The meaning of divine in this context
From Salman Rushdie "Shame"
A fish seeks, in a fishhook, a kind of confidence, the hook communicating its inevitability to fish-lips. Angling is a battle of wits; the thoughts of the fishermen pass down rods and lines, and are divined by finny creatures. Who, on this occasion, found haunted waters easier to stomach than the ugly descending thoughts.
Please help me understand what the word divine means here.
- Does it mean fish try to guess what fisherman thinks.
- Or it means fish are trying to find those thoughts and stick to them. (like searching in with divining rod)
- Or anything else?
Solution 1:
The divining rod metaphor is the right direction. When someone uses a divining rod, what they're searching for pulls down on the rod, much like a fish on the line will pull down on the fishing rod.