«مَنِّي النَّفْسَ وَعِدِيهَا وَاجْمَعِي الرِّقَاعَ وَعُدِّيهَا»
Give her hope and a promise; gather the slips and count them.
The two imperatives look and sound similar, yet the vowel pattern and context distinguish promising from counting. They must not be flattened into the same English verb. The object in the first half is hope addressed to the self; the second half turns to the physical slips.
Both commands address one woman. A translator can mark the homophonic play in a note while preserving the distinct actions in the main sentence. Exact sound imitation is less important than avoiding a mistaken instruction.
Translation exercise
Choose distinct verbs for the two imperatives and identify their respective objects.
FormMeaningʿidīhāPromise herʿuddīhāCount them