Legendary American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan delivered his Nobel Lecture to the Swedish Academy in the form of an audio file on Monday.
Dylan, who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, was required by laureates to give a lecture no later than June 10 to collect the some $900,000 in prize money.
The speech, published as an audio file, with a text transcript, on the Academy’s website, starts ‘When I first received this Nobel Prize for Literature, I got to wondering exactly how my songs related to literature. I wanted to reflect on it and see where the connection was. I’m going to try to articulate that to you. And most likely it will go in a roundabout way, but I hope what I say will be worthwhile and purposeful.’
The Swedish Academy’s permanent secretary Sara Danius said in a statement published on the Academy’s website that “The speech is extraordinary and, as one might expect, eloquent.
‘Now that the Lecture has been delivered, the Dylan adventure is coming to a close.’
Dylan did not turn up for the Nobel awards ceremony or banquet in Stockholm last year. Instead, then US ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji read Dylan’s thank-you speech at the banquet.
In the statement, Danius also thanked Dylan and his staff ‘for having cooperated so beautifully.’ (IANS)
