Here we have some lovely wordplay with in its double sense of either pulling toward, drawing, attracting; or else of pulling (oneself) away, withdrawing. Because is the intransitive form of (see the definitions above), we have two readings available. On one reading, the more the lover tries to draw the beloved toward himself, the more she is (passively) drawn away from him, by the force of his own attracting-power []-- an 'attracting' power that unfortunately seems to be working in reverse, as a kind of repelling-power (like similar magnetic poles). On the other reading, the more he tries to draw her toward himself, the more she draws herself (intransitively but deliberately) away from him, in a willed response to his attempts to attract her. There's an undecideable, and very enjoyable, back-and-forth play between the literal meaning of 'attract' (like magnetic force) and the metaphorical meaning (like coquetry and flirtation). Along similar lines, the word appears here to be deliberately conflated with , which isn't surprising since they're both closely related derivatives from the same Arabic root; the merging of 'passion' and 'attraction' contributes to the same literal/metaphorical interplay (see the definitions above). This verse is also a perfect example of the less common meaning of as 'perhaps' rather than 'but'. Though both are possible here, the former is surely the reading of choice: it makes the first line into a speculation about the cause of her unfortunate behavior. (The reading as 'but' becomes part of an exclamation of surprise and protest addressed to the Lord.) graphics/magnet.jpg