Mystery of Somerton man’s identity solved after 73 years, researchers say

Re:Mystery of Somerton man’s identity solved after 73 years,... by geraneum on Thursday July 28, 2022 @02:34AM (#32261113)

> “My feeling has always been that it’s been suicide, that Rubaiyat was known as a kind of suicide handbook,” Bilsborow said.

This caught my eye as a Persian. I have never known this book to be a kind of suicide handbook! On the contrary there are many famous poems in this book about happiness, living in the moment and not worrying about past or future.

Maybe there are different interpretations of the poems in circulation elsewhere or something happens to them in translation.

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Re:Mystery of Somerton man’s identity solved after 73 years,... by rendall on Thursday July 28, 2022 @03:52AM (#32261549)

As a non-Persian reader of the book in English translation, that characterization baffled me, too.

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Re:Mystery of Somerton man’s identity solved after 73 years,... by BjoernKW on Thursday July 28, 2022 @06:34AM (#32262629)

I found that characterization to be quite odd as well. Apparently, the phrase originates from a contemporary tabloid article:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130362134?searchT...

While that article doesn't seem to go into any detail as to why it was known to the police by that name, the different phrasing of "the suicide's handbook" vs. "suicide handbook" probably means the police referred to the Rubaiyat as "this specific suicide's handbook" rather than something of a guidebook for suicide in general.

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