ver mi música con la literatura?" Y después de hacer un repaso de tres grandes libros que han marcado su carrera, "Moby Dick", "Sin novedad en el frente" y "La Odisea", termina diciendo:

Our songs are alive in the land of the living. But songs are unlike literature. They’re meant to be sung, not read. The words in Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be acted on the stage. Just as lyrics in songs are meant to be sung, not read on a page. And I hope some of you get the chance to listen to these lyrics the way they were intended to be heard: in concert or on record or however people are listening to songs these days. I return once again to Homer, who says, “Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story.”

Es un gran tema. Los poemas, como las canciones, también están hechos para escuchados más que leídos. Por eso leer un poema rápidamente es hacerle violencia, es perder el sonido por tratar de captar el significado. Como dice John Ciardi, la pregunta nunca es "what does a poem mean" sino "how does a poem mean." Algo similar dice también Dylan en su discurso.

Escuchemos pues a Dylan, en su medio:

WEDDING SONG

I love you more than ever, more than time and more than love

I love you more than money and more than the stars above

I love you more than madness, more than dreams upon the sea

I love you more than life itself, you mean that much to me.

Ever since you walked right in the circle's been complete

I've said goodbye to haunted rooms and faces in the street

To the courtyard of the jester which is hidden from the sun

I love you more than ever and I haven't yet begun.

You breathed on me and made my life a richer one to live

When I was deep in poverty you taught me how to give

Dried the tears up from my dreams and pulled me from the hole

I love you more than ever and it burns me to the soul.

You gave me babies, one, two, three, what is more, you saved my life

Eye for eye and tooth for tooth, your love cuts like a knife

My thoughts of you don't ever rest, they'd kill me if I lie

But I'd sacrifice the world for you to watch my senses die.

The tune that is yours and mine to play upon this earth

We'll play it out the best we know, whatever it is worth

What's lost is lost, we can't regain what went down in the flood

But happiness to me is you and I love you more than blood.

It's never been my duty to remake the world at large

Nor is it my intentions to sound a battle charge

'Cause I love you more than all of that with a love that doesn't bend

And if there is eternity I'd love you there again.

Oh, can't you see that you were born to stand by my side

And I was born to be with you, you were born to be my bride

You're the other half of what I am, you're the missing piece

And I love you more than ever with that love that doesn't cease.

You turn the tide on me each day and teach my eyes to see

Just being next to you is a natural thing for me

And I could never let you go, no matter what goes on

'Cause I love you more than ever now that the past is gone