M1:2446 — گفت خصم جانِ جان چون آمدم / بر سر جان من لگدها چون زدم

This couplet marks a dramatic turning point in the story of the harpist and his wife. After harshly rebuking his wife for her worldly concerns, the man is immediately overwhelmed with remorse. Rumi portrays this as a moment of spiritual awakening, where the man realizes his outburst was not just an argument with his spouse, but an act of hostility against the divine source of life itself—the "Soul of all souls" (jān-i jān).

His anger, he now sees, was self-destructive. In lashing out, he was metaphorically "kicking" his own soul, harming his spiritual state and severing his connection to the divine will. The preceding verse describes this regret as being as sharp and sudden as the remorse of a tyrant's henchman at the moment of death. His wife's complaint, which he had dismissed as mere nagging, is now understood as a divine signal or trial that he has failed. His cry is one of horror at his own spiritual blindness and the violence he has just inflicted upon himself.