What is the joke of the desolation of the heart? This city has been looted a hundred times.

This profound couplet by Mir Taqi Mir makes a powerful comparison between physical ruin and emotional desolation. The poet asks: What is the story of the heart's emptiness? He answers by comparing it to a city that has been looted a hundred times. It suggests that the pain of heartbreak—the internal devastation—is far deeper and more pervasive than any external trauma, leaving a wound that never truly heals.