constued as building up of the theme through two connected images.
Tumult in the ocean (tama) has been compared with rada (discharging)
and fayd (bounty) with nada (munificence). These similes are too
unnatural and illogical. Moreover, what he has said about the pearl is
also illogical. It can only be called a beautiful licence exercised by the
poets, if it is said that the tranquil ocean has discharged a live shell, it
would be necessary that this event should have been preceded by quakes
in the ocean as they occur on earth, till it had to disgorge whatever lay in
its bottom. Had the poet said this much, the verse could have had some
significance, but to say that a tranquil ocean has wafted a shell ashore is
revolting to logic. Probably this is what rankled in the mind of a reproducer, and he changed the word, yaqdhaf (throwing or vomiting) to
yat'iay (granting).
We thus have the following verse by al-Mutanabbi:
Like the sea that throws jewels to nearby areas and sends clouds to
far-off places.
Mansur al-Qadi has taken this theme from Al-Mutanabbi:
It is the sea. Enter it if it is tranquil. If seized by storm, the boat is
likely to be wrecked.
And Ibn Samawdah took from him (Mansur al-Qadi) when he said that
The sea is crossed when it is quiet;
but if it is agitated the boat is broken.
Poets have often compared their patrons to the sea. Abu al-Faraj bin
Hind has used this simile in the following verses:
The sea keeps its treasures concealed in its farthest depths and
throws up a spray of foam to those who come for it. Its least gifts
for its guests are pearls which it grants only to those who look for
them.
The presence of pearls at the bottom of the sea and the expulsion of
foam upwards is a theme which poets have frequently resorted to. Thus
Ibn al-Rumi says:
Cadavers with nauseating stench come up on the waves, while pearls
lie hidden in the dark depths.
The following verse has been attributed to Shams al-Ma'afT:
See how the dead come up on the surface of the sea, while pearls in
the greatest of depths rest tranquilly.
Thus pearls lie concealed at the bottom of the sea. It is for this reason
that the wise ones have said:
O ye who dive underneath the sea! Look for food in the concealed
nooks of land, for the pearl has been hidden from sight by the earth.
Another proverb runs as follows:
Jewels are in mines, while treasures are buried underground.
And still another:
