LessonsArabic Syntax Practicum — Parsing Passages from Ten MaqāmātQuiz

«إِلَى أَنْ جَدَحَتْ لَهُ يَدُ الْإِمْلَاقِ كَأْسَ الْفِرَاقِ»
Their companionship lasted until poverty’s hand prepared the cup of separation.

Ilā an links to a nominalized clause, defining an endpoint for the preceding companionship. Jadaḥat is a feminine perfect verb whose grammatical subject is the iḍāfah yadu al-imlāq, “the hand of poverty.”

Two personifications operate at once: poverty receives a hand, and separation becomes a drink mixed in a cup. Grammatically the clause marks a temporal boundary, not an independent claim that poverty literally possesses a body.

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Ilā an and the limit of a period

Arabic Syntax Practicum — Parsing Passages from Ten Maqāmāt

«إِلَى أَنْ جَدَحَتْ لَهُ يَدُ الْإِمْلَاقِ كَأْسَ الْفِرَاقِ»
Their companionship lasted until poverty’s hand prepared the cup of separation.

Ilā an links to a nominalized clause, defining an endpoint for the preceding companionship. Jadaḥat is a feminine perfect verb whose grammatical subject is the iḍāfah yadu al-imlāq, “the hand of poverty.”

Two personifications operate at once: poverty receives a hand, and separation becomes a drink mixed in a cup. Grammatically the clause marks a temporal boundary, not an independent claim that poverty literally possesses a body.