Chapter I: Story of Sadi Seeing a Man Riding on a Leopard
From the plain of Rudbar I beheld with dismay,Some one riding a leopard and coming my way.I was seized with such dread at this wonderful sight,That I could not move foot from the spot, out of fright.Smiling sweetly, his hand to his lip he upraised,Saying, "Sadi, be not at this vision amazed!From the mandates of God your own neck do not turn !And the orders you issue no being will spurn !"When Cyrus obeyed the Just Monarch's commands,The Lord was his Guardian and strengthened his hands.He cannot, since you are His friend, let you goAway from His hand to the hand of the foe.This truly's the road, to its tenets hold fast!Step forward, and gain what you long for, at last!Admonition will profit the person, indeed,Who approves of the words that from Sadi proceed.
Words in this poem
- spurn v. t.
- To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. [OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter I: Story of Sadi Seeing a Man Riding on a Leopard 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 Sadi Seeing a Man Riding on a Leopard, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/1-2.html, id L29507.
Form and metre
Chapter I: Story of Sadi Seeing a Man Riding on a Leopard is 16 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH dismayA · wayA · sightB · frightB · upraisedC · amazedC · turnD · spurnD · commandsE · handsE · goF · foeF · fastG · lastG · indeedH · proceedH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From the plain of Rudbar I beheld with dismay, | 12 | ·······˘/·˘/ |
| Some one riding a leopard and coming my way. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| I was seized with such dread at this wonderful sight, | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| That I could not move foot from the spot, out of fright. | 12 | ············ |
| Smiling sweetly, his hand to his lip he upraised, | 12 | /˘/˘········ |
| Saying, "Sadi, be not at this vision amazed! | 12 | /˘······/˘˘/ |
| From the mandates of God your own neck do not turn ! | 12 | ··/········· |
| And the orders you issue no being will spurn !" | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| When Cyrus obeyed the Just Monarch's commands, | 12 | ·/˘˘/˘··/·˘/ |
| The Lord was his Guardian and strengthened his hands. | 12 | ····/˘˘·/˘·· |
| He cannot, since you are His friend, let you go | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Away from His hand to the hand of the foe. | 11 | ˘/········· |
| This truly's the road, to its tenets hold fast! | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Step forward, and gain what you long for, at last! | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Admonition will profit the person, indeed, | 12 | ·˘/˘·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Who approves of the words that from Sadi proceed. | 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.