Tri Nguyen

Sophie’s lying in bed with me babbling, playing, once in a while screeching. We’re listening to The Essential Bob Dylan and Sophie’s showing off the new dance she does up on hands and knees … let’s call it “The Sophie Hump.” Luna’s smiling at us from her corner armchair.

Then “Mr. Tambourine Man” comes on. Dylan’s spinning, twirling lyric has never sounded so vital, reaching right across 40 years straight into my heart. For a minute I feel like another man, one who took a came to a fork in the road and danced down a very different path.

Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
I’m not sleepy and there is no place i’m going to.
Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning i’ll come followin’ you.

Though i know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand,
Vanished from my hand,
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, i’m branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming.

Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
I’m not sleepy and there is no place i’m going to.
Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning i’ll come followin’ you.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship,
My senses have been stripped, my hands can’t feel to grip,
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin’.
I’m ready to go anywhere, i’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it.

Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
I’m not sleepy and there is no place i’m going to.
Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning i’ll come followin’ you.

Though you might hear laughin’, spinnin’, swingin’ madly across the sun,
It’s not aimed at anyone, it’s just escapin’ on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin’.
And if you hear vague traces of skippin’ reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it’s just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn’t pay it any mind, it’s just a shadow you’re
Seein’ that he’s chasing.

Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
I’m not sleepy and there is no place i’m going to.
Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning i’ll come followin’ you.

Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
I’m not sleepy and there is no place i’m going to.
Hey! mr. tambourine man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning i’ll come followin’ you.

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This entry was posted Thursday, January 5th, 2006 at 9:00 pm and is filed under family, day in the life. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.