Chapter I: Story on Hearing Complaints
When will you give ear to a suppliant's cry?Your bed-chamber roof is in Saturn, on high.So sleep, that lamenting may come to your ear,Should a suppliant carry his clamouring near.He complains of the tyrant who lives in your reign ;For each wrong he commits unto you will pertain.The skirt of the trav'ller, the dog did not tear,But the ignorant peasant who reared him with care.Oh Sadi ! in speech you have shown yourself bold ;The victory win ! since the sabre you hold.Declare what you know! for truth spoken is best ;You do not take bribes; pious frauds you detest.From the volume wash sense, if you keep your tongue still ;Let craving be snapped and declare what you will.
Words in this poem
- suppliant a.
- Asking earnestly and submissively; entreating; beseeching; supplicating. [F., p.pr. of supplier to entreat, L. supplicare. See Supplicate, and cf. Supplicant.]
- sabre n.
- A sword with a broad and heavy blade, thick at the back, and usually more or less curved like a scimiter; a cavalry sword. Saber fish, or Sabre fish (Zoöl.), the cutlass fish.
- detest v. t.
- To witness against; to denounce; to condemn. [L. detestare, detestatum, and detestari, to curse while calling a deity to witness, to execrate, detest; de + testari to be a witness, testify, testis a witness]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter I: Story on Hearing Complaints is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Garden of Fragrance: being a complete translation of the Bostan of Sadi from the original Persian into English verse, by G. S. Davie (London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Co., 1882), Internet Archive, the G. S. Davie translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Saadi, Chapter I: Story on Hearing Complaints, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/1-13.html, id L29518.
Form and metre
Chapter I: Story on Hearing Complaints is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCBBDDEEFF cryA · highA · earB · nearB · reignC · pertainC · tearB · careB · boldD · holdD · bestE · detestE · stillF · willF
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When will you give ear to a suppliant's cry? | 10 | ·········· |
| Your bed-chamber roof is in Saturn, on high. | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| So sleep, that lamenting may come to your ear, | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
| Should a suppliant carry his clamouring near. | 11 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘· |
| He complains of the tyrant who lives in your reign ; | 12 | ·˘/··/˘····· |
| For each wrong he commits unto you will pertain. | 12 | ····˘/····˘/ |
| The skirt of the trav'ller, the dog did not tear, | 11 | ··········· |
| But the ignorant peasant who reared him with care. | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| Oh Sadi ! in speech you have shown yourself bold ; | 11 | ········˘/· |
| The victory win ! since the sabre you hold. | 11 | ·/˘˘···/˘·· |
| Declare what you know! for truth spoken is best ; | 11 | ˘/·····/˘·· |
| You do not take bribes; pious frauds you detest. | 11 | ·····/˘··˘/ |
| From the volume wash sense, if you keep your tongue still ; | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| Let craving be snapped and declare what you will. | 11 | ·/˘···˘/··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.