Chapter II: Story on Fasting
The wife of a government officer said :—"Rise Mabarak, and knock at the door of life's bread!Go, and ask them to give you a share from the tray!For your children are in a deplorable way."He answered, "The kitchen to-day will be cold,For the Sultan, last night, said a fast he would hold."The wife in despair dropped her head on her breast;With heart sore from hunger herself she addressed :—"When the king talks of fasts, does he gain in the least?The breaking of his fast is my children's feast."The eaters, who have a beneficent hand,Beat the constantly fasting and. world-serving, band.It is right for the person to keep up a fast,Who gives bread to the poor, for their morning repast.If not! why should trouble be suffered by you?You withhold from yourself, and consume yourself, too!The ignorant fancies of hermits must tendTo confound unbelief and the Faith, in the end:There is clearness in water, and mirrors, as well;But the clearness of each you should know how to tell.
Words in this poem
- unbelief n.
- The withholding of belief; doubt; incredulity; skepticism. [Pref. un- not + belief: cf. AS. ungeleáfa.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter II: Story on Fasting 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 II: Story on Fasting, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/2-12.html, id L29569.
Form and metre
Chapter II: Story on Fasting is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ saidA · breadA · trayB · wayB · coldC · holdC · breastD · addressedD · leastE · feastE · handF · bandF · fastG · repastG · youH · tooH · tendI · endI · wellJ · tellJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The wife of a government officer said :— | 11 | ····/˘˘/˘˘· |
| "Rise Mabarak, and knock at the door of life's bread! | 12 | ············ |
| Go, and ask them to give you a share from the tray! | 12 | ············ |
| For your children are in a deplorable way." | 12 | ··/˘···˘/˘˘· |
| He answered, "The kitchen to-day will be cold, | 12 | ·/˘˘·/˘····· |
| For the Sultan, last night, said a fast he would hold." | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| The wife in despair dropped her head on her breast; | 12 | ···˘/·˘····· |
| With heart sore from hunger herself she addressed :— | 12 | ····/˘˘/·˘/˘ |
| "When the king talks of fasts, does he gain in the least? | 12 | ············ |
| The breaking of his fast is my children's feast." | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| The eaters, who have a beneficent hand, | 11 | ·/˘····˘/˘· |
| Beat the constantly fasting and. world-serving, band. | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| It is right for the person to keep up a fast, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Who gives bread to the poor, for their morning repast. | 12 | ········/˘˘/ |
| If not! why should trouble be suffered by you? | 12 | ····/˘·/˘˘·· |
| You withhold from yourself, and consume yourself, too! | 12 | ·˘/·/˘·˘/˘/· |
| The ignorant fancies of hermits must tend | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| To confound unbelief and the Faith, in the end: | 12 | ·˘/········· |
| There is clearness in water, and mirrors, as well; | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| But the clearness of each you should know how to tell. | 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.