Chapter VI: Story of the Sufi and his Dinars
By his belly and lust, was a Sufi subdued,For he foolishly spent two Dinars on their food.One among his companions addressed him aside,Saying, " How did you spend the Dinars?" He replied:"From my back, I with one of them pleasure released ;With the other, I spread for my stomach a feast.With baseness and foolishness, now, - am stained;For the latter's not full and the former is drained."If a food is nice-flavoured, or coarse and ill-dressed,When it reaches you late, you will eat it with zest.The sage his tired head on the pillow will lay,When sleep in its noose bears him fiercely away.While you cannot speak fluently, speak not at all!Till you see a clear plain, take good care of the ball!Let your talk and your walk, while to choose you are free,Be neither above nor below your degree !
Words in this poem
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- sufi n.
- A title or surname of the king of Persia. [From the name of a dynasty of Persian kings, Safi, Safavi; said to come from name Safi-ud-din of an ancestor of the family, confused with s pious.]
- foolishness n.
- The quality of being foolish.
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
- fluently adv.
- In a fluent manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VI: Story of the Sufi and his Dinars 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 Sufi and his Dinars, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/6-6.html, id L29673.
Form and metre
Chapter VI: Story of the Sufi and his Dinars is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH subduedA · foodA · asideB · repliedB · releasedC · feastC · stainedD · drainedD · dressedE · zestE · layF · awayF · allG · ballG · freeH · degreeH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| By his belly and lust, was a Sufi subdued, | 12 | ··/˘····/˘˘/ |
| For he foolishly spent two Dinars on their food. | 12 | ··/˘˘···/··· |
| One among his companions addressed him aside, | 12 | ····˘/˘˘/·˘/ |
| Saying, " How did you spend the Dinars?" He replied: | 12 | /˘·····/˘·˘/ |
| "From my back, I with one of them pleasure released ; | 12 | ········/˘˘/ |
| With the other, I spread for my stomach a feast. | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| With baseness and foolishness, now, - am stained; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘···˘ |
| For the latter's not full and the former is drained." | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| If a food is nice-flavoured, or coarse and ill-dressed, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| When it reaches you late, you will eat it with zest. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| The sage his tired head on the pillow will lay, | 12 | ···/˘···/˘·· |
| When sleep in its noose bears him fiercely away. | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
| While you cannot speak fluently, speak not at all! | 12 | ··˘/·/˘˘···· |
| Till you see a clear plain, take good care of the ball! | 12 | ············ |
| Let your talk and your walk, while to choose you are free, | 12 | ············ |
| Be neither above nor below your degree ! | 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.