I think a worthy interpretation of the song I've heard is that it's based on Moby Dick by Herman Melville, the Piranhas being an allusion to the whale.
Ishmael was the lone survivor, who would have had to hold the rope and sail and the same time, etc.
I would argue that the word in the middle verse is 'sermon' and not 'cement', there is definitely no trace of a 't' sound on the end. In the novel there are numerous sermons, and it could be physically unrolled if it were on a scroll or something.
@ijordingo Oh my. Don't get us on unrolled sermons! The cement is like "unroll the red carpet," but I like your lyric better. The scroll with the fold is the Revelation, unrolled, and in Ch. 10, John eats the little scroll, as Ezekiel did. The sailor has the rope and sail, as Cohen writes ,He said all men shall be sailors then until the sea has feed them, for... Nice Moby Dick stuff, and likely correct. Dylan was just doing Moby Dick for his Nobel speech.
@ijordingo Oh my. Don't get us on unrolled sermons! The cement is like "unroll the red carpet," but I like your lyric better. The scroll with the fold is the Revelation, unrolled, and in Ch. 10, John eats the little scroll, as Ezekiel did. The sailor has the rope and sail, as Cohen writes ,He said all men shall be sailors then until the sea has feed them, for... Nice Moby Dick stuff, and likely correct. Dylan was just doing Moby Dick for his Nobel speech.
I think a worthy interpretation of the song I've heard is that it's based on Moby Dick by Herman Melville, the Piranhas being an allusion to the whale.
Ishmael was the lone survivor, who would have had to hold the rope and sail and the same time, etc. I would argue that the word in the middle verse is 'sermon' and not 'cement', there is definitely no trace of a 't' sound on the end. In the novel there are numerous sermons, and it could be physically unrolled if it were on a scroll or something.
Food for thought
@ijordingo Oh my. Don't get us on unrolled sermons! The cement is like "unroll the red carpet," but I like your lyric better. The scroll with the fold is the Revelation, unrolled, and in Ch. 10, John eats the little scroll, as Ezekiel did. The sailor has the rope and sail, as Cohen writes ,He said all men shall be sailors then until the sea has feed them, for... Nice Moby Dick stuff, and likely correct. Dylan was just doing Moby Dick for his Nobel speech.
@ijordingo Oh my. Don't get us on unrolled sermons! The cement is like "unroll the red carpet," but I like your lyric better. The scroll with the fold is the Revelation, unrolled, and in Ch. 10, John eats the little scroll, as Ezekiel did. The sailor has the rope and sail, as Cohen writes ,He said all men shall be sailors then until the sea has feed them, for... Nice Moby Dick stuff, and likely correct. Dylan was just doing Moby Dick for his Nobel speech.