今天Bob Dylan在他的網站上發表了一篇題為「致樂迷與擁護者」的聲明。原文見此。順手翻譯了一下，歡迎抓錯。這老頭真逗啊。
致樂迷與擁護者
容我澄清幾件事，關於一年多來所謂中國之行的爭議。首先，我們從來沒被拒絕到中國演出。這都是一家中國演出商搞的把戲，他們想在我唱完日本和韓國之後把我弄過去。我猜那傢伙什麼都還沒談定，就自己先印了門票，又和某些單位訂了約。當時我們其實無意到中國演出，後來整件事情既然沒發生，那個演出商八成為了挽回面子，才發表聲明說中國文化部駁回我的演出申請，好讓他有個脫身的下臺階。假如任何人願意稍微費點力氣去和中國有關單位查證，便會發現他們根本對整件事一無所知。
今年我們去成了，合作的是另一家演出商。根據MOJO雜誌，觀眾多半是洋鬼子，而且空位很多。非也。任何人問問任何一位去過現場的觀眾，便會知道現場多半是年輕的中國人，洋鬼子難得一見──假如真有的話。洋鬼子來得最多的是香港那場，不是北京。總共一萬三千個座位，我們賣掉差不多一萬兩千，剩下的都捐給了孤兒院。中國媒體確實把我當成六十年代偶像兜售，把我的照片和Joan Baez、Che Guevara、Jack Keruac和Allen Ginsberg一齊四處張掛。演唱會觀眾多半壓根兒不認識那些名字。不過無所謂，他們對我最近四五張專輯的歌反應熱烈。問問在場者便知。他們很年輕，而我的感覺是他們橫豎也沒聽過我早年的歌。
至於言論檢查，中國政府要求我事先提供演出歌名。由於無法提出合乎邏輯的答案，我們把先前三個月演過的歌目通通送去了。就算有任何歌曲、任何詞句通不過審查，也沒人告訴我。我們把每一首打算唱的歌都唱了。
如今每個人都知道：關於我的書有幾千幾萬本，要嘛已經出了，要嘛即將上市。我在此鼓勵每一位遇過我、聽過我、甚至看過我的人，都趕緊展開行動，寫一本屬於自己的書。誰知道，搞不好哪個人真會寫出一本了不起的書呢。
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To my fans and followers
Allow me to clarify a couple of things about this so-called China controversy which has been going on for over a year. First of all, we were never denied permission to play in China. This was all drummed up by a Chinese promoter who was trying to get me to come there after playing Japan and Korea. My guess is that the guy printed up tickets and made promises to certain groups without any agreements being made. We had no intention of playing China at that time, and when it didn’t happen most likely the promoter had to save face by issuing statements that the Chinese Ministry had refused permission for me to play there to get himself off the hook. If anybody had bothered to check with the Chinese authorities, it would have been clear that the Chinese authorities were unaware of the whole thing.
We did go there this year under a different promoter. According to Mojo magazine the concerts were attended mostly by ex-pats and there were a lot of empty seats. Not true. If anybody wants to check with any of the concert-goers they will see that it was mostly Chinese young people that came. Very few ex-pats if any. The ex-pats were mostly in Hong Kong not Beijing. Out of 13,000 seats we sold about 12,000 of them, and the rest of the tickets were given away to orphanages. The Chinese press did tout me as a sixties icon, however, and posted my picture all over the place with Joan Baez, Che Guevara, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. The concert attendees probably wouldn’t have known about any of those people. Regardless, they responded enthusiastically to the songs on my last 4 or 5 records. Ask anyone who was there. They were young and my feeling was that they wouldn’t have known my early songs anyway.
As far as censorship goes, the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing. There’s no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play.
Everybody knows by now that there’s a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future. So I’m encouraging anybody who’s ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get in on the action and scribble their own book. You never know, somebody might have a great book in them.
