I see this song as being written of the collapse of a relationship in the wake of a child's death. When I hear the stanza beginning with "From the balcony..." I see a father, mother, and son watching a parade or festival from a balcony. The child for some reason falls, the father grabs his hand, yet he cannot hold on and the child tragically dies. Afterwards, the mother is so stricken with grief, she suffers a total collapse. The father tries keeping it together, tries to salvage what he can, namely, his wife/lover. After trying to kill her husband with a poison cake, the wife is committed and doped up. This is just one more thing to add to the husband's mound of guilt, and he tries keeping his own sanity intact by pleading for his lover to wake up, to come out of her mourning. Truly one of the saddest songs ever written in my estimate.
I see this song as being written of the collapse of a relationship in the wake of a child's death. When I hear the stanza beginning with "From the balcony..." I see a father, mother, and son watching a parade or festival from a balcony. The child for some reason falls, the father grabs his hand, yet he cannot hold on and the child tragically dies. Afterwards, the mother is so stricken with grief, she suffers a total collapse. The father tries keeping it together, tries to salvage what he can, namely, his wife/lover. After trying to kill her husband with a poison cake, the wife is committed and doped up. This is just one more thing to add to the husband's mound of guilt, and he tries keeping his own sanity intact by pleading for his lover to wake up, to come out of her mourning. Truly one of the saddest songs ever written in my estimate.