Chapter V: Remarks on Sincerity and its Blessing, and on Hypocrisy and its Calamity
Devotion is good when its object is plain,What good, else, can come from a skin without brain?What's the belt of the gueber? the tattered, old cloak?When you wear them to tickle the fancies of folk !Do not publish your bravery, I've told you, at least ;When you've shown you're a man, do not act like a beast!One should merit display, in accordance with facts ;He is never ashamed who in this manner acts.For when from one's head the lent turban they tear,On his breast there remains an old garment to wear.Do not use wooden stilts if your stature be small,That in juvenile eyes you may seem to be tall !If a coating of silver on copper you pass,You may foist it with ease on an ignorant ass.On coppers, my life, liquid gold do not place !For the wise bankers treat them as worthless and base.The coins that are gilt, in the furnace they throw ;Which is copper; which gold, they immediately know.
Words in this poem
- tickle a.
- Ticklish; easily tickled.
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- juvenile a.
- Young; youthful; as, a juvenile appearance. [L. juvenilis, from juvenis young; akin to E. young: cf. F. juvénile, juvénil. See Young.]
- foist n.
- A light and fast-sailing ship. Beau. & Fl. [OF. fuste stick, boat, fr. L. fustis cudgel. Cf. 1st Fust.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter V: Remarks on Sincerity and its Blessing, and on Hypocrisy and its Calamity 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: Remarks on Sincerity and its Blessing, and on Hypocrisy and its Calamity, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/5-14.html, id L29665.
Form and metre
Chapter V: Remarks on Sincerity and its Blessing, and on Hypocrisy and its Calamity 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 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII plainA · brainA · cloakB · folkB · leastC · beastC · factsD · actsD · tearE · wearE · smallF · tallF · passG · assG · placeH · baseH · throwI · knowI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Devotion is good when its object is plain, | 11 | ˘/˘····/˘·· |
| What good, else, can come from a skin without brain? | 11 | ··········· |
| What's the belt of the gueber? the tattered, old cloak? | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| When you wear them to tickle the fancies of folk ! | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| Do not publish your bravery, I've told you, at least ; | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| When you've shown you're a man, do not act like a beast! | 12 | ············ |
| One should merit display, in accordance with facts ; | 12 | ··/˘˘/·˘/˘·· |
| He is never ashamed who in this manner acts. | 12 | ··/˘˘/···/˘· |
| For when from one's head the lent turban they tear, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| On his breast there remains an old garment to wear. | 12 | ····˘/··/˘·· |
| Do not use wooden stilts if your stature be small, | 12 | ···/˘···/˘·· |
| That in juvenile eyes you may seem to be tall ! | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| If a coating of silver on copper you pass, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| You may foist it with ease on an ignorant ass. | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| On coppers, my life, liquid gold do not place ! | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| For the wise bankers treat them as worthless and base. | 12 | ···/˘···/˘·· |
| The coins that are gilt, in the furnace they throw ; | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Which is copper; which gold, they immediately know. | 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.