39 Preface وَالقَمَرَ قَدَّرناهُ مَنازِلَ حَتّىٰ عادَ كَالعُرجونِ القَديمِYusuf AliAnd the Moon,- We have measured for it mansions1 (to traverse) till she returns like the old (and withered) lower part of a date stalk.2The lunar mansions are the 28 divisions of the Zodiac, which are supposed to make the daily course of the moon in the heavens from the time of the new moon to the time when the moon fades away in its “inter-lunar swoon”, an expressive phrase coined by the poet Shelley.'Urjun; a raceme of dates or of a date palm; or the base or lower part of the raceme. When it becomes old, it becomes yellow, dry, and withered, and curves up like a sickle. Hence the comparison with the sickle-like appearance of the new moon. The moon runs through all its phases, increasing and decreasing, until it disappears, and then reappears as a little thin curve.