Chapter III: On the Sincerity of Majnun's Love for Laila
Some one said to Majnun, " Oh auspicious in pace!Why is it you never in Hai show your face?Perhaps love for Laila has gone from your head?Your fancy has changed and your passion has fled?"When the helpless one heard this, he burst into tears,And answered, "Oh master! desist from your jeers !My own heart is afflicted with sorrow ; away !Do not you, too, rub salt on my ulcer, I pray !No proof is remoteness, of patience in me;For distance may oft a necessity be."" Oh faithful and good-natured one !" said the friend,"Say ! have you a message for Laila, to send?""Near my loved one," he said, "do not carry my name !In her presence to name me, would be a great shame !"
About this text
Chapter III: On the Sincerity of Majnun's Love for Laila 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 III: On the Sincerity of Majnun's Love for Laila, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/3-17.html, id L29609.
Form and metre
Chapter III: On the Sincerity of Majnun's Love for Laila is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG paceA · faceA · headB · fledB · tearsC · jeersC · awayD · prayD · meE · beE · friendF · sendF · nameG · shameG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some one said to Majnun, " Oh auspicious in pace! | 12 | ·······˘/˘·· |
| Why is it you never in Hai show your face? | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Perhaps love for Laila has gone from your head? | 11 | ˘/········· |
| Your fancy has changed and your passion has fled?" | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| When the helpless one heard this, he burst into tears, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| And answered, "Oh master! desist from your jeers ! | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘/··· |
| My own heart is afflicted with sorrow ; away ! | 12 | ····˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Do not you, too, rub salt on my ulcer, I pray ! | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| No proof is remoteness, of patience in me; | 11 | ···˘/˘·/˘·· |
| For distance may oft a necessity be." | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘· |
| " Oh faithful and good-natured one !" said the friend, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| "Say ! have you a message for Laila, to send?" | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| "Near my loved one," he said, "do not carry my name ! | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| In her presence to name me, would be a great shame !" | 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.