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The second stanza opens with a negative imperative 'la tashhaqi'
(don't sob your grief out), a sub-obligatory meaning. This verbal
construction anticipates a gesture reaction to an event which is bound
to occur, ie. the untimely death of the poet. An element of surprise,
externalized in the raising of one's eyebrow at the sight of the
obituary of a dear one in the daily paper, is also involved. The three
remaining lines of this stanza provide a palpable justification for the
poet's untimely death. The death of the poet would come as a
consummation of a life of colossal intellectual exploits. The metaphor
of the 'mighty stallion', with one hoof planted in Damascus and the
other into the celestial sphere, is an admirable embodiment of this
meaning. Like a mighty stallion, the poet had been galloping his life
out at colossal strides until he fell a lifeless lump. The first line
rhymes with the fourth. The repetition of 'hafir' (hoof) in the second
and third lines and of the 'h' sound in words like 'habi bati' (my
beloved), 'hi na' (when) is emblematic of a life of toil, endurance,
and dedication to a noble cause.
The third stanza begins with a positive imperative; a request
designated in the verbal construction 'tam3 saki' (pull yourself
together; don't let grief overtake and subdue you), which marks another
sub-obligatory meaning. The meaning inferred from this construction is
extended in the subsequent lines in a justificatory argument which is
resolved in the two concluding lines:
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