Chapter VI: Story on the Depravity of Gluttons
Do you know of the wonders from Basra I brought?Far sweeter than dates, some remarks I have got.A few of us, decked in the garb of the true,Passed a district where dates in luxuriance grew.The stomach of one of our number was great;A glutton he was, from the ' bushels' he ate.The poor creature got ready and climbed up a tree,And down again heavily, headlong, fell he.One cannot eat dates, aye, and bear them away ;The glutton, ill-starred, ate and lifeless he lay.The village chief coming, "Who killed him ?" he cried ;"Do not shout at us harshly like that !" I replied;"His stomach neath's skirt dragged him down from a branch;Narrow-minded is he who is spacious in paunch."The hand's bonds, is the stomach, and chain of the feet ;A stomach's slave pious, you rarely will meet.The locust's all stomach and therefore, no doubt,The small-bellied ant, by the leg pulls it out.Depart and an inside of pureness acquire !The stomach can never be filled, but with mire.
Words in this poem
- garb n.
- External appearance, as expressive of the feelings or character; looks; fashion or manner, as of speech. [OF. garbe looks, countenance, grace, ornament, fr. OHG. garawi, garwi, ornament, dress. akin to E. gear. See Gear, n.]
- luxuriance n.
- The state or quality of being luxuriant; rank, vigorous growth; excessive abundance produced by rank growth. [Cf. F. luxuriance.]
- paunch n.
- The belly and its contents; the abdomen; also, the first stomach, or rumen, of ruminants. See Rumen. [OF. panch, pance, F. panse, L. pantex, panticis.]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- pureness n.
- The state of being pure (in any sense of the adjective).
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VI: Story on the Depravity of Gluttons 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 on the Depravity of Gluttons, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/6-5.html, id L29672.
Form and metre
Chapter VI: Story on the Depravity of Gluttons is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ broughtA · gotA · trueB · grewB · greatC · ateC · treeD · heD · awayE · layE · criedF · repliedF · branchG · paunchG · feetH · meetH · doubtI · outI · acquireJ · mireJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Do you know of the wonders from Basra I brought? | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| Far sweeter than dates, some remarks I have got. | 11 | ·/˘···˘/··· |
| A few of us, decked in the garb of the true, | 11 | ··········· |
| Passed a district where dates in luxuriance grew. | 12 | ··/˘···˘/˘˘· |
| The stomach of one of our number was great; | 11 | ·/˘···//˘·· |
| A glutton he was, from the ' bushels' he ate. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| The poor creature got ready and climbed up a tree, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| And down again heavily, headlong, fell he. | 11 | ··˘//˘˘/··· |
| One cannot eat dates, aye, and bear them away ; | 11 | ·˘/······˘/ |
| The glutton, ill-starred, ate and lifeless he lay. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| The village chief coming, "Who killed him ?" he cried ; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| "Do not shout at us harshly like that !" I replied; | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| "His stomach neath's skirt dragged him down from a branch; | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Narrow-minded is he who is spacious in paunch." | 12 | /˘/˘····/˘·· |
| The hand's bonds, is the stomach, and chain of the feet ; | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| A stomach's slave pious, you rarely will meet. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| The locust's all stomach and therefore, no doubt, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| The small-bellied ant, by the leg pulls it out. | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Depart and an inside of pureness acquire ! | 12 | ˘/··˘/·/˘˘/˘ |
| The stomach can never be filled, but with mire. | 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.