رَعَوْا ظِمَاهُمْ حَتَّى إِذَا تَمَّ أَوْرَدُوا ۞ غِمَارًا تَفَرَّى بِالسِّلَاحِ وَبِالدَّمِ
They completed their period of grazing and thirst, then were led as though to deep waters overflowing with weapons and blood.
Raʿaw / awradū belong to grazing and bringing livestock to water, but they are transferred to the people’s movement toward conflict. Ghimāran denotes deep waters, transformed by “weapons and blood” into a battlefield. The pastoral scene thus becomes an extended metaphor for war.
Opening interactive controls...
Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā: Ḥuṣayn ibn Ḍamḍam, Revenge and the Cost of Bloodshed (Verses 33–42)
رَعَوْا ظِمَاهُمْ حَتَّى إِذَا تَمَّ أَوْرَدُوا ۞ غِمَارًا تَفَرَّى بِالسِّلَاحِ وَبِالدَّمِ
They completed their period of grazing and thirst, then were led as though to deep waters overflowing with weapons and blood.
Raʿaw / awradū belong to grazing and bringing livestock to water, but they are transferred to the people’s movement toward conflict. Ghimāran denotes deep waters, transformed by “weapons and blood” into a battlefield. The pastoral scene thus becomes an extended metaphor for war.