هَلْ عَلِمْتُمْ أَيَّامَ يُنْتَهَبُ النَّاسُ غِوَارًا لِكُلِّ حَيٍّ عُوَاءُ
Meaning: Do you remember the days when people were raided and plundered, while cries rose from every group?
Hal ʿalimtum works as a reminder and a challenge. Yuntahabu is passive, “to be plundered.” Ghiwāran concerns raiding; ʿuwāʾ, literally a wolf’s howl, is used of cries amid violence.
Instead of providing statistics, the poet makes past warfare audible through an atmosphere of alarm.
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al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥillizah: Royal Praise, Tribal Disputes and Memories of War (verses 27–36)
هَلْ عَلِمْتُمْ أَيَّامَ يُنْتَهَبُ النَّاسُ غِوَارًا لِكُلِّ حَيٍّ عُوَاءُ
Meaning: Do you remember the days when people were raided and plundered, while cries rose from every group?
Hal ʿalimtum works as a reminder and a challenge. Yuntahabu is passive, “to be plundered.” Ghiwāran concerns raiding; ʿuwāʾ, literally a wolf’s howl, is used of cries amid violence.
Instead of providing statistics, the poet makes past warfare audible through an atmosphere of alarm.