"Everything in existence, every meaning in life, and every secret in the soul, has become an ugly, terrible, and enormous destiny. The moral light that showed me the beauty and joy of beings has turned into a fire that burns my liver with its flame, and covers my soul with its smoke. The tune to which the voices of creatures were joined and made into a sublime hymn turned at that hour into a noise more wonderful than the roar of a lion, and deeper than the screams of the abyss. I reached my room and threw myself on my bed like a bird shot by a hunter, and it fell between the fence with an arrow in its heart. My mind continued to fluctuate between a frightening wakefulness and a disturbing sleep, and my soul within me repeated in both cases Salma''s words: Have pity, O Lord, and strengthen all the broken wings.