LessonsLabīd ibn Rabīʿah: The Bereaved Wild Cow, Rain and the Hunting Dogs (Verses 36–53)Quiz

حَتَّى إِذَا يَئِسَتْ وَأَسْحَقَ خَالِقٌ لَمْ يُبْلِهِ إِرْضَاعُهَا وَفِطَامُهَا
At last she despaired; her milk-giving udder had become slack and depleted through the loss, not through the ordinary cycle of suckling and weaning.

Yaʾisat means she despaired. Asḥaqa khāliqun depicts a depleted, slack udder. Irḍāʿ means suckling, and fiṭām weaning.

The physical change is tied to losing the calf rather than the normal passage from nursing to weaning. The poet makes grief visible through a bodily detail.

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Despair and the depleted udder

Labīd ibn Rabīʿah: The Bereaved Wild Cow, Rain and the Hunting Dogs (Verses 36–53)

حَتَّى إِذَا يَئِسَتْ وَأَسْحَقَ خَالِقٌ لَمْ يُبْلِهِ إِرْضَاعُهَا وَفِطَامُهَا
At last she despaired; her milk-giving udder had become slack and depleted through the loss, not through the ordinary cycle of suckling and weaning.

Yaʾisat means she despaired. Asḥaqa khāliqun depicts a depleted, slack udder. Irḍāʿ means suckling, and fiṭām weaning.

The physical change is tied to losing the calf rather than the normal passage from nursing to weaning. The poet makes grief visible through a bodily detail.