طَالَمَا أَيْقَظَكَ الدَّهْرُ فَتَنَاعَسْتَ
Time has often roused you, yet you acted drowsy.
Ayqaẓa means to wake someone. Tanāʿasta conveys behaving as if sleepy or slipping into drowsiness. Al-dahr, time, is pictured as an agent that wakes the sleeper through experience.
The contrast is between being alerted and feigning inattention. Events have supplied warnings; the hearer has chosen to respond as though nothing had happened.
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The Ṣanʿāʾ Maqāmah: Guidance, Mortality, and Evasive Responses
طَالَمَا أَيْقَظَكَ الدَّهْرُ فَتَنَاعَسْتَ
Time has often roused you, yet you acted drowsy.
Ayqaẓa means to wake someone. Tanāʿasta conveys behaving as if sleepy or slipping into drowsiness. Al-dahr, time, is pictured as an agent that wakes the sleeper through experience.
The contrast is between being alerted and feigning inattention. Events have supplied warnings; the hearer has chosen to respond as though nothing had happened.