أَوْ رَجْعُ وَاشِمَةٍ أُسِفَّ نَؤُورُهَا ۞ كِفَفًا تَعَرَّضَ فَوْقَهُنَّ وِشَامُهَا
Or the traces resemble a tattooer’s renewed patterns, with pigment worked into the skin and the tattoo marks appearing in arranged bands.
Aw offers a second image alongside the comparison with writing; it need not cancel the first. Wāshimah is a woman making tattoos, naʾūr the pigment, and wishām the resulting patterns. The lines exposed by the flood resemble marks darkened and made visible on skin.
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Labīd ibn Rabīʿah: Deserted Dwellings, Seasons, Wildlife and Traces of the Past (Verses 1–10)
أَوْ رَجْعُ وَاشِمَةٍ أُسِفَّ نَؤُورُهَا ۞ كِفَفًا تَعَرَّضَ فَوْقَهُنَّ وِشَامُهَا
Or the traces resemble a tattooer’s renewed patterns, with pigment worked into the skin and the tattoo marks appearing in arranged bands.
Aw offers a second image alongside the comparison with writing; it need not cancel the first. Wāshimah is a woman making tattoos, naʾūr the pigment, and wishām the resulting patterns. The lines exposed by the flood resemble marks darkened and made visible on skin.