Colombia’s peace deal between the government and the Marxist FARC rebels is a model for war-torn countries like Syria, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.

The peace accord, which was signed on November 24 to end five decades of conflict, is a “model for the resolution of armed conflicts that have yet to be resolved around the world.”

“It proves that what, at first, seems impossible, through perseverance may become possible even in Syria or Yemen or South Sudan,” Mr. Santos said during a lavish ceremony at Oslo’s City Hall, decked out in red, orange and white roses and carnations imported from Colombia for the occasion.

After a first peace deal was rejected in a popular vote on October 2, the rebels and government negotiated a new accord to end the conflict, which has killed more than 2,60,000 people, left 45,000 missing and forced nearly seven million to flee their homes.

“The Colombian peace agreement is a ray of hope in a world troubled by so many conflicts and so much intolerance,” he said.

Yet, in an interview just hours before Saturday’s prize ceremony, Mr. Santos acknowledged that the hardest part of the country’s peace process was yet to come. The period ahead “is a more difficult phase than the [negotiation] process itself, and will require a lot of effort, perseverance and humility,” he said. “A lot of coordination efforts will also be needed... to bring the benefits of peace to the regions that have suffered the most in the conflict,” he added.

Later on Saturday, another ceremony was set to be held in Stockholm where the Nobel laureates in the sciences, economics and literature would be honoured — a ceremony marked by the notable absence of this year's literature laureate, Bob Dylan. The first songwriter to win the prestigious award, he has declined to attend the glittering ceremony due to “pre-existing commitments.”

The no-show has created a stir in Sweden, where it has been perceived as a slight towards the Swedish Academy that awards the literature prize and the Nobel Foundation.

Announced as the winner on October 14, Dylan waited almost two weeks to publicly acknowledge the accolade, a silence one Academy member termed “impolite and arrogant.” Dylan did ultimately say he was honoured to win, but then informed the Academy in mid-November that he would not be travelling to Stockholm to accept his prize.

”A slap in the face,” remarked editorialist Lena Mellin at one of Sweden's biggest dailies, Aftonbladet.

The singer-songwriter has sent a thank-you speech to be read at the gala banquet at Stockholm's City Hall, attended by around 1,300 guests and the Swedish royal family.

And just before that, American rock star Patti Smith will sing Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall during the formal prize ceremony at Stockholm’s Concert Hall.

According to the Nobel Foundation, his prize should be presented to him in person sometime in 2017, either in Sweden or abroad.</s>Representing the Nobel laureate at the prize-giving, the US singer admitted nerves in performance at Swedish academy

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A very nervous Patti Smith initially stumbled through A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall in Stockholm on Saturday in a performance given to mark Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize for literature.

Making the award, Horace Engdahl, a Swedish literary historian and critic and member of the Swedish academy that awards the prize, responded to international criticism of the choice of a popular lyricist as recipient.

Engdahl said that when Dylan’s songs were heard first in the 1960s, “all of a sudden much of the bookish poetry in our world felt anaemic”.

The academy’s choice of Dylan, Engdahl said in Swedish, “seemed daring only beforehand and already seems obvious”.

And it was an unconventional prize-giving night in more ways than one. Dylan’s failure to attend the august gathering in Stockholm meant that Smith, the American singer most famous for her 1975 album, Horses, and the hit song Because the Night, was attending as his proxy.

The occasion proved too much for the singer, 69, who faltered after a few verses. Forgetting the lyric “I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’”, she apologised quietly but profusely to the jewel-bedecked audience and asked if she could start that section of the song again. “I am so nervous,” she explained.

Smith was encouraged by applause from the gathered dignatories and members of the Swedish royal family.

Her performance followed Engdahl’s justificatory speech, which opened with the question: “What brings about the great shifts in the world of literature? Often it is when someone seizes upon a simple, overlooked form, discounted as art in the high sense, and makes it mutate.”

In this way, Engdahl argued, the novel had once emerged from anecdote and letters, while drama had eventually derived from games and performance.

“In the distant past all poetry was sung or tunefully recited,” he said. Dylan had dedicated himself to music played for ordinary people and tried to copy it.

“But when he started to write songs they came out differently,” Engdahl said. “He panned poetry gold, whether on purpose or by accident is irrelevant … he gave back to poetry its elevated style, lost since the romantics.”

The award, announced in October, was the first to be given to a songwriter. Dylan took two weeks to return the academy’s phone calls or publicly acknowledge the award – which comes with prize money of $870,000 (£734,000) – leading to one member calling him “impolite and arrogant”.

Dylan, 75, wrote to the academy last month to say he had been left “speechless” by the honour, but that other commitments had made it “unfortunately impossible” for him to attend the ceremony.



However, the foundation said that the folk singer would be presented with his prize some time next year, either in Sweden or abroad.

The no-show has created a stir in Sweden, where it has been perceived as a slight towards the Swedish academy, which awards the literature prize, and the Nobel Foundation.

Dylan’s Nobel address will be read out by Engdahl at the ceremony.</s>OSLO -- Colombia's peace deal is a model for countries at war like Syria, President Juan Manuel Santos said Saturday as he accepted his Nobel Peace Prize, though a ceremony for other laureates was marked by Bob Dylan's no-show.

Earlier in the day in Oslo, Santos said in his acceptance speech that the Colombian peace accord, signed on Nov. 24 to end five decades of conflict, was a "model for the resolution of armed conflicts that have yet to be resolved around the world."

"It proves that what, at first, seems impossible, through perseverance may become possible even in Syria or Yemen or South Sudan," Santos said as he collected his prize at a lavish ceremony at Oslo's City Hall, decked out in red, orange and white roses and carnations imported from Colombia for the occasion.

Santos, who wore a dove lapel pin on his dark suit and whose wife donned a white dress with a peace symbol cut-out in the back, said his government was itself inspired by other peace processes in Northern Ireland, South Africa, the Middle East and Central America.

After a first peace deal was rejected in a popular vote on Oct. 2, the rebels and government negotiated a new accord to end the conflict, which has killed more than 260,000 people, left tens of thousands missing and forced nearly 7 million to flee their homes.

"The Colombian peace agreement is a ray of hope in a world troubled by so many conflicts and so much intolerance," he said.

Yet in an interview with AFP, Santos acknowledged that the hardest part of the country's peace process was yet to come.

The period ahead "is a more difficult phase than the (negotiation) process itself, and will require a lot of effort, perseverance and humility," he said.

"A lot of coordination efforts will also be needed ... to bring the benefits of peace to the regions that have suffered the most in the conflict," he added.

He also said he could offer no guarantees there would be a peace deal in place with Colombia's second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), before the end of his mandate in 2018.

"I will do my best but to establish a time frame is always counter-productive in negotiations of this sort," he said.

In a speech at the ceremony, Berit Reiss-Andersen, deputy chairwoman of the Nobel committee, all sides in Colombia to "continue on the road to reconciliation."

The Nobel prize consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a check for 8 million Swedish kronor (US$871,000), a sum Santos promised to donate to the victims of the war.

In Stockholm, 1,500 guests attended the formal ceremony where the laureates in the sciences, economics and literature were honored, and where the buzz was all about Dylan's absence.

Dylan sent a thank-you speech that was read at the gala banquet at Stockholm's City Hall, attended by around 1,300 guests and the Swedish royal family.

According to the Nobel Foundation, his prize should be presented to him in person sometime in 2017, either in Sweden or abroad.</s>Punk-rock singer Patti Smith was so nervous when performing a Bob Dylan song at the Nobel Prize ceremony that she forgot the lyrics to one of his songs.

She was accepting the award for literature on behalf of the Jewish singer, who said he could not attend the ceremony on Saturday in Stockholm, but during a performance of Dylan’s song “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” she stumbled over the words to the second verse.

Instead of ignoring her mistake, she addressed the audience directly. “I apologize, sorry, I’m so nervous,” said Smith, eliciting loud applause. Per her request, the orchestra started the song from the beginning, and the show went on.

The incident offered a rare moment of humanity in the otherwise well-choreographed ceremony, which was attended by the Swedish royal family.

The organizers of the ceremony — reportedly miffed that Dylan skipped the festivities — seemed overjoyed with Smith’s performance, noting that she received a standing ovation in a post on Facebook.</s>(JTA) — Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan said in a speech read at the Nobel Prize awards presentation that he “never could have imagined” that he would receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

“If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon,” Dylan wrote in the speech read Saturday night by the U.S. ambassador to Sweden, Azita Raji, in Stockholm. “I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least.”

Dylan, who last month told the Swedish Academy in a letter that he would be unable to travel to the Swedish capital to receive his Nobel Prize, citing “pre-existing commitments,” said in the letter that “I’m sorry I can’t be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize.” He said it took him “more than a few minutes to properly process” the fact that he won the prize.

He said he thought that William Shakespeare would have thought of himself as a dramatist – wondering where he could procure a human skull for Hamlet and how to stage his plays — rather than considering if what he wrote was literature.

Singer Patti Smith performed Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” in an arrangement for the Royal Philharmonic by Hans Ek, but had to apologize after blanking out on some of the lyrics due to nervousness.

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman and raised Jewish in Minnesota, Dylan, 75, wrote some of the most influential and well-known songs of the 1960s. His hits include “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Times They Are a-Changin’.”

Dylan in his speech said when he started writing songs as a teenager, his big dream was to make a record and hear his songs on the radio.

“I’ve made dozens of records and played thousands of concerts all around the world,” he said. “But it’s my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do. They seemed to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures, and I’m grateful for that.

“Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, ‘Are my songs literature?'” he added, concluding: “So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.”

Dylan is still required to deliver a Nobel lecture in order to receive the $927,740 prize. The lecture must be given within six months starting from Dec. 10, and can be given at the place of Dylan’s choosing. The academy has indicated that the lecture could be a concert.

Also speaking at the banquet, the Swedish Academy’s literary historian Horace Engdahl said Dylan “gave back to the language of poetry its elevated style, lost since the Romantics.”</s>Bob Dylan admitted he was stunned and surprised when he was told he had won a Nobel prize because he had never stopped to consider whether his songs were literature.

Dylan, who did not attend the prize-giving ceremony in Stockholm, and whose speech was read out by the US ambassador to Sweden at the annual awards dinner, said the prize was “something I never could have imagined or seen coming”.

He said from an early age he had read and absorbed the works of past winners and giants of literature such as Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus and Hemingway. But said it was “truly beyond words” that he was joining those names on the winners list. “If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel prize, I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon,” he wrote.

The announcement that Dylan had won the literature prize caused controversy with critics arguing his lyrics were not literature. On learning he had been awarded the literature prize Dylan said he thought of Shakespeare. “When he was writing Hamlet, I’m sure he was thinking about a lot of different things: ‘Who’re the right actors for these roles? How should this be staged? Do I really want to set this in Denmark?’

“His creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind, but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with. ‘Is the financing in place? Are there enough good seats for my patrons? Where am I going to get a human skull?’ I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare’s mind was the question: ‘Is this literature?’

“Like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavours and dealing with all aspects of life’s mundane matters. ‘Who are the best musicians for these songs? Am I recording in the right studio? Is this song in the right key?’ Some things never change, even in 400 years. Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself ‘are my songs literature?’ So, I do thank the Swedish academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.”

Earlier during the awards ceremony a nervous Patti Smith stumbled through Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall in a performance given to mark the handing over of the absent Dylan’s Nobel prize in literature.

Formally presenting the award Horace Engdahl, a Swedish literary critic and member of the Swedish academy behind the prize,, said the academy’s choice of Dylan “seemed daring only beforehand and already seems obvious”.

Banquet speech by Bob Dylan given by the United States Ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji, at the Nobel Banquet, 10 December 2016.

Good evening, everyone. I extend my warmest greetings to the members of the Swedish Academy and to all of the other distinguished guests in attendance tonight.

I’m sorry I can’t be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize. Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an early age, I’ve been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction: Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway. These giants of literature whose works are taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression. That I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words.

I don’t know if these men and women ever thought of the Nobel honor for themselves, but I suppose that anyone writing a book, or a poem, or a play anywhere in the world might harbor that secret dream deep down inside. It’s probably buried so deep that they don’t even know it’s there.

If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact, during the year I was born and for a few years after, there wasn’t anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least.

I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. I began to think about William Shakespeare, the great literary figure. I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist. The thought that he was writing literature couldn’t have entered his head. His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken not read. When he was writing Hamlet, I’m sure he was thinking about a lot of different things: “Who’re the right actors for these roles?” “How should this be staged?” “Do I really want to set this in Denmark?” His creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind, but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with. “Is the financing in place?” “Are there enough good seats for my patrons?” “Where am I going to get a human skull?” I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare’s mind was the question “Is this literature?”

When I started writing songs as a teenager, and even as I started to achieve some renown for my abilities, my aspirations for these songs only went so far. I thought they could be heard in coffee houses or bars, maybe later in places like Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium. If I was really dreaming big, maybe I could imagine getting to make a record and then hearing my songs on the radio. That was really the big prize in my mind. Making records and hearing your songs on the radio meant that you were reaching a big audience and that you might get to keep doing what you had set out to do.

Well, I’ve been doing what I set out to do for a long time, now. I’ve made dozens of records and played thousands of concerts all around the world. But it’s my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do. They seemed to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures and I’m grateful for that.

But there’s one thing I must say. As a performer I’ve played for 50,000 people and I’ve played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50. Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto themselves. They can perceive things more clearly. Your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried. The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.

But, like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life’s mundane matters. “Who are the best musicians for these songs?” “Am I recording in the right studio?” “Is this song in the right key?” Some things never change, even in 400 years.

Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, “Are my songs literature?”

So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.

My best wishes to you all,</s>STOCKHOLM — Patti Smith needed two attempts to get through Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm on Saturday.

The American singer-songwriter forgot the lyrics in the second verse and had to pause to regain her composure.

“I apologize. I’m sorry, I’m so nervous,” Smith said, asking the orchestra to start over.

The audience in Stockholm’s Concert Hall, many dressed in formal attire, clapped to support Smith as she tried anew.

She appeared to draw a blank again in the third verse, but only briefly, and finished the song with an emotional performance that left some in the crowd misty-eyed.
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers book 40th anniversary concert at St. Paul’s Xcel Center</s>Should a songwriter even be eligible? Why wouldn't Dylan acknowledge he'd won? When would he pay the prize committee its proper respects?

Would he be attending the ceremony to receive this once-in-a-lifetime honor?

The answer to that last one was no, Bob Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman in Hibbing, Minnesota, would not be attending the Stockholm ceremony to pick up his medal. Patti Smith went in his place, bringing with her a gentler controversy: Smith forgot the lyrics to "A Hard Rain's Gonna' Fall," and had to start over. She blamed her nerves.

As for that first question -- should Bob Dylan, song lyricist, even be considered for the Nobel? -- Dylan dealt with it in his speech... in his own way.

Dylan's acceptance speech, read out from the stage by Azita Raji, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, tries to reckon with his joining fellow literature laureates, the greats in the canon of modern writing.

And the not-so-modern: Dylan says the guy who came to mind when he learned he'd won was William Shakespeare, how much thought the master put into the craft of storytelling, right down to the smallest detail. One thing he didn't worry about: What should I call this thing I'm making?

Call it what you want. Dylan calls it his life's work, and his thoughtful, gracious acceptance speech is proof the Nobel honor means a great deal to him.

Forget the little twists and turns. Pay attention to the words.</s>There has been ferment among the literati since Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Many say that however well Dylan does what he does, it is not literature. Dylan did not go to Stockholm Saturday to collect his prize, which the Swedish Academy says was awarded “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Well, then:

“God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son’

Abe says, ‘Man, you must be puttin’ me on’

With his memories in a trunk

Passed this way an hour ago

Then he went off sniffing drainpipes

Now you would not think to look at him

But he was famous long ago

The New York Times primly notes that the academy is famous for “its at times almost willful perversity in picking winners.” Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh (“Trainspotting”) professes himself “a Dylan fan” but tweeted that the Nobel is “an ill-conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies.” Strong letter to follow.

One critic says that the more than 150 books on Dylan are “a library woozy with humid overstatement and baby boomer mythology.” A sample of the humidity is: “Dylan seemed less to occupy a turning point in cultural space and time than to be that turning point.” But Dylan should not be blamed for the hyperventilating caused by DDS — Dylan Derangement Syndrome. Besides, Dylan has collected a Pulitzer Prize for “lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power,” so there.

Now 75, he was born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minn., and lived in Hibbing, 150 miles from Sauk Centre, home of Sinclair Lewis, who won the 1930 Nobel for literature (“Babbitt,” “Elmer Gantry”). This was evidence of abruptly defining literature down: Thomas Mann won in 1929. If you recognize even one-third of the 113 literature prize winners since 1901, you need to get out of the house more. Philip Roth has not won, a fact that would cost the Swedish Academy its reputation for seriousness, if it had one.

The Weekly Standard’s Andrew Ferguson would win the Nobel Prize for Common Sense, if there were one. He notes that by not taking himself too seriously or encouraging others to do so, Dylan has “proved two propositions that seemed increasingly unlikely in the age of media-saturation: You can shun publicity and still be hugely famous, and you can be hugely famous and not be obnoxious about it.” For this, Dylan deserves some sort of prize. Ferguson laments that it is evidently impossible to take Dylan “for what he is, an impressive man worthy of admiration, affection and respect, and leave it at that.”

Impossible. In an age of ever-more-extravagant attention-getting yelps about everything, people have tumbled over one another reaching for encomia, such as this from a Harvard professor: “Dylan has surpassed Walt Whitman as the defining American artist.”

If song lyrics are literature, why did the academy discover this with Dylan and not Stephen Sondheim (from “West Side Story” on)? Last year, the literature prize was won by Belarusia’s Svetlana Alexievich, whose specialty is interviews woven into skillfully wrought books (e.g., “Secondhand Time”). They are highly informative, even moving, but are they literature?

Sean Wilentz, Princeton professor of American history, grew up in New York City near the end of its red-tinged folk revival and was 13 when he attended Dylan’s 1964 concert at Manhattan’s Philharmonic Hall. Wilentz’s book “Bob Dylan in America,” which would better have been titled “America in Bob Dylan,” interestingly locates him in the stream of American culture and celebrates him for expanding his range as relentlessly as he has toured — more than 1,400 shows in this century. Wilentz recalls how Dylan “going electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival scandalized “the fetishists of authenticity,” but Dylan did not look back. “He sees,” Wilentz says, “a kind of literature in performance.” If that is so, then is Mike Trout, baseball’s best performer, doing literature for the Los Angeles Angels? Literature is becoming a classification that no longer classifies.

Never mind. Just enjoy the music of the surprising man who in 1961 arrived in Greenwich Village and who once said “my favorite politician was Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater.”

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.</s>The media-shy Dylan declined to attend the Nobel ceremony on Saturday. But he is scheduled to perform in Stockholm on April 1 and 2 and in Lund in southern Sweden on April 9, his website said.

In order to receive the prize, Dylan needs to give a lecture within six months from Dec. 10. It does not necessarily need not be delivered in Stockholm.

Sara Danius, permanent secretary and member of the Swedish Academy that awards the literature prize, said that while the details remained to be sorted out, she was expecting something to be arranged with Dylan.

When British novelist Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel literature prize in 2007, she composed a lecture and sent it to her Swedish publisher, who read it at a ceremony in the Swedish capital.

In a Nov. 18 statement, the Swedish Academy said a possible performance in Stockholm during the spring would be a "perfect opportunity" to deliver the lecture.

Bob Dylan sent a message on Saturday thanking the Swedish academy for awarding him the prize, an honor he believed was about as likely as "standing on the moon."

"I'm sorry I can't be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize," Dylan said in a speech read by Azita Raji, the U.S. ambassador to Sweden, at the Nobel banquet.

Dylan accepted the prize after frustrating the academy with weeks of silence following the announcement of the award on Oct. 13. But he chose not to attend the festivities.

In his place singer Patti Smith performed Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" at the award ceremony earlier in the day.

His absence has been widely debated in Sweden in recent weeks. One member of the academy accused him of being "arrogant" and "rude" as the singer remained silent after the award was announced.

Dylan, aged 75, still performs regularly around the world on what has been dubbed "The Never Ending Tour".
Patti Smith performs in place of Bob Dylan in the Nobel Prize for Literature ceremony.