In Chapter 26, Poem 39 of Attar's Mokhtar Nameh, the poet employs two prominent literary devices to express the intensity and purity of the lover's devotion.

First, the speaker claims to make a 'shirt of paper' (کاغذین پیراهن) out of jealousy. In classical Persian literature, wearing a paper shirt is the traditional garb of a petitioner seeking justice (دادخواه) against oppression. Here, it is creatively used to symbolize the lover's ultimate grievance, fragility, and attempt to avoid casting a shadow.

Second, the poem contrasts the physical wetness of weeping with moral purity. The lover states that despite their lap being a 'sea from tears' (چو دریاست ز اشک), they are 'not soiled' (نیم تردامن). The term tar-daman (literally 'wet-skirted') is a common Persian metaphor for a sinner or someone morally impure. Attar creates a striking paradox: the overwhelming physical manifestation of the lover's sorrow (the sea of tears) does not compromise their spiritual chastity; instead, t...