“Wa-kayfa suʾālunā” carries a rhetorical or incredulous question: the speaker knows the ruins cannot reply. The accusative ṣumman describes their mute state, and khawālida emphasizes their endurance.
The personification does not mean stones literally speak. The poet addresses inanimate remains as though they were people and immediately acknowledges their silence, creating both an imagined dialogue and its impossibility.
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Labīd ibn Rabīʿah: Deserted Dwellings, Seasons, Wildlife and Traces of the Past (Verses 1–10)
“Wa-kayfa suʾālunā” carries a rhetorical or incredulous question: the speaker knows the ruins cannot reply. The accusative ṣumman describes their mute state, and khawālida emphasizes their endurance.
The personification does not mean stones literally speak. The poet addresses inanimate remains as though they were people and immediately acknowledges their silence, creating both an imagined dialogue and its impossibility.