Where was I? Oh yeah, Bob Dylan. At any rate, one of Dylan's songs is my next topic in the Ode to a Jilted Lover song series. The song is Simple Twist of Fate and was released in 1975 on his landmark album Blood on the Tracks. Like most Dylan songs, a gazillion people have covered it, starting with Joan Baez in the same year Dylan released it. Covers of the song continue with one already done in 2012. Amazingly enough, I've never heard Dylan sing it. I guess there's no reason to start now. In fact, the only person I've heard sing it is Tim Curry. According to many (and especially my wife) this is a double curse. But aren't most Dylan songs best when Dylan doesn't sing it?
In a cursory look at what some think about the meaning of this song, I ran across one commenter who saw striking similarities between this song and a poem by 19th century French writer Paul Verlaine. The similarity is even more relevant because Dyan mentions Verlaine in another song from the same album. The poem, Colloque Sentimental, is about a couple walking in a park together. As they go along, they discuss a romance that they once had. We find out, however, that the romance was very one sided. One remembers with a heart full of fondness. The other blows it all off, stating that there was really never any love, at least from his or her point of view. Ye olde tyme jilted love. Here's the original poem, translated into English by Gertrude Hall:
In the deserted park, silent and vast,
Erewhile two shadowy glimmering figures passed.
Their lips were colorless, and dead their eyes;
Their words were scarce more audible than sighs.
In the deserted park, silent and vast,
Two spectres conjured up the buried past.
“Our ancient ecstasy, do you recall?”
“Why, pray, should I remember it at all?”
“Does still your heart at mention of me glow?
Do still you see my soul in slumber?”
“No!”
“Ah, blessed, blissful days when our lips met!
You loved me so!”
“Quite likely,—I forget.”
“How sweet was hope, the sky how blue and fair!”
“The sky grew black, the hope became despair.”
Thus walked they ’mid the frozen weeds, these dead,
And Night alone o’erheard the things they said.
Now compare that to Dylan's song. Here, a young man falls in love, but the lady never reciprocates. He can't shake it out of his mind. She, on the other hand, shows no feeling at all in walking away. A key line here is "She dropped a coin into the cup of a blind man at the gate, and forgot about a simple twist of fate." Also notice that the song switches to first person in the last stanza.
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 sailers all come in.
Maybe she'll pick him out again, how long must he wait
Once more 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.
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 sailers all come in.
Maybe she'll pick him out again, how long must he wait
Once more 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.
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