«لَوْ لَمْ تَكُنْ نِيَّةُ الْجَوْزَاءِ خِدْمَتَهُ»
Had Orion not intended to serve him,
«لَمَا رَأَيْتَ عَلَيْهَا عِقْدَ مُنْتَطِقِ»
you would not see it wearing what resembles a belt.
The poet connects a pattern of stars with an imagined intention to serve someone. No astronomical claim about the stars' actual cause is intended. The fictional motive of service becomes the poetic cause of the visible shape, producing husn al-taʿlil.
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Semantic Embellishments II: Gathering, Differentiation, Division, Hyperbole, and Further Devices
«لَوْ لَمْ تَكُنْ نِيَّةُ الْجَوْزَاءِ خِدْمَتَهُ»
Had Orion not intended to serve him,
«لَمَا رَأَيْتَ عَلَيْهَا عِقْدَ مُنْتَطِقِ»
you would not see it wearing what resembles a belt.
The poet connects a pattern of stars with an imagined intention to serve someone. No astronomical claim about the stars' actual cause is intended. The fictional motive of service becomes the poetic cause of the visible shape, producing husn al-taʿlil.