Chapter VI: Story of the Old Woman's Cat
A cat in the house of an old woman dwelt,Who changes of time and condition had felt.To the banqueting hall of a ruler it went;Through its body the slaves of the chief arrows sent.It was running, with blood from its bones dripping rife;It was saying, and running from fear of its life:"If I from the hand of this archer can flee,With the mouse of the old woman's hut I'll agree."The honey repays not the wound of the sting ;With contentment, date-juice more enjoyment will bring.The Lord with that servant is not satisfied,Who sulks at the share which the Lord has supplied.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
- sulks n.
- The condition of being sulky; a sulky mood or humor; as, to be in the sulks.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VI: Story of the Old Woman's Cat 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 VI: Story of the Old Woman's Cat, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/6-10.html, id L29677.
Form and metre
Chapter VI: Story of the Old Woman's Cat is 12 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 AABBCCDDEEFF dweltA · feltA · wentB · sentB · rifeC · lifeC · fleeD · agreeD · stingE · bringE · satisfiedF · suppliedF
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 cat in the house of an old woman dwelt, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Who changes of time and condition had felt. | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘·· |
| To the banqueting hall of a ruler it went; | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| Through its body the slaves of the chief arrows sent. | 12 | ··/˘·····/˘· |
| It was running, with blood from its bones dripping rife; | 12 | ··/˘·····/˘· |
| It was saying, and running from fear of its life: | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| "If I from the hand of this archer can flee, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| With the mouse of the old woman's hut I'll agree." | 12 | ······/˘··˘/ |
| The honey repays not the wound of the sting ; | 11 | ·/˘·/······ |
| With contentment, date-juice more enjoyment will bring. | 12 | ·˘/˘···˘/˘·· |
| The Lord with that servant is not satisfied, | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| Who sulks at the share which the Lord has supplied. | 11 | ·········˘/ |
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.