Chapter II: The King, and the Peasant and his Ass
A certain one's donkey had sunk in the mud;From anger the blood reached his heart like a flood.There were desert and rain, cold and torrents, around!And the black skirt of Darkness hung over the ground.From night until morning his rage he let loose ;He reviled and reproached and indulged in abuse.Neither kindred nor foe from his tongue got away ;Nor the sultan who over the country held sway.The king of that region, a person renowned,Was playing chaugan on the exercise-ground ;He heard those remarks, so remote from the truth,And neither could listen nor answer, forsooth.The man saw the chief of the country, and foundThat he heard all he said from a neighbouring mound.The monarch abashed, turned his eyes on his train:—"Can any, the anger he bears me, explain ?"Some one answered, " Oh king! with the sword take his life !For he spared none—not even his daughter and wife."The monarch sublime looked about him in ire;Saw the man in distress and his ass in the mire.He pitied the poor, wretched villager's plight,And swallowed his rage, at the words full of spite ;Gave him gold and a horse and fur cloak of his own :—How comely is kindness when rancour is shown!"Oh old man ! void of wisdom and sense," some one cried,"You've evaded death, strangely !" "Desist!" he replied;"If I sorely lamented because of my grief,Becoming his station, he gave me relief."Rend'ring evil for evil is easy to do ;If you're manly, do good to the man who wronged you !
Words in this poem
- donkey n.
- An ass; or (less frequently) a mule. [Prob. dun, in allusion to the color of the animal + a dim. termination.]
- forsooth v. t.
- To address respectfully with the term forsooth.
- neighbouring a.
- Living or being near; adjacent; as, the neighboring nations or countries.
- plight v. t.
- To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait. [OE. pliten; probably through Old French, fr. LL. plectare, L. plectere. See Plait, Ply.]
- rancour n.
- The deepest malignity or spite; deep-seated enmity or malice; inveterate hatred. [OE. rancour, OF. rancor, rancur, F. rancune, fr. L. rancor rancidity, rankness; tropically, an old grudge, rancor, fr. rancere to be rank or rancid.]
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- sorely adv.
- In a sore manner; grievously; painfully; as, to be sorely afflicted.
- lamented a.
- Mourned for; bewailed.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter II: The King, and the Peasant and his Ass 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: The King, and the Peasant and his Ass, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/2-25.html, id L29582.
Form and metre
Chapter II: The King, and the Peasant and his Ass is 30 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AABBCCDDBBEEBBFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMM mudA · floodA · aroundB · groundB · looseC · abuseC · awayD · swayD · renownedB · groundB · truthE · forsoothE · foundB · moundB · trainF · explainF · lifeG · wifeG · ireH · mireH · plightI · spiteI · ownJ · shownJ · criedK · repliedK · griefL · reliefL · doM · youM
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 certain one's donkey had sunk in the mud; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| From anger the blood reached his heart like a flood. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| There were desert and rain, cold and torrents, around! | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| And the black skirt of Darkness hung over the ground. | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| From night until morning his rage he let loose ; | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| He reviled and reproached and indulged in abuse. | 12 | ·˘/·˘/·˘/·˘/ |
| Neither kindred nor foe from his tongue got away ; | 12 | /˘/˘······˘/ |
| Nor the sultan who over the country held sway. | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| The king of that region, a person renowned, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Was playing chaugan on the exercise-ground ; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| He heard those remarks, so remote from the truth, | 11 | ···˘/·˘/··· |
| And neither could listen nor answer, forsooth. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| The man saw the chief of the country, and found | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| That he heard all he said from a neighbouring mound. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| The monarch abashed, turned his eyes on his train:— | 11 | ·/·˘/······ |
| "Can any, the anger he bears me, explain ?" | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Some one answered, " Oh king! with the sword take his life ! | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| For he spared none—not even his daughter and wife." | 11 | ·····/·/˘·· |
| The monarch sublime looked about him in ire; | 11 | ·/·˘/······ |
| Saw the man in distress and his ass in the mire. | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| He pitied the poor, wretched villager's plight, | 11 | ·/···/˘/˘˘· |
| And swallowed his rage, at the words full of spite ; | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Gave him gold and a horse and fur cloak of his own :— | 12 | ············ |
| How comely is kindness when rancour is shown! | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| "Oh old man ! void of wisdom and sense," some one cried, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| "You've evaded death, strangely !" "Desist!" he replied; | 12 | ·˘/˘·/˘˘/·˘/ |
| "If I sorely lamented because of my grief, | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘····· |
| Becoming his station, he gave me relief." | 11 | ˘/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Rend'ring evil for evil is easy to do ; | 11 | ··/·/˘·/˘·· |
| If you're manly, do good to the man who wronged you ! | 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.