LessonsImplicit and Imaginative Metaphor: Competing Accounts and al-Sakkaki’s DefinitionsQuiz

وعُرِّيَ أفراسُ الصبا ورواحله
And the horses and riding animals of youth were stripped of their gear.

Youth is represented as a stage with horses and mounts available for a journey. These suggest the impulses, strength, and movements associated with youth; the removal of their equipment conveys that this stage has passed.

This is more vivid than simply saying “youth ended.” A travel-like scene is created through rider, mount, equipment, and mobility. Its components do not require literal animals and saddles. Their function is to build a coherent imagined scene and evoke associated aspects of the target.

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The “horses and mounts of youth” image

Implicit and Imaginative Metaphor: Competing Accounts and al-Sakkaki’s Definitions

وعُرِّيَ أفراسُ الصبا ورواحله
And the horses and riding animals of youth were stripped of their gear.

Youth is represented as a stage with horses and mounts available for a journey. These suggest the impulses, strength, and movements associated with youth; the removal of their equipment conveys that this stage has passed.

This is more vivid than simply saying “youth ended.” A travel-like scene is created through rider, mount, equipment, and mobility. Its components do not require literal animals and saddles. Their function is to build a coherent imagined scene and evoke associated aspects of the target.