Translated, as it were, into the language of the Prosodists it will be:—
Mafá’ílun[[456]] ’Mafá’ílun Fa’úlun,
and this, standing by itself, might prima facie be taken for a line of the Hazaj (iii. C. 1), with the third Mafá’ílun shortened by Hafz (see above) into Mafá’í for which Fa’úlun would be substituted. We have seen (p. [287]) that and how the foot Mufá’alatun can change into Mafá’ílun, and if in any poem which otherwise would belong to the metre Hazaj, the former measure appears even in one foot only along with the latter, it is considered to be the original measure, and the poem counts no longer as Hazaj but as Wáfir. In the piece now under consideration, it is the second Bayt where the characteristic foot of the Wáfir first appears:—
⏑ ‑ ‑ ‑ | ⏑ ‑ ⏑ ⏑ ‑ | ⏑ ‑ ‑ |
Naat ’anní’l-rubú’u wa sákiníhá
⏑ ‑ ⏑ ⏑ ‑ | ⏑ ‑ ⏑ ⏑ ‑ | ⏑ ‑ ‑ |
Wa kad ba’uda ’l-mazáru fa-lá mazáru.
Anglicè (vol. iii. [296]):—
Far lies the camp and those who camp therein; ✿ Far is her tent-shrine where I ne’er shall tent.
It must, however, be remarked that the Hazaj is not in use as a hexameter, but only with an ’Arúz majzúah or shortened by one foot. Hence it is only in the second ’Arúz of the Wáfir, which is likewise majzúah, that the ambiguity as to the real nature of the metre can arise[[457]]; and the isolated couplet:—