The chest is all torn due to the fear of death.
The heart is in pieces, like the garment of a dervish.
Whatever you can do today, do it with your own hands.
For tomorrow, a great calamity awaits us.
This rubai (quatrain) explores the pervasive fear of death and the fragility of life. The imagery of a torn chest and a liver in tatters like a dervish's humble cloak emphasizes profound emotional distress and vulnerability. The poet urges immediate action and seizing the present moment, as the future inevitably brings a "qayamat" - a day of reckoning or ultimate hardship - underscoring themes of mortality, the transient nature of existence, and the importance of deeds in this life common in classical Urdu and Sufi poetry.
grief (gham) · wonder & existence