«الْمَعَانِي الْمَطْرُوقَةِ»
Themes or meanings travelled over many times before.
The root ṭ-r-q includes the notion of treading or travelling a path. Maṭrūq thus offers a metaphor for a familiar, repeatedly used theme.
The elder presses the audience to ask whether earlier masters also wrote about well-known subjects. If they did, a modern writer’s use of inherited themes cannot automatically demonstrate weakness. Artistry may lie in fresh arrangement, vivid imagery, precision, and rhetorical effectiveness rather than the complete novelty of every idea.
Mawārid is the plural of mawrid, a watering place. The metaphor suggests a shared source of themes from which different writers may draw while composing in distinct styles.