Chapter I: Story of an Oppressing Chief
Down a well, once, had fallen a champion of fame,From whose dread the male tiger a tigress became.An ill-wisher of men, nought but evil could see ;He fell; and observed none more helpless than he.The night-long, from wailing and weeping, awake;Some one battered his head with a stone, and thus spake:—"Did you ever the wrongs of a person redress,That to-day you are asking for aid in distress?You have sown all the seed, in atrocity steeped;Take a look at the fruit you've in consequence reaped !To your soul, sad and wounded, who salve would apply,When hearts from your wounding still, suffering, cry?Since you dug for our service a pit in the way,Down into a well you have fallen, to-day."Two people dig wells for the high and the low ;One of good disposition, the other a foe.One to moisten the throats of the thirsty, withal ;The other that people down headlong may fall.If you sin, do not hope any goodness to see !For grapes will not grow from a Tamarisk tree !Oh you who in Autumn your barley will sow,I don't think you'll reap wheat when the time comes to mow!If the thorny Zakum with your life you should train,Do not think that a quince from its boughs you'll obtain!The rare, luscious date, or the colocynth fruit ;In the seed which you scatter, your hope you should put.
Words in this poem
- tigress n.
- The female of the tiger. Holland. [From Tiger: cf. F. tigresse.]
- atrocity n.
- Enormous wickedness; extreme heinousness or cruelty. [F. atrocité, L. atrocitas, fr. atrox, atrocis, cruel.]
- withal adv.
- With this; with that. [With + all.]
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- luscious a.
- Sweet; delicious; very grateful to the taste; toothsome; excessively sweet or rich. [Prob. for lustious, fr. lusty, or perh. a corruption of luxurious. Cf. Lush, Lusty.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter I: Story of an Oppressing Chief 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 an Oppressing Chief, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/1-29.html, id L29534.
Form and metre
Chapter I: Story of an Oppressing Chief is 26 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMM fameA · becameA · seeB · heB · awakeC · spakeC · redressD · distressD · steepedE · reapedE · applyF · cryF · wayG · dayG · lowH · foeH · withalI · fallI · seeJ · treeJ · sowK · mowK · trainL · obtainL · fruitM · putM
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Down a well, once, had fallen a champion of fame, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| From whose dread the male tiger a tigress became. | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| An ill-wisher of men, nought but evil could see ; | 12 | ··/˘·····/·· |
| He fell; and observed none more helpless than he. | 12 | ···˘/˘··/˘·· |
| The night-long, from wailing and weeping, awake; | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Some one battered his head with a stone, and thus spake:— | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| "Did you ever the wrongs of a person redress, | 12 | ··/˘····/˘/˘ |
| That to-day you are asking for aid in distress? | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| You have sown all the seed, in atrocity steeped; | 12 | ·······˘/˘˘· |
| Take a look at the fruit you've in consequence reaped ! | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| To your soul, sad and wounded, who salve would apply, | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| When hearts from your wounding still, suffering, cry? | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘· |
| Since you dug for our service a pit in the way, | 12 | ····//˘····· |
| Down into a well you have fallen, to-day." | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Two people dig wells for the high and the low ; | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| One of good disposition, the other a foe. | 12 | ····˘/˘·/˘·· |
| One to moisten the throats of the thirsty, withal ; | 12 | ··/˘····/˘˘/ |
| The other that people down headlong may fall. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/··· |
| If you sin, do not hope any goodness to see ! | 12 | ······/˘/˘·· |
| For grapes will not grow from a Tamarisk tree ! | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| Oh you who in Autumn your barley will sow, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| I don't think you'll reap wheat when the time comes to mow! | 12 | ············ |
| If the thorny Zakum with your life you should train, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| Do not think that a quince from its boughs you'll obtain! | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| The rare, luscious date, or the colocynth fruit ; | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| In the seed which you scatter, your hope you should put. | 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.