I think we might have mentioned this before ... from Stuff:

Nelson poet Cliff Fell found Dylan had used lines from prolific Roman poet Ovid on his album Modern Times, recorded this year.

Last weekend he received an e-mail from New Zealand-born Harvard University professor Richard Thomas congratulating him on the findings and saying he would include them in his lectures and a book he was writing.

He teaches courses on the classics, including Ovid, and on Dylan.

Fell said he stumbled across the borrowed lines when he was studying for a poem he was writing about Ovid.

He said two of Dylan's songs, Workingman's Blues and Ain't Talking, lifted translated lines from Tristia, a book of poems by Ovid.

For example, Fell compared Dylan's line "no one can ever claim that I took up arms against you" from Workingman's Blues with Ovid's "My cause is better: no one can claim that I ever took up arms against you".


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Scott Warmuth scripsit:

I saw your post regarding Dylan's use of Ovid lines, as discovered by poet CLiff Fell.

A few weeks ago I noticed an article in New Zealand's The Nelson Mail by Fell online at http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/nelsonmail/0,2106,3823946a6507,00.html.

In the article Fell cited four examples and wrote, "There may be more, for all I know...Not that I'll be counting."

I decided to do some counting, and I was able to find a significant number of other lines that Mr. Dylan seems to have been fond of beyond the ones that Fell cited. I have included them below.

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Bob Dylan "Ain't Talkin'" -
"Every nook and cranny has its tears"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 1, Section 3, Line 24 -
"every nook and corner had its tears"
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Bob Dylan - "Ain't Talkin'" -
"all my loyal and my much-loved companions"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 1, Section 3, Line 65 -
"loyal and much loved companions, bonded in brotherhood"
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Bob Dylan - "Ain't Talkin'" -
"I'll make the most of one last extra hour"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 1, Section 3, Line 68 -
"let me make the most of one last extra hour"
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Bob Dylan - "Workingman's Blues #2" -
"My cruel weapons have been put on the shelf"

Bob Dylan Ovid - Tristia, Book 2, Section 1, Line 179 -
"Show mercy, I beg you, shelve your cruel weapons"

(notice how Bob has reworked this line to make it rhyme with "You are dearer to me than myself/As you yourself can see ," which he also borrowed from Ovid)
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Bob Dylan - "The Levee's Gonna Break" -
"Some people got barely enough skin to cover their bones"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 4, Section 7, Line 51 -
"there's barely enough skin to cover my bones"
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Bob Dylan - "Ain't Talkin'" -
"I practice a faith that's been long abandoned"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 5, Section 7, Lines 63-64 -
"I practice terms long abandoned"
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Bob Dylan - "Ain't Talkin'" -
"They will tear your mind away from contemplation"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 5, Section 7, Line 66 -
"tear my mind from the contemplation of my woes"
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Bob Dylan - "Ain't Talkin'" -
"In the last outback at the world's end"

Ovid - Black Sea Letters, Book 2, Part 7, Line 66
"I'm in the last outback, at the world's end"
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Bob Dylan - "Ain't Talkin" -
"They approve of me and share my code"

Ovid - Black Sea Letters, Book 3, Part 2, Line 38 -
"who approve, and share, your code"
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Here are the lines that Cliff Fell mentioned in his article:

Bob Dylan - "Working Man's Blues #2" -
"No one can ever claim/That I took up arms against you"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 2, Lines 51-53 -
"no one can claim that I ever took up arms against you"
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Bob Dylan - "Workingman's Blues #2" -
"To lead me off in a cheerful dance"

Tristia, Book 5, Section 12, Line 8 -
"or Niobe, bereaved, lead off some cheerful dance"
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Bob Dylan - "Workingman's Blues #2" -
"Tell me now, am I wrong in thinking/That you have forgotten me?"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 5, Section 13, Line 18 -
"that I'm wrong in thinking you have forgotten me!"
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Bob Dylan - "Workingman's Blues #2" -
"You are dearer to me than myself/As you yourself can see"

Ovid - Tristia, Book 5, Section 14, Line 2 -
"wife, dearer to me than myself, you yourself can see"