M6:1226 — عاشق میدان و اسپ و پای نی / عاشق زمر و لب و سرنای نی

This couplet is part of a larger story about an old woman, ninety years old, whose face is wrinkled and sallow like saffron (M6:1221). Her teeth have fallen out, her hair is white, and her back is bent (M6:1223). Despite these signs of extreme old age, her 'love for her husband' (عشق شوی, M6:1222) and her carnal desire remain undiminished (M6:1224). Rumi uses vivid, almost grotesque, imagery to depict her physical decay, yet her internal 'greed' (حرص) and 'lust' (شهوت) persist.

Here, the poet clarifies the nature of her enduring desire. She is not longing for the general joys of youth, such as participating in vigorous outdoor activities like riding horses in a field or running footraces (عاشق میدان و اسپ و پای نی). Nor does she yearn for the communal pleasures of music and revelry, symbolized by the drum (زمر), the 'lip' (perhaps singing or kissing), or the flute (سرنای نی). Her passion is singularly focused on the 'love of her husband' (M6:1224), a desire that has become 'a fire with much smoke in an empty pot' (M6:1225) – intense but ultimately fruitless and misplaced given her condition.

The couplet emphasizes the specific, almost obsessive, nature of her attachment, setting it apart from more general youthful aspirations. It highlights the tragicomic aspect of her situation: a soul still burning with a particular desire, trapped within a body that can no longer fulfill it, or for which such desire is no longer appropriate.