Concept

The Ineffable Task of the Heart and the Metaphor of the Half-Slaughtered Bird in Attar's Mokhtar Nameh (Chapter 6, Poem 33)

In this poem from Attar's Mokhtar Nameh, the poet expresses a profound detachment from worldly places and stations, drawing the focus entirely inward to an indescribable spiritual experience occurring behind the "veil of the wondrous heart" (پرده�� پر عجایب دل).

This intense inner state is likened to a "half-slaughtered bird" (مرغ نیم بسمل)—a powerful Sufi metaphor representing a soul in a state of agonizing, restless spiritual struggle, caught between its worldly existence and total annihilation in the divine. The poem underscores the ineffable nature of this mystical transformation; it is a wondrous and difficult internal matter that simply cannot be communicated to others.

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Updated 2026-07-03

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Humanities

Literature

Persian Literature Prerequisite Course