«وَسَاقَطَتْ لُؤْلُؤًا مِنْ خَاتَمٍ عَطِرٍ»
And she let pearls fall from a fragrant seal or ring.
The fragrant khātam is a metaphor for her mouth; the falling pearls portray beautiful words. In the earlier verse, pearls meant tears. Here they represent speech.
The same image therefore does different work in different contexts. The learner must infer the intended referent from the action and setting, rather than assigning one fixed symbolic meaning to every word.
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The Ḥulwān Maqāmah: Doubt, Proof and a Contest of Poetry
«وَسَاقَطَتْ لُؤْلُؤًا مِنْ خَاتَمٍ عَطِرٍ»
And she let pearls fall from a fragrant seal or ring.
The fragrant khātam is a metaphor for her mouth; the falling pearls portray beautiful words. In the earlier verse, pearls meant tears. Here they represent speech.
The same image therefore does different work in different contexts. The learner must infer the intended referent from the action and setting, rather than assigning one fixed symbolic meaning to every word.