تَهَدَّدْنَا وَأَوْعِدْنَا رُوَيْدًا مَتَى كُنَّا لِأُمِّكَ مَقْتَوِينَا[
You threaten and warn us; wait a little! When were we servants of your mother?
Key vocabulary:[ Ruwaydan calls for a pause; maqtawīnā refers to servants; matā is an indignant rhetorical question.
The verse advances the speaker’s claim of autonomy, his reply to an opponent, or his ancestral prestige.
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ʿAmr ibn Kulthūm: Defying Royal Authority, the Spear Metaphor, and Ancestral Honour (verses 52–63)
تَهَدَّدْنَا وَأَوْعِدْنَا رُوَيْدًا مَتَى كُنَّا لِأُمِّكَ مَقْتَوِينَا[
You threaten and warn us; wait a little! When were we servants of your mother?
Key vocabulary:[ Ruwaydan calls for a pause; maqtawīnā refers to servants; matā is an indignant rhetorical question.
The verse advances the speaker’s claim of autonomy, his reply to an opponent, or his ancestral prestige.