Chapter V: Story of the Poor Man and his Ugly Wife
A man who in Kish suffered poverty's yoke,To his vile-visaged wife, thus, with truthfulness spoke:"Since ugly is writ by Fate's hand on your face,On your cheeks void of beauty, rose-pink do not place !"Who is able to master good fortune by might?To the eyes of the blind, who with salve can give sight?Good works the malevolent never have shown,And union 'mong dogs is a thing quite unknown.The whole of the Sages of Greece and of Rome,Could not honey extract from the thorny Zakom."A wild beast is not likely to change into man ;Instruction is lost on it, strive as you can.One can polish a mirror that rusty has grown,But a mirror can never be made out of stone.Effort makes not a rose from a willow to grow ;A warm-bath will not whiten a negro like snow.Since nought can the arrow of destiny brave,Resignation's the shield that is left to God's slave.
Words in this poem
- kish n.
- A workman's name for the graphite which forms incidentally in iron smelting. [Cf. G. kies gravel, pyrites.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter V: Story of the Poor Man and his Ugly Wife 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 V: Story of the Poor Man and his Ugly Wife, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/5-10.html, id L29661.
Form and metre
Chapter V: Story of the Poor Man and his Ugly Wife is 18 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII yokeA · spokeA · faceB · placeB · mightC · sightC · shownD · unknownD · romeE · zakomE · manF · canF · grownG · stoneG · growH · snowH · braveI · slaveI
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 man who in Kish suffered poverty's yoke, | 12 | ·····/˘˘/˘˘· |
| To his vile-visaged wife, thus, with truthfulness spoke: | 12 | ···/˘···/˘˘· |
| "Since ugly is writ by Fate's hand on your face, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| On your cheeks void of beauty, rose-pink do not place !" | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Who is able to master good fortune by might? | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| To the eyes of the blind, who with salve can give sight? | 12 | ············ |
| Good works the malevolent never have shown, | 11 | ···˘/˘˘/˘·· |
| And union 'mong dogs is a thing quite unknown. | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| The whole of the Sages of Greece and of Rome, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Could not honey extract from the thorny Zakom." | 12 | ··/˘/···/˘·· |
| A wild beast is not likely to change into man ; | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Instruction is lost on it, strive as you can. | 11 | ˘/˘········ |
| One can polish a mirror that rusty has grown, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| But a mirror can never be made out of stone. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| Effort makes not a rose from a willow to grow ; | 12 | /˘······/··· |
| A warm-bath will not whiten a negro like snow. | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| Since nought can the arrow of destiny brave, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘· |
| Resignation's the shield that is left to God's slave. | 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.