It's a Nietzsche thing: the eternal return. The playful use of tenses, going from the present to the future to the present/conditional in a single sentence, ("You know that we shall meet again, if your memory serves you well) is an ingenious way of suggesting that the past, present, and future are all one. This is the important idea in the song; the rest merely fixes the jewel of that idea in a post-modern setting. This is one of Bob Dylan's most inspired expressions. We are, none of us, worthy of it!
It's a Nietzsche thing: the eternal return. The playful use of tenses, going from the present to the future to the present/conditional in a single sentence, ("You know that we shall meet again, if your memory serves you well) is an ingenious way of suggesting that the past, present, and future are all one. This is the important idea in the song; the rest merely fixes the jewel of that idea in a post-modern setting. This is one of Bob Dylan's most inspired expressions. We are, none of us, worthy of it!