«اِلْعِينِ السُّودَهْ مَا تِحْمِلْ دُخَّانْ وِالشِّفَّهْ الْحَمْرَهْ مَا تِغْزِلْ كِتَّانْ»

Two pictures of delicate beauty are set against heavy chores, in halves ending in the rhyming words dukhkhān (smoke) and kittān (flax). Lovely dark eyes would smart in the smoke of a cooking fire, and soft red lips would bleed from thread drawn across them while spinning flax by hand.

The traditional point is that a woman raised in comfort and admired for her looks is not made for hard, wearing work. This reflects an old gendered view of beauty and domestic labor; her refinement is presented as the very thing that leaves her unable to endure toil.

Suited to remarks about someone, typically a woman pictured as beautiful and pampered, who is judged unfit for rough household tasks. Its tone ranges from gentle teasing to pointed criticism, and because it rests on a gendered stereotype, it can sound dismissive when aimed at real people.