M6:773 — سالها این مرگ طبلک می‌زند / گوش تو بیگاه جنبش می‌کند

This couplet is part of a larger reflection on the Prophetic saying, "Die before you die." Rumi is not speaking of physical death alone, but of the transformative 'death' of the ego that leads to spiritual life. He personifies Death as a drummer, beating a small, persistent drum (ṭablak). The image is not of a sudden, terrifying war drum, but of a constant, almost gentle rhythm that has been sounding for years.

The tragedy, Rumi points out, is our deafness. The drumbeat of mortality—present in every grey hair, every loss, every passing moment—is a constant call to awaken. Yet, the spiritual seeker, lost in worldly concerns (what the previous verse called remembering one's "craft"), ignores it. The ear only "stirs" (junbish mī-kunad) "at the wrong time" (bī-gāh), which the following verses clarify is the moment of agony (nazʿ), when it is too late for the voluntary death that leads to life.

The verse serves as a poignant critique of procrastination in the spiritual path. The signs of our finitude are everywhere, but we treat them as background noise until the final, unavoidable confrontation, at which point we have missed the opportunity to consciously transform.