Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[mwey]

I heard this Bob Dylan's song a million times. I never really understand the most important sentence "The answer is blowing in the wind." All I can guess is there is no answer for his previous many "how many" questions. But how is this relevant to no answer?

Thanks for your help in advance,
Mark

[CP]

The great Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, the foremost rock / folk poet of the 20th century, had to rhyme (or nearly rhyme) his lines, so he wrote

The answer, my friend,
Is blowin' in the wind.
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

It's poetry, or at least song lyrics, and if it were immediately understandable, or could be interpreted only one way, it would not be very interesting or very artistic. He also wrote, as part of the same song:

How many roads must a man walk down
Before they call him a man?

Roads could mean many things; being called a man could be interpreted as many things. He isn't talking about how many different streets a boy has to literally walk on before he is entitled to be called a man.

Maybe the answer can be discovered by listening to the random sounds of the wind and letting one's mind free-associate until an answer becomes obvious. Maybe it means the answer was once spoken, but the words were carried off by the wind, and they will never be heard again. Maybe it means that all true information is broadcast over the airwaves, and one need only listen and watch carefully to learn everything.

What do you think it means for the answer to be blowing in the wind?
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