Weekend

Bob Dylan has been accused of plagiarising an obscure American poet in his latest album Modern Times. Now Nelsonpoet Cliff Fell has revealed a new string of poetic influences that date back almost 2000 years.

22 – THE NELSON MAIL Saturday, October 7, 2006

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The legendary Americansongwriter and rock star, who isknown to many of his fans as‘‘the poet laureate of

rock’n’roll’’, released Modern Times inAugust and saw it shoot straight to No 1in CD charts around the world, his firstalbum to meet such public acclaim in 30years.

This success was swiftly followed bycontroversy, when it was shown thatsome of the lyrics in Modern Times beara strong resemblance to lines by anobscure 19th century American poet,Henry Timrod.

That sort of thingfascinates many Dylan fans,though the controversyinitially passed me bybecause, by pure chance, Iwas slowly uncovering other,more ancient influences inthe new album.

When I got my copy ofModern Times, I had juststarted reading Tristia, abook of poems by the Latinpoet Ovid. It’s the book oflaments he wrote when hewas sent into exile fromRome, about 2000 years ago.

I was trying to read it inLatin, but my Latin’s a bit rusty, so I wasalso reading it in the Penguin, PeterGreen translation. I sat down with thebook one evening, and the Dylan CD onthe stereo, and then this uncanny thinghappened - it was like I was suddenlyreading with my ears.

I heard this line from the songWorkingman’s Blues 2: ‘‘No one can everclaim/That I took up arms against you.’’

But there it was singing on the page,from Book 2 of Tristia: ‘‘My cause isbetter: no one can claim that I ever tookup arms against you.’’

It was weird, though it didn’t entirely

surprise me, because in Thunder on theMountain, the album’s first song, Dylansings: ‘‘I’ve been sitting down andstudying The Art of Love/I think it’sgonna fit me like a glove,’’ and I knewthat The Art of Love was the book Ovidwas most famous for and one of thereasons he was sent into exile.

I was vaguely bemused by thesimilarity, but thought little more of it. Infact, I put it down to a simplecoincidence, and kept on with Tristia.

But I’m a slow reader, and it was onlya couple of nights ago that I came to thefinal sections of the poem, and there I

discovered enough lines fromModern Times to know thatDylan really had been therebefore me.

So which lines are they,then, that have worked theirway into Modern Times?

Apart from the ‘‘take uparms’’ line, they come from thelast three sections of Book 5 ofTristia - and relate to two ofthe record’s best songs,Workingman’s Blues 2 andAin’t Talkin’, the last song onthe album.

Section 13 of Tristia beginswith Ovid sending greetings

from ‘‘his outback’’, and section 14speaks of Ovid’s wife being known ‘‘tothe world’s end’’.

In Ain’t Talkin’ Dylan closes the song,‘‘Heart burnin’, still yearnin’/In the lastoutback at the world’s end.’’

While that similarity might also be putdown to coincidence, there are otherlines that are much closer to Ovid. Theyall come in the song Workingman’s Blues2 and put the connection beyond doubt.

For example, in Tristia, Book 5,Section 12, Ovid writes: ‘‘Or Niobe,bereaved, lead off some cheerful dance,’’where Dylan sings: ‘‘I’m expecting

you/To lead me off in a cheerful dance.’’

Or, in Section 13, line 18, of Tristia,Ovid has: ‘‘That I’m wrong in thinkingyou have forgotten me,’’ while Dylan has:‘‘Tell me now, am I wrong inthinking/That you have forgotten me?’’

Finally, Ovid starts Section 14 ofBook 5 with: ‘‘How great a monumentI’ve built you in my writings, /wife,dearer to me than myself, you yourselfcan see,’’ where Dylan has, in one of hismost beautiful lyrics: ‘‘My cruel weaponshave been put on the shelf/Come sitdown on my knee/You are dearer to methan myself/As you yourself can see.’’

There may be more, for all I know.I’ve only just started reading the BlackSea Letters, the verse epistles publishedin the same Penguin volume. Not that I’llbe counting. Anyone who knowsanything about Dylan knows that he’sfrequently been a magpie, a bricoleur -

an artist who picks up tunes, lines, ideasand images from all over the place.

That’s part of his process as a writer.What I find much more intriguing aboutthis discovery, is that the more you listento Modern Times, the more you sensethat Dylan’s cast the songs as a modernlament, in the mask of a new Ovid, akind of modern exile in the modernworld.

And that’s what Dylan is, in a way -With the mystique that surrounds him,he’s the ultimate exile, a voice thatseems very close to us, but that alsospeaks from far away, across anunbridgeable divide, alone in that ‘‘lastoutback at the world’s end’’.

This issue is bound to raise furtherflutterings of controversy and charges ofplagiarism. I would hope not. That’s notthe point. People who talk like that aresimply missing it.

This is homage, not plagiarism. It’snot something to bemoan, but celebrate.A great artist is forging new work, and ashe intimates himself, the lines are ‘‘gonnafit me like a glove’’. Besides, think whatit’s going to do for Ovid - it’ll keep hiswork alive for another 2000 years.

No artist works in an artistic vacuum.Anything original must go back to theorigins.

Dylan’s in good company. Ovid,himself, stole lines and stories fromHomer, as did Virgil. And Dante, Chaucerand Shakespeare all stole ideas and linesfrom Virgil and Ovid. It goes on. It’s apart of the poetic process. In fact, to befrank about it, I was only reading Ovid inthe first place, to snaffle up a line or twomyself.

❑ Cliff Fell is a tutor of creative writing atNelson Marlborough Institute ofTechnology. His book of poems TheAdulterer’s Bible was awarded theMontana Jessie Mackay prize for poetryin 2004.

PHOTO / REUTERS

MAGPIE: Music legend Bob Dylan’s latest album Modern Times bearsmore than just a passing resemblance to the work of Ovid.

WORDS LIVE ON: Ovid, in a woocut il-lustration.

Cliff Fell,similarities