2008-08-21 18:03:04

如果Dylan没能从1966年那场车祸中生还，和Jimi Hendrix，Jim Morrison一样在27岁时死去，今天人们会怎样谈论他的传奇? 好在经过半年的休养后，重生的Dylan回到了录音室，完全收敛起前三张专辑中狂飙的激情，重拾民谣传统继续他的吟唱。在这张专辑的创作期间，Beatles发行了佩伯军士，流行音乐的编曲日趋复杂，但Dylan不为所动。“我不知道人们正在怎样做音乐，我也不想知道。我完全不喜欢Sgt.Pepper，那里有太多的虚饰，尽管那些歌曲都很不错。我不认为所有那些制作是必须的，因为Beatles从未那样作过。”

有人说1967年的John Wesley Harding专辑如同以赛亚书配上了音乐，这或许有些夸张。但它的确可能是音量与能量最不成比例的一张专辑，它总让我想起Pixies的歌词：

你们在找矿吗
不，我们在挖掘火焰

这首歌以耶稣在十字架上和他身边的盗贼的隐喻性对话开始，随后使用了大量以赛亚对他的正在堕落的祖国所发出的不祥的预言，配器和演唱都不加雕琢，但有着极强的张力。我喜欢Dylan的原版远胜过Hendrix著名的翻唱。

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief."

Dylan曾不止一次的用Joker来指代耶稣，这句开场白可解释为：

【太17:17】 耶稣说，嗳，这又不信又悖谬的世代阿，我在你们这里要到几时呢？我忍耐你们要到几时呢？把他带到我这里来吧。
Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.

让耶稣难以忍受的混乱并非十字架上的苦痛，而是人们的不信，这是唯一限制主的全能的因素。福音书记载了一位父亲带着不足的信心来寻求门徒的帮助，门徒却不能，他就认为主也不能。但耶稣说：“你若能信，在信的人凡事都能。”


"Business men, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth"

饮我的酒，（毁坏我的葡萄园），这是圣经中常用的形容人的悖逆的比喻。一切均为主所赐，但悖逆的人们占据，抢夺并滥用。

【赛3:14】 耶和华必审问他民中的长老，和首领，说，吃尽葡萄园果子的，就是你们。向贫穷人所夺的，都在你们家中。
The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I we've been through that, and this is not our fate.
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."


和耶稣一起被钉上十字架的两个盗贼中，有一个认为人生不过是一个玩笑。

【路23:39】 那同钉的两个犯人，有一个讥诮他说，你不是基督吗？可以救自己和我们吧。
And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

但另一个亲眼见过耶稣所行的事，并且，他意识到时候不早，他拒绝虚伪的谈话：

【路23:40】 那一个就应声责备他说，你既是一样受刑的，还不怕神吗？
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
【路23:41】 我们是应该的。因我们所受的，与我们所作的相称。但这个人没有作过一件不好的事。
And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.

"All along the watchtower, princes kept the view"

【赛21:5】 他们摆设筵席，派人守望，又吃又喝。首领阿，你们起来，用油抹盾牌。
Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

他们守望的是巴比伦倾倒的噩耗，一个已经犯下，并即将遭到惩罚的罪恶的讯息。

"While all the women came and went . . . "

【赛27:11】枝条枯干，必被折断。妇女要来，点火烧着，因为这百姓蒙昧无知，所以创造他们的，必不怜恤他们，造成他们的，也不施恩与他们。
When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
【赛3:12】 至于我的百姓，孩童欺压他们，妇女辖管他们。我的百姓阿，引导你的，使你走错，并毁坏你所行的道路。
As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.. 
【赛4:1】在那日，七个女人必拉住一个男人，说，我们吃自己的食物，穿自己的衣服。但求你许我们归你名下。求你除掉我们的羞耻。
And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

". . . barefoot servants, too."

【赛20:3】 耶和华说，我仆人以赛亚怎样露身赤脚行走三年，作为关乎埃及和古实的预兆奇迹。
And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon
【赛20:4】 照样，亚述王也必掳去埃及人，掠去古实人，无论老少，都露身赤脚，现出下体，使埃及蒙羞。
So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

"Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl."

【赛21:8】 他像狮子吼叫，说，主阿，我白日常站在望楼上，整夜立在我守望所。
And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:
【赛21:9】 看哪，有一队军兵骑着马，一对一对地来。他就说，巴比伦倾倒了。倾倒了，他一切雕刻的神像，都打碎于地。
And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

【赛31:4】耶和华对我如此说，狮子和少壮狮子，获食咆哮，就是喊许多牧人来攻击它，它总不因他们的声音惊惶，也不因他们的喧哗缩伏。如此万军之耶和华，也必降临在锡安山冈上争战。
For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.

【启6:8】我就观看，见有一匹灰色马。骑在马上的，名字叫作死。阴府也随着他。有权柄赐给他们，可以用刀剑，饥荒，瘟疫（瘟疫或作死亡），野兽，杀害地上四分之一的人。
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.