Chapter I: Story of a King of Babylon and the Beggar
A king of Irak with the news was supplied,That under his palace a mendicant cried :—"You, too, at a door sit with hope in your eyes;Hence, the hope of the poor at your door, realize!The afflicted in heart, from their bondage relieve!That your own heart may never have reason to grieve.The implorer for justice, heart-broken from grief,By the state of the provinces measures the chief.You have slept cool at noon in your private retreat ;To the poor out of door say, 'Be burned in the heat !'The Lord for that person will justice obtain,Who has justice implored from the monarch in vain."
Words in this poem
- realize v. t.
- To make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish; as, to realize a scheme or project. [Cf. F. réaliser.]
- relieve v. t.
- To lift up; to raise again, as one who has fallen; to cause to rise. Piers Plowman. [OE. releven, F. relever to raise again, discharge, relieve, fr. L. relevare to lift up, raise, make light, relieve; pref. re- re- + levare to raise, fr. levis l]
- implorer n.
- One who implores.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter I: Story of a King of Babylon and the Beggar 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 of a King of Babylon and the Beggar, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/1-14.html, id L29519.
Form and metre
Chapter I: Story of a King of Babylon and the Beggar is 12 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 AABBCCDDEEFF suppliedA · criedA · eyesB · realizeB · relieveC · grieveC · griefD · chiefD · retreatE · heatE · obtainF · vainF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A king of Irak with the news was supplied, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| That under his palace a mendicant cried :— | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘· |
| "You, too, at a door sit with hope in your eyes; | 11 | ··········· |
| Hence, the hope of the poor at your door, realize! | 11 | ·········/· |
| The afflicted in heart, from their bondage relieve! | 12 | ·˘/˘····/˘˘/ |
| That your own heart may never have reason to grieve. | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| The implorer for justice, heart-broken from grief, | 12 | ·˘/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| By the state of the provinces measures the chief. | 12 | ·····/˘˘/˘·· |
| You have slept cool at noon in your private retreat ; | 12 | ········/˘˘/ |
| To the poor out of door say, 'Be burned in the heat !' | 12 | ············ |
| The Lord for that person will justice obtain, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Who has justice implored from the monarch in vain." | 12 | ··/˘˘/··/··· |
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.