Bob Dylan’s Memoir in Persian
originally published in 2004 by the American Publisher Simon & Schuster, the 304-page volume will be published in about 350 pages in Persian and cover selected points from Dylan’s long career.
The first part of Bob Dylan’s planned 3-volume memoir titled ‘Chronicles: Volume One’ has been translated into Persian and will hit the bookstores in Iran in winter.
Iranian translator Seyed Mohammad Ali Borghei has rendered the book into Persian and Donya-e-Eqtesad Publication will publish it before the end of the Iranian calendar year in March 2017, said a post in the Telegram Channel of the publication.
Originally published in 2004 by the American Publisher Simon & Schuster, the 304-page volume will be published in about 350 pages in Persian and cover selected points from Dylan’s long career.
Dylan, 75, is an American songwriter, singer, artist, and writer. He has been influential in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when his songs chronicled social unrest. His lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences.
Earlier in October, the Nobel Prize Committee announced that it would be awarding Dylan the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. The New York Times reported: “Mr. Dylan, 75, is the first musician to win the award, and his selection on Thursday is perhaps the most radical choice in a history stretching back to 1901.”
Dylan did not react immediately to receiving the honor and his silence caused a lot of speculation concerning his winning the Nobel Prize; however, a week later he contacted the Nobel Foundation, saying, “The news about the Nobel Prize left me speechless. I appreciate the honor so much.”
In November, the Swedish Academy announced that Dylan would not travel to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize Ceremony due to “pre-existing commitments”. On December 5, the Academy announced that Dylan was writing his speech, which “will be read at the Nobel banquet in Stockholm” on December 10.
Dylan Working on Volume 2
In ‘Chronicles: Volume One’, Dylan has written three chapters about the year between his arrival in New York City in 1961 and recording his first album, focusing on a brief period of relative obscurity, while virtually ignoring the mid-1960s when his fame was at its height. He has also devoted chapters to two of his lesser-known albums.
The book was one of the five finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award in the Biography/Autobiography category for the 2004 publishing year.
It will be Borghei’s first published book as a translator. “I started translating the book last year. It took me four months to finish it then I handed it to Donya-e-Eqtesad Publication and it is currently waiting for the publishing license to be issued by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance,” said the translator.
In September 2012, Dylan told the American biweekly magazine Rolling Stone that he is working on Volume 2 and that it may focus primarily on the early years of his recording career. During the interview, he claimed that the biggest holdup in the process was not the writing itself, but rather the editing: “I don’t mind writing it, but it’s rereading it and the time it takes to reread – that for me is difficult”.