ULICA ROZPACZY
( „Desolation Row” - muz. sł. Bob Dylan Highway
61 Revisited Released August 30. 1965
przekład poetycki: Sylwek Szweda 07/08.07.2005
– z podziękowaniem dla Wojciecha Manna 08.12.2003 za inspirację )
Ulica Rozpaczy
– Sylwek w formacie mp3
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Sprzedają pocztówki z egzekucji,
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Paszporty skrzepły na brąz,
A7
U lalek dziś full marynarzy
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I cyrk nie wiadomo skąd.
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Nadchodzi ślepy urzędnik
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Co w mig wprawiony jest w trans,
A7
Tancereczka się kręci,
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Nie dając mu żadnych szans.
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Oddział specjalny już w akcji,
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Jak psy z nosami przy ziemi,
A7
Lecz mnie i mojej pani
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Na tej ulicy już nie ma.
Kopciuszek jakby na luzie
Mówi: ”Gdy jesteś nikim, to spieprzaj”
I wsuwa ręce do tylnych kieszeni
Jak pewna aktoreczka.
Po chwili wchodzi Romeo
Pewny, że Julia jest jego,
Lecz ktoś trzeźwi go mówiąc:
„Coś ci się miesza kolego”.
Wnet gościa odprawili,
Nie mogło stać się inaczej;
Kopciuszek wciąż jeszcze zmiata
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Księżyc już prawie zniknął,
Gwiazdy przestały świecić
I nawet wróżka stąd
Zebrała już swoje rzeczy.
Prócz Kaina i Abla
I z Notre Dame dzwonnika też,
Wszyscy się kochają
Lub czekają na deszcz.
A Dobry Samarytanin
Ubrany, aż miło popatrzeć,
Idzie obejrzeć spektakl
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Ofelia jest starą panną
Co pod oknem stoi,
Lat ma dwadzieścia jeden,
Bardzo o nią się boję.
Jej zawód jest jej religią,
Jej grzechem brak życia,
Żelazną ma kamizelkę,
Śmierć dla niej jest romantyczna
I choć w wielką tęczę Noego
Zauroczona patrzy,
Czas spędza wpadając
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Einstein przeszedł tędy
Przed jakąś godziną
Przebrany za Robin Hooda
Z kufrem wspomnień w mgle zginął;
Wyglądał tak okropnie
Gdy żebrał o fajkę
Z nosem przy rynsztoku
Zapomniany całkiem.
Choć teraz był nikim,
Lecz jednak kiedyś coś znaczył,
Na elektrycznych grał skrzypcach
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Doktor Ohyda trzyma świat swój
W kubeczku ze skóry,
Jego bezpłciowi pacjenci
Próbują przebić mury.
I tutejsza przegrana,
Pielęgniarka co rządzi cyjankiem,
Ma w ręku karty z napisem:
„Zmiłuj się nad jego duszą”.
Wszyscy grają na gwizdkach
Dmuchając ile siły,
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Choć trochę się wychylisz.
Teraz po drugiej stronie
Szykują się do świąt,
Przybili zasłony
Jak niejeden ksiądz.
Łyżeczką karmią Casanovę,
By poczuł się pewniej,
Zatruwają słów morzem
I pewnością siebie.
Upiór z Opery krzyczy
Do dziewcząt: „Wy się wynoście” !
Bo Casanova za to, że tu przyszedł,
Karany jest właśnie.
O północy nadludzka załoga
I super agenci
Zbierają tu wszystkich,
Którzy wiedzą coś więcej.
Biorą ich do warsztatu,
Nakładają ciężary,
Do serc wmontowują
Śmiercionośne zegary.
Wysyłają za nami
Różnorakich szpiegów,
By z Ulicy Rozpaczy
Przypadkiem ktoś nie zbiegł.
Chwała Neptunowi Nerona,
Titanic wypływa o świcie,
„Po czyjej jesteś stronie” ?
Przeraźliwie krzyczą.
Na statku kapitańskim
Walczy dwóch poetów,
Wokół szydercze uśmiechy
I bukiety kwiatów.
Między oknami morza,
Gdzie syreny skaczą,
Nie trzeba wiele myśleć
O Ulicy Rozpaczy.
Dostałem twój list wczoraj,
Akurat gdy klamka zapadła,
Więc nie żartuj pytając
Jak mi leci, do diabła.
Ci ludzie, o których mówisz
Zmarnieli aż tak, że...
Musiałem pozmieniać
Ich imiona i twarze.
Nie przysyłaj mi listów,
Nie chcę już na nie patrzeć,
Chyba, że wyślesz je do mnie
Z Ulicy Rozpaczy.
DESOLATION
ROW
Words and music Bob Dylan Released August 30. 1965 on
„Highway 61 Revisited”
and in live versions on
Live 1966 and Unplugged (1995)
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They"re selling postcards of the hanging
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They"re painting the passports brown
A7
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
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The circus is in town
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Here comes the blind commissioner
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They"ve got him in a trance
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One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
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The other is in his pants
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And the riot squad they"re restless
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They need somewhere to go
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As Lady and I look out tonight
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From Desolation Row
"It takes one to know one," she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo, he"s moaning
"You Belong to Me I Believe"
And someone says," You"re in the wrong place, my friend
You better leave"
And the only sound that"s left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row
Now the moon is almost hidden
The stars are beginning to hide
The fortunetelling lady
Has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody is making love
Or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he"s dressing
He"s getting ready for the show
He"s going to the carnival tonight
On Desolation Row
Now Ophelia, she"s "neath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday
She already is an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic
She wears an iron vest
Her profession"s her religion
Her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Noah"s great rainbow
She spends her time peeking
Into Desolation Row
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On Desolation Row
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They"re trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser
She"s in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
"Have Mercy on His Soul"
They all play on penny whistles
You can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough
From Desolation Row
Across the street they"ve nailed the curtains
They"re getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera
A perfect image of a priest
They"re spoonfeeding Casanova
To get him to feel more assured
Then they"ll kill him with self-confidence
After poisoning him with words
And the Phantom"s shouting to skinny girls
"Get Outa Here If You Don"t Know
Casanova is just being punished for going
To Desolation Row"
Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row
Praise be to Nero"s Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody"s shouting
"Which Side Are You On?"
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain"s tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation Row
Yes, I received your letter yesterday
(About the time the door knob broke)
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they"re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can"t read too good
Don"t send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row
In this song, Desolation Row, Dylan is warning people that society is
heading for destruction, an apocalype, if it continues in its then direction.
With the US locked in a mortal embrace with Russia, teetering on a knife-edge
of mutually assured nuclear destruction, it was reasonable for people to be
concerned (more like scared half to death), but governments of the time characterised
anyone who spoke out against the Cold War as unpatriotic, even traitorous. When
we read the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it is horrifying to
realise just how close the world came to letting the generals on both sides
unleash a nuclear holocaust that would have likely destroyed much of the world
as we know it.
That it didn"t happen was in part due to the American President at the
time John F. Kennedy having read history and being aware that the reason the
First World War was so appallingly wasteful of human life was that the
technology for waging war had advanced (machine guns etc) while the mind set of
the generals had stayed in the past when a bayonet charge against an entrenched
enemy might have worked. Kennedy saw a parallel with the development of nuclear
weapons of mass destruction, but the generals were still in a pre-nuclear
mindset. It was a defining moment in history, and an illustration of the
proverb "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it"
In this song, Desolation Row, Dylan uses cultural and religious stereotypes as
metaphors to describe this lunacy of main stream 1960"s American society.
Desolation Row is the name he gives to the place where people have gone to opt
out of the lunacy, and who are being punished by society for not wanting to
participate in the lunacy. For example, the lines "They"re
spoonfeeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured. Then they"ll kill
him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words. And the Phantom"s
shouting to skinny girls "Get outa here if you don"t know, Casanova
is just being punished for going To Desolation Row"
Desolation Row is a counter-culture destination, though more a state of mind
than an actual place. In this example he is referring to the average wage slave
who is made to work long hours doing dehumanising work until they have a heart
attack and die: Now at midnight all the agents, and the superhuman crew (the
FBI and other covert agencies looking for un-American activists), come out and round
up everyone that knows more than they do (and who are therefore dangerous).
Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine is strapped
across their shoulders (the yoke of dehumanising work) and then the kerosene
(to burn the midnight oil, to work long hours) is brought down from the castles
(capitalist corporations) by insurance men (Actuaries who calculate how long
someone is likely to live under these circumstances) who go check to see that
nobody is escaping to Desolation Row (no-one is opting out of the system)
It is possible that the name Desolation Row was influenced by an earlier
land-mark book by writer John Steinbeck -- Cannery Row
-- a place where the outcasts of society found a home.
Cannery Row is an actual place in Monterey California. It refers to the
derelect sardine cannery whose close environs was occupied in the book by
homeless men and the town brothel. The cannery was derelect because the
sardines had disappeared through a combination of over-fishing, agricultural run-off
and unspecified pollutants from a nearby army base. For Steinbeck, what
happened to the sardines was symbolic of the ruthlessly exploit until exhausted
attitude that society and the military-industrial complex had for the
environment and ordinary people. Wring all the goodness out of something, then
when it worthless, toss on the rubbish-heap and give it to the worthless people
who are no use to us.
Steinbeck"s influence and ideas on social justice for the economic
underclass of American society can be clearly seen in the works of Dylan and
others (Woody Guthrie, Billy Brag, Bruce Sprinsteen and many others).
Steinbeck"s motivation derives from his experiences during the Great
Depression and later when tens of millions of Americans became impoverished and
suffered great hardship while the rest of American society who still had
something did their best to ignore them. Steinbeck was a journalist who was one
of the only haves who actually got down and dirty to experience first hand what
it was like to be a have not. His work was intended to confront the same
middle-class complacency that Dylan is challenging.
Finally, a quick note on my motivation for writing this. I happened to play
Desolation Row to my seven year old son and five year old daughter as we drove
to their school one morning recently. Both reacted to it quite strongly, saying
they loved it. Now they request it every other day. I was surprised because I
thought its fairly hefty themes might be beyond young children. As it turned
out, its the harmonica that they liked. Since their mother also likes Dylan,
they might also have some kind of genetic pre-disposition for liking nasal
singing and strident harmonica. In any case, I personally find it a most
inspired and moving piece of music.
David Tuffley