Bob Dylan - "I And I" Lyric Interpretation

That's nicely put. I think that's in part the function of the biblical allusions in the song. They are examples of something from that large river being channeled through the contemporary, individual "I" that sings the song.

I really like the idea of a song like this being like a dream dreamt at the intersection of he 2 "I's."

L.

 

I hear (or in the case, don't hear) the absence you are speaking of - there is no direct self-recrimination. Without knowing Dylan (assuming the narrator even IS "Dylan") from his other songs, there is limited internal evidence that this one night stand is a moral lapse that leads to serious reflection for the narrator. But if not that ... then what? Is it because the tryst has failed to address "an emptiness that can't be filled" "deep down inside"? (Or, as Lou Reed more bluntly put it, "a hole in my heart the size of a truck that won't be filled by a one night f***")? That loneliness and alienation really wouldn't explain his concern about travelling in the "narrow lanes" and the "untrodden path" though. Unless he was trying to tell us that the righteous path is a lonely one (which would stand in stark contrast to "Precious Angel" and "Covenant Woman").

 

I think the situation with the woman is a symptom of a larger crisis of identity, one that the singer is struggling to come to terms with (it's not a loss of identity, but a problem of uneasy realization). He knows something about himself now that he didn't know or fully know before. Maybe the result of looking hard into justice's beautiful face? Of failing at the full ideals of the untrodden path he once took? I'm not sure what brought it on specifically, although biographically probably had something to do with waking up in the wake of his conversion experience into a world and a condition and a nature that was just still stubbornly there.

What he's realized has something to do both with why he's in bed with the woman in the first place and why he can't stick around to talk with her when she wakes up (let alone make breakfast, arrange another date, meet her parents, etc., and etc....). The only thing he can do is go for that walk and confess his nature to that "you" he addresses impossibly in the present tense. Make shoes, walk barefoot. It's not clear to me that the narrow lanes have to be righteous, although they can be or they can require something like righteousness, whether it's the worthiness of 2 Timothy's workman or the honesty of the outlaw. He just knows they're the ones he has to tread, neither stumbling nor staying put.

L.

 

While searching Wikipedia for information for another lyric interpretation thread (The Grateful Dead's "My Brother Esau"), I came across this entry. It may be a coincidence and mean nothing at all in terms of our discussion, or perhaps ....

The Wandering Jew is a fictional figure whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century.

The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming. The exact nature of the wanderer's indiscretion varies in different versions of the tale, as do aspects of his character; sometimes he is said to be a shoemaker or other tradesman, while sometimes he is the doorman at Pontius Pilate's estate.

 

I wasn't aware of the shoemaker possibility, but certainly people have been making wandering Jew comments concerning Dylan for a long time. This song is one of the reasons why.

L.

 

My interpretation likely is naive insofar as I don't know much about Dylan personally and haven't scratched my head terribly hard about the meaning of this intriguing and moving lyric. I take the phrase "I and I" to be about union of the individuated self with God. The chorus to me is a description of the absolute, where human values fall away and there's no place for even the highest ideals. There is only the scorching light of godhead, which, as the Old Testament points out, no man can see in this life. The singer is wandering in a world of duality while reaching for oneness, even as others sleep or go about their business. He recognizes the woman in his bed as a manifestation of divinity, but his mind is beyond occupied perceptions that can't be put into words. In his travels, he has come to recognize cosmic balance in the Biblical formula "eye for an eye." In the final line of the last verse, he observes his role: to live in the world, even as he reaches beyond it, and serve his fellow men.

 

I and I
In creation where one’s nature neither honors nor forgives
I and I
One says to the other, no man sees my face and lives

Bob, of course, has used biblical allusion in many songs. After all the album is called "Infidels". In general there is a contrast from verse to chorus. Both in instrument and in word. The first verse in general is a man staring with gentle admiration into the dead dark hum of a bedroom night as he watches a woman sleep. There is no mystery as to who this is. But there is also no mystery that he knows it wont last.

And into the chorus to be discussed.

The chorus marches in. Its reality. The struggle. And Bob uses the "I and I" as 1) A reference to the "I AM" and 2) the "I" that is ego-man. There is a guilt complex here I believe. A resolve also that creation neither can be admirable nor can in cut each other some slack. And that struggle can be seen inwardly spiritually. The mans "I" confronted with the Higher "I". And more allusion to punctuate this with the biblical reference of "no man sees my face and lives" (Gods conversation and revelation personally and on an intimate level to Moses). I believe here Dylan is saying this in reference to both man and the spiritual. That he must confront the honest truth within from his own conscience and also in the spiritual sense.

In summary, Id say the chorus is the confrontation with the reality of who he is and the dilemma in knowing that he cannot change. That the peaceful woman (his inner peace as well) is only temporary.

 

I purposely did not read any posts before I wrote mine. Our thoughts are very similar on this. Inner'esting.

 

Wouldn't mind hearing your responses to the rest of the thread.

L.

 

Don't know whether you were talking to me, lschwart, but I'll try to get to it this weekend.

 

I was responding directly to mpayan's post, but I'd be happy to hear yours too!

L.

 

I've always taken the "I and I" as God speaking and the other verses as man/the person speaking and somewhat reflecting on God.