The soul yearning to meet the Lord is represented in this poem as the wife intently awaiting the return of her husband who has gone to some distant land. In Indian folklore the crow, believed to be flying to far-off places, is the messenger of the separated wife. The forlorn wife, who has no means to convey to her beloved the agony of separation she feels, in desperation turns to the crow as a messenger who can fly to her husband with her pleas for an early reunion. Kabir uses this motif to emphasize the deep longing of the separated soul. At the end he extols divine love as a ladder to union and eternal bliss.

The separated wife
Stares and stares at the path,
With heaving sighs and tear-filled eyes;
But tears fail to drench
The flame of longing in her heart.
Her feet are firmly set,
Untired by the endless wait;
She lives on one hope:
A glimpse of the Beloved.

'Fly, fly, black crow,
Fly with speed,
That swiftly my loved one
I meet.'

Says Kabir: Love the Lord
To gain eternal life;
Let your only refuge be
The Lord's Name —
Repeat it and become
One with Him.

A.G., Gauri, p. 337
Panth nihārai kāmni