لَيْتَ عَيْنَيْهِ سَوَاءٌ
Would that his two eyes were alike.
“Alike” can suggest two sound eyes or two eyes equally defective; the resulting opposed readings bring the expression under tawjīh.
Tawriyah instead rests on a word with an apparent near sense and an intended remote sense. Do not label every double-edged utterance tawriyah: ask whether the ambiguity is centered in the word’s senses or in opposed interpretations of the whole statement.
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Research Practicum: Evidence, Context and Adjudicating Similar Rhetorical Figures
لَيْتَ عَيْنَيْهِ سَوَاءٌ
Would that his two eyes were alike.
“Alike” can suggest two sound eyes or two eyes equally defective; the resulting opposed readings bring the expression under tawjīh.
Tawriyah instead rests on a word with an apparent near sense and an intended remote sense. Do not label every double-edged utterance tawriyah: ask whether the ambiguity is centered in the word’s senses or in opposed interpretations of the whole statement.