«فَاعْصِ مِنْ بَعْدِهَا الْمَطَامِعَ وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ صَيْدَ الظِّبَاءِ لَيْسَ بِهَيِّنٍ»
After this, resist greedy desires and learn that catching gazelles is not easy.
Uʿṣi is an imperative to disobey or resist; maṭāmiʿ are greedy aspirations, and ẓibāʾ gazelles. The governor imagined himself as the hunter of beauty but became the prey of an elaborate trick. The antithesis—hunter becoming hunted—organises the final lesson of the poem.
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The Raḥbiyyah Maqāmah — Abū Zayd Revealed, Escape and Satirical Counsel
«فَاعْصِ مِنْ بَعْدِهَا الْمَطَامِعَ وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ صَيْدَ الظِّبَاءِ لَيْسَ بِهَيِّنٍ»
After this, resist greedy desires and learn that catching gazelles is not easy.
Uʿṣi is an imperative to disobey or resist; maṭāmiʿ are greedy aspirations, and ẓibāʾ gazelles. The governor imagined himself as the hunter of beauty but became the prey of an elaborate trick. The antithesis—hunter becoming hunted—organises the final lesson of the poem.