How would you interpret ‘dying their thousand deaths’ here?
A glittering shower falls at a slant across my window. Some form of god has come to visit our dark autumn tunnel, like Zeus making himself a beam of light to impregnate Danae. In this case, it is not really glittering light but beech leaves. You’ve never seen anything as dramatic as these American trees, dying their thousand deaths. The giant beech next door intends to shiver off every hair of its pelt. The world strips and goes naked, the full year of arboreal effort piling on the sidewalks in flat, damp strata. The earth smells of smoke and rainstorms, calling everything to come back, lie down, submit to a quiet, moldy return to the cradle of origins.

How would you interpret ‘dying their thousand deaths’ in the sentence: You’ve never seen anything as dramatic as these American trees…?
Does it mean thousands of trees were dying, OR the trees were dying the thousandth time?
Thanks!

Question

How would you interpret ‘dying their thousand deaths’ here?
A glittering shower falls at a slant across my window. Some form of god has come to visit our dark autumn tunnel, like Zeus making himself a beam of light to impregnate Danae. In this case, it is not really glittering light but beech leaves. You’ve never seen anything as dramatic as these American trees, dying their thousand deaths. The giant beech next door intends to shiver off every hair of its pelt. The world strips and goes naked, the full year of arboreal effort piling on the sidewalks in flat, damp strata. The earth smells of smoke and rainstorms, calling everything to come back, lie down, submit to a quiet, moldy return to the cradle of origins.

How would you interpret ‘dying their thousand deaths’ in the sentence: You’ve never seen anything as dramatic as these American trees…?
Does it mean thousands of trees were dying, OR the trees were dying the thousandth time?
Thanks!

Answer

When you interpret literature, it's important to realize that sometimes it's more important that the prose sound good than that it have a precise, unambiguous meaning.  There is something poetic about the idea of "trees dying their thousand deaths".  The reader is left to determine for himself (or herself) what that means.  It's not nearly as important what the author meant as what the reader thinks it means.

So... when I present my reading of the text, it is not to say that this the only way to understand the text but simply that this is one way to read it.  Others may read it a different way.

While there may be thousands of trees, it is not really the trees that are not dying;it is the leaves that are dying and, from where the author is there are thousands of leaves dying every autumn.  This interpretation is supported by the fact that the remainder of the paragraph focuses on the trees shedding the dead leaves.

However, there is an alternative interpretation - while the trees are not literally dying, they are dying metaphorically.  Like the phoenix, they "die" every autumn and are reborn every spring.

If you ask... "But which interpretation is correct?", then you are not understanding how to appreciate literature.  What's important is the visual imagery aided by the poetic phrases.  Be satisfied that you understand the different possible meanings and accept that the author was working more to evoke a feeling in you, the reader, than to communicate a precise meaning.

Answer

i think this might be another way of saying the leaves fall off every autumn.

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is there a tree can die thousands of time?it is out of my mind.

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dying their thousand deaths. ???  dying a thousand deaths would be more correct in structure .