إِذَا عَضَّ الثِّقَافُ بِهَا اشْمَأَزَّتْ وَوَلَّتْهُ عَشَوْزَنَةً زَبُونَا[
When the straightening tool grips the shaft, it recoils and resists with rough stiffness.
Key vocabulary:[ Al-thiqāf is a spear-straightener; ishmaʾazzat conveys recoil, and ʿashawzana resistant roughness.
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)
إِذَا عَضَّ الثِّقَافُ بِهَا اشْمَأَزَّتْ وَوَلَّتْهُ عَشَوْزَنَةً زَبُونَا[
When the straightening tool grips the shaft, it recoils and resists with rough stiffness.
Key vocabulary:[ Al-thiqāf is a spear-straightener; ishmaʾazzat conveys recoil, and ʿashawzana resistant roughness.
The verse advances the speaker’s claim of autonomy, his reply to an opponent, or his ancestral prestige.