[flippyhead]

I like the first one because it's too easy to think someone just fell over instead of having committed suicide.

Thanks for the insight though, interesting to see.

[guiltygatorade]

Yeah I didn't interpret it as having committed suicide. But his other poems hinted at him falling asleep at the line. So it could be exhaustion. Or, it could be metaphorical -- that a person's spirit fell to the ground and nobody cared.

[aerovistae]

Oh man, I'd really have to bend my perception pretty far to interpret this as anything but a reference to suicide, given how many there are among their workers.

[guiltygatorade]

I think you have a point. It certainly can be interpreted that way -- as a reference to the suicides of his peers. The more I read the his other poems in the original article the more I'm leaning towards the "suicide" take.

But poetry is always more fun to leave things ambiguous. Original words matter -- the hardest parts is to translate poems precisely, and try not to let your interpretation of its meaning overwhelm the original.

[erikpukinskis]

People collapse in industrial settings all the time.

But a person jumping from a roof is more similar to a screw falling.

I guess maybe if a person collapsed while working, others might stop working and help. But a suicide jump would be just another thing they can’t intervene in.

[bredren]

This was my immediate impression as well. But it was influenced by the use of the word plunged in place of fell.

[juicyjames55]

But do you remember the stories of suicide nets at foxconn.. I would say most of the poems are about suicide