«حُيِّيتُمْ يَا أَهْلَ هَذَا الْمَنْزِلِ / وَعِشْتُمْ فِي خَفْضِ عَيْشٍ خَضِلِ»
Greetings to the people of this home; may you live in comfortable, flourishing ease.
Ḥuyyītum is a greeting or blessing; khafḍ ʿaysh means an easy life, and khaḍil conveys freshness and flourishing abundance.
The stranger does not begin with a demand. He first wishes his listeners wellbeing, making the contrast between their hoped-for comfort and his own hungry exhaustion sharper.
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The Kūfan Maqāmah: Abū Zayd’s Strange Tale and the Midnight Knock
«حُيِّيتُمْ يَا أَهْلَ هَذَا الْمَنْزِلِ / وَعِشْتُمْ فِي خَفْضِ عَيْشٍ خَضِلِ»
Greetings to the people of this home; may you live in comfortable, flourishing ease.
Ḥuyyītum is a greeting or blessing; khafḍ ʿaysh means an easy life, and khaḍil conveys freshness and flourishing abundance.
The stranger does not begin with a demand. He first wishes his listeners wellbeing, making the contrast between their hoped-for comfort and his own hungry exhaustion sharper.