INTERPRETATIONS

I must react to Robert Hilburn’s presumptuous and sophomoric statement that Bob Dylan’s “Dark Eyes” is a “chilling social statement” about America (“Dylan Brings It All Back Home Again,” June 9).

Hilburn engages in an amateurish, oversymbolized “reading” of the poem, ignoring Dylan’s complexity, the mystery and inscrutable poignancy of his lyrics that demand unraveling on many levels--personal, social, political, metaphysical--and not merely judged as a statement of the current pop project emanating from Hollywood and Mad Ave.

“Dark Eyes” could be interpreted in any of a number of ways that involve such factors as passion, youth and love ironically juxtaposed against the dark side of humanity and the inevitability of death and ghosts that haunt one’s conscience.

DONNA JORDAN

Carlsbad