Imruʾ al-Qays: Lightning, Rain, Floods, and the Muʿallaqah’s Finale (Verses 70–81)

1. The closing movement: from lightning to floods

After the long portrayal of the horse and its hunt, the poet looks up toward the sky. A flash expands into a panorama of rainfall, rushing water, mountains, palms, birds, and wild animals. Nature is presented not merely as scenery but as force in motion.

Verses 70–81 first depict lightning, then the reach and direction of the clouds, the destructive results of rainfall, and finally the transformed landscape. These twelve verses complete the Muʿallaqah of Imruʾ al-Qays.

2. Verse 70: the movement of lightning

أَصَاحِ تَرَى بَرْقًا أُرِيكَ وَمِيضَهُ / كَلَمْعِ الْيَدَيْنِ فِي حَبِيٍّ مُكَلَّلِ
Companion, do you see the lightning whose flash I show you? It gleams like the rapid movement of hands within a piled-up cloud.

Aṣāḥi calls to a companion. Wamīḍuhu is the flash of lightning, while ḥabiyy mukallal evokes piled and layered cloud. The picture is of repeated flashes rather than a steady light.

3. Verse 70: simile and address

In ka-lamʿ al-yadayn, the prefixed ka- introduces a simile. The moving hands explain the speed and recurring flashes of lightning, not the physical shape of a hand.

The pairing tarā ... urīka first asks the addressee to look and then offers to show the sight. The scene thus includes a companion as witness and draws the audience’s attention into the act of seeing.

4. Verse 71: the monk’s luminous lamps

يُضِيءُ سَنَاهُ أَوْ مَصَابِيحُ رَاهِبٍ / أَمَالَ السَّلِيطَ بِالذُّبَالِ الْمُفَتَّلِ
Its brilliance shines like the lamps of a monk who has tilted the oil toward the twisted wicks.

Sanāhu is the lightning’s brilliance and maṣābīḥ rāhib the lamps of a monk. Al-salīṭ is lamp oil; al-dhubāl al-mufattal is a twisted wick. A familiar lamp makes an extraordinary flash imaginable.

5. Verse 71: oil, wick, and brilliance

The comparison does more than mention a lamp. Amāla al-salīṭa bi-l-dhubāl introduces the act of tending the oil and wick to make the light vivid.

Verse 70 used movement to convey a flash; verse 71 uses bright lamps to convey its brilliance. These are complementary images of one phenomenon: its rhythm and its intensity.

6. Verse 72: watching clouds on the journey

قَعَدْتُ لَهُ وَصُحْبَتِي بَيْنَ ضَارِجٍ / وَبَيْنَ الْعُذَيْبِ بَعْدَ مَا مُتَأَمَّلِي
I sat with my companions between Ḍārij and al-ʿUdhayb, watching the cloud from a distance.

Qaʿadtu lahu describes settling down to watch. Ḍārij and al-ʿUdhayb are place names that anchor the sky scene within a journey and identifiable terrain.

7. Verse 72: companions, distance, and setting

Wa-ṣuḥbatī includes the speaker’s companions, so the sight is shared rather than solitary. Bayna Ḍārijin wa-bayna al-ʿUdhayb locates the observers between two named places.

The closing expression conveys watching from afar. Distance matters: from this vantage point, the poet can trace the cloud’s reach and the land on which its rain falls in the next verse.

8. Verse 73: the cloud’s two flanks

عَلَى قَطَنٍ بِالشَّيْمِ أَيْمَنُ صَوْبِهِ / وَأَيْسَرُهُ عَلَى السِّتَارِ فَيَذْبُلِ
The rightward reach of its rainfall lay toward Qaṭan; its leftward reach spread toward al-Sitār and Yadhbul as the cloud was observed.

Qaṭan, al-Sitār, and Yadhbul identify places or mountains. Al-shaym refers to observing clouds or lightning, while ṣawb conveys rain or the direction of its fall.

9. Verse 73: right and left in spatial description

Aymanu ṣawbihi and aysaruhu extend the rainfall across two directions. The result works like a verbal map: the cloud occupies a broad area, not a single point.

The forms ayman and aysar resemble comparative patterns, but here their contextual function is spatial: the right and left sides. They should not be read as the ordinary evaluative meanings “better” or “easier.”

10. Verse 74: rain topples great trees

فَأَضْحَى يَسُحُّ الْمَاءَ حَوْلَ كُتَيْفَةٍ / يَكُبُّ عَلَى الْأَذْقَانِ دَوْحَ الْكَنْهَبَلِ
It began pouring water around Kutayfah, toppling the great kanhabal trees onto their faces.

Yasuḥḥu al-māʾ depicts abundant, persistent downpour. Yakubbu ʿalā al-adhqān personifies the fall of the trees as being thrown face-down. Dawḥ refers to large trees.

11. Verse 74: the verbs of pouring and toppling

Fa-aḍḥā yasuḥḥu introduces the storm as a continuing condition. The following yakubbu shows a tangible effect: water falls with sufficient force to bring down great trees.

Dawḥ al-kanhabal evokes substantial trees, not tiny shrubs. Their collapse lets the reader gauge the force of the storm without numerical measurement: a striking example of intensified visual description.

12. Verse 75: creatures driven down from al-Qanān

وَمَرَّ عَلَى الْقَنَانِ مِنْ نَفَيَانِهِ / فَأَنْزَلَ مِنْهُ الْعُصْمَ مِنْ كُلِّ مَنْزِلِ
The storm’s spray passed over al-Qanān, driving the white-marked mountain animals down from their stations.

Nafayān evokes flying spray or scattered rushes of water. Al-ʿuṣm denotes mountain animals marked with white patches; manzil is a place where they normally shelter.

13. Verse 75: spray and displaced mountain animals

Wa-marra ʿalā al-Qanān min nafayānihi shows the rain reaching a mountain. The consequence, fa-anzala minhu al-ʿuṣm, is that mountain creatures abandon their high refuges.

The preceding verse toppled trees; this verse displaces animals. Together they indicate one storm’s force through its impact on plant life and animal life.

14. Verse 76: palms and buildings at Taymāʾ

وَتَيْمَاءَ لَمْ يَتْرُكْ بِهَا جِذْعَ نَخْلَةٍ / وَلَا أُطُمًا إِلَّا مَشِيدًا بِجَنْدَلِ
At Taymāʾ it spared neither a palm trunk nor a fortified building, except what had been strongly built with stone.

Taymāʾ names a locality. Uṭum denotes a substantial, fortified structure; mashīd means strongly constructed, and jandal hard stone. The flood now reaches settlement and building works.

15. Verse 76: negation and exception

The construction lam yatruk ... wa-lā ... illā first gives the widespread destructive effect, then makes a restricted exception for construction reinforced with stone. Buildings are differentiated by their resilience.

Grammatically, lam negates the past through a jussive imperfect, so yatruk is jussive. Illā introduces the exception, limiting the preceding general statement.

16. Verse 77: the mountain as a cloaked elder

كَأَنَّ ثَبِيرًا فِي عَرَانِينِ وَبْلِهِ / كَبِيرُ أُنَاسٍ فِي بِجَادٍ مُزَمَّلِ
Mount Thabīr, amid the sheets of heavy rain, resembles a venerable elder wrapped in a striped cloak.

Thabīr is a mountain, wabl heavy rainfall, bijād a striped wrap, and muzammal one wrapped up. Rain becomes a cloak around the mountain.

17. Verse 77: how the simile works

In this explicit simile, the subject is Mount Thabīr, the image is an elder enveloped in a wrap, and the point of comparison is a prominent shape obscured by surrounding layers. Ka-anna signals the comparison openly.

ʿArānīn evokes prominent high parts, retaining the mountain’s form even while rain veils it. Both the mountain and the curtain of rain remain visible in the reader’s imagination.

18. Verse 78: the spindle whorl and the flood

كَأَنَّ ذُرَى رَأْسِ الْمُجَيْمِرِ غُدْوَةً / مِنَ السَّيْلِ وَالْغُثَّاءِ فَلْكَةُ مِغْزَلِ
In the morning, the summit of al-Mujaymir amid floodwater and floating debris seemed like the round whorl of a spindle.

Dhurā are high peaks, ghuthāʾ is the floating litter and debris carried by water, and falkat mighzal is a spindle whorl, a small rounded piece used in spinning.

19. Verse 78: a summit amid circulating floodwater

Ka-anna dhurā raʾs al-Mujaymir introduces the summit as the subject of the comparison, while falkat mighzal gives its shape. Floodwater and debris encircle the high point, suggesting a rounded whorl.

Verse 77 turned rain into a cloak around a mountain; here the flood creates a circular form. Both verses render a vast natural scene through a familiar human-made object.

20. Verse 79: the flood’s wares spread over al-Ghabīṭ

وَأَلْقَى بِصَحْرَاءِ الْغَبِيطِ بِعَاعَهُ / نُزُولَ الْيَمَانِي ذِي الْعِيَابِ الْمُحَمَّلِ
It scattered its burdens over the plain of al-Ghabīṭ like a Yemeni trader unloading the bags of wares he had carried.

Biʿāʿ is the goods or materials spread about, ʿiyāb the carrier’s bags, and al-yamānī a trader from Yemen. The scattered flood deposits resemble goods unpacked for display.

21. Verse 79: how the merchant simile operates

Wa-alqā ... biʿāʿahu treats the flood as though it unloads its cargo. Nuzūl al-yamānī recalls a travelling merchant arriving and opening his bundles.

After heavy rain, branches, weeds, earth, and other deposits may be spread across a plain. The comparison clarifies that the likeness lies in the scattered arrangement of materials, not in actual trade.

22. Verse 80: birdsong after the storm

كَأَنَّ مَكَاكِيَّ الْجِوَاءِ غُدَيَّةً / صُبِحْنَ سُلَافًا مِنْ رَحِيقٍ مُفَلْفَلِ
The small birds of al-Jiwāʾ at dawn seem as though they had been served potent, aromatic wine.

Makākī are small birds. Sulāf refers to choice wine, and raḥīq mufalfal suggests a sharp or aromatic drink. The image conveys the birds’ animated calls and liveliness figuratively; it does not assert that birds actually drink wine.

23. Verse 80: a simile of spirited song

Ka-anna makākī al-Jiwāʾ plainly introduces a simile. Ṣubiḥna presents the action as something experienced in the morning, while the vivid drink image conveys an unusual surge of song.

Earlier the rain felled trees and drove away animals; now the dawn birds sound vigorous. The juxtaposition creates a contrast of scenes—a destructive storm followed by lively sound.

24. Verse 81: the closing image and storm’s aftermath

كَأَنَّ السِّبَاعَ فِيهِ غَرْقَى عَشِيَّةً / بِأَرْجَائِهِ الْقُصْوَى أَنَابِيشُ عُنْصُلِ
At evening, the drowned beasts on its distant edges seemed like uprooted wild-onion bulbs.

Al-sibāʿ are wild beasts, gharqā means drowned, arjāʾuhu al-quṣwā the far edges, and anābīsh ʿunṣul uprooted bulbous parts of wild onion. The final image compares storm-struck creatures to an unexpected physical object.

It returns the focus to the storm’s force: after the vigorous morning birds comes the vulnerability of animals. The close holds both nature’s beauty and its severity in view.

25. Completing the Muʿallaqah: connections among its images

The passage moves through four stages: lightning (70–71), the cloud’s reach (72–73), rainfall and its destructive effects (74–76), and images of mountains, plains, birds, and beasts after the storm (77–81).

ComparisonNatural scene
Hands flashing rapidlyLightning
Elder in a cloakThabīr veiled by rain
Spindle whorlAl-Mujaymir amid floodwater
Yemeni merchant unpackingFlood deposits on al-Ghabīṭ

The recurring artistic device is to render extraordinary sights through familiar objects. Verse 81 closes the first Muʿallaqah; the next text opens with Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd.