You that took my mind hostage

Man malak ʕaqlī rahīn

ﻧﻮﻉ ﺍﻟﺸﻌﺮ: صنعة توشيح
ﺍﻟﺸﺎﻋﺮ: ﻣﺠﻬﻮﻝ؛ ﻣﻮﺟﻮﺩ ﻓﻲ ﻣﻴﺰﺍﻥ درج ﻧﻮﺑﺔ الرصد وميزان بسيط نوبة الإصبهان
منطقته: ﺍﻷﻧﺪﻟﺲ
ﻋﺼﺮ: ﻗﺮﻥ ﺍﻟﺜﺎﻣﻦ-ﺍﻟﺨﺎﻣﺲ ﻋﺸﺮ

Type of poem: piece of a Muwaššaḥah[1]
Name of poet: unknown; found in Mīzān Darj of Nawbatu r-Raṣd and Mīzān Basīṭ of Nawbatu l-Iṣbihān
Region of poet: al-Andalus
Era: 8th-15th century

You that took my mind hostage I saw on your cheek in a dream[2] flowers and roses and lilies and jasmine I said to her: what is there on your cheek? She said to me: the moon[3] I said to her: what is there on your eyelids? She said to me: bright light[4] I said to her: what is there on your teeth? She said to me: many a pearl[5] Shining below your forehead guarded by eyebrows like marble[6] are flowers and roses and lilies and jasmine I said to her: are you the most handsome in truth? She said to me: I am handsome I said to her: so are you but dark-eyed?[7] She said to me: do not condescend! I said to her: are you taken by our union? She said to me: only in greed O you who arouses your lover's eyes from their dream to flowers and roses and lilies and jasmine [1] 404 Not Found [2] The poet is invoking the trope of Ṭayfu l-Ḫayyāl. 404 Not Found [3] The poet is likening the face and particularly the cheeks of the person being addressed to the face of the full moon, e.g. intensely bright, possessed of such intense light that it outshines the sun and all other stars in complete darkness. The trope of describing friends, loved ones, etc. in terms of the stars, the moon, their daily, nightly courses, rising, setting, etc. is very common in Arabic poetry. [4] viz. large eyes with intensely bright white of the eye, a quality much praised in Arabic poetry and among Arabs, both signifying tremendous beauty and health as well as connoting, more loosely, purity, and less loosely, virginity; cf. Ḥūriyy. [5] e.g. bright, white, pure, healthy, flowing copiously like milk. [6] viz. eyebrows that are streaked like marble. [7] A symbol of both much beauty as well as passion and emotional intensity in Arabic, particularly the intense contrast between black and white. The person being addressed responds to the charge of merely possessing the most prized physical attribute for their eyes to possess as they stated to be merely handsome as opposed to the most handsome, after the preceding Qufl wherein the eyes of the person addressed were already described as shining, beckoning flowers. © 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 Lucía Andrea Illanes Albornoz | email: lucia@luciaillanes.de Background stock photo copyright: rixie / 123RF Stock Photo Created with {,Neo}Vim, hosted by OVH & Hurricane Electric DNS, served by nginx & SSI on Ubuntu. HTML 5.0 badge taken from bradleytaunt/html5-valid-badge: HTML5 valid badge for your website (PNG & SVG formats)