Jami represents lifelong poetic composition through the extended metaphor of a musician playing a lute. The poet's bent back resembles a harp, while age has made the instrument discordant and the musician's hand tremble. His proposal to break and burn the lute transforms physical and artistic decline into the possibility of spiritual fragrance: when harmonious performance is no longer possible, relinquishing the instrument may yield a different kind of benefit. The passage thus connects old age with diminished creative capacity, acceptance of limitation, and renunciation.