Chapter VII: Story about Evil-speaking
Regarding a man who is good or is bad,Do not speak any evil! oh sensible lad !For you make a bad man your own foe, to begin,And if he be good, you commit a great sin !Whoever informs you that so and so's vile,You may safely infer is himself bad, the while.For, so and so's acts he feels bound to disclose,And from this wicked action his backbiting shows.When you speak ill of men, in expressing your view,You do wrong! even if you should state what is true!The sayings of men, through their manliness, hear !To Sadi or Saharward, do not give ear !
Words in this poem
- whoever pron.
- Whatever person; any person who; be or she who; any one who; as, he shall be punished, whoever he may be.
- infer v. t.
- To bring on; to induce; to occasion. Harvey. [L. inferre to bring into, bring forward, occasion, infer; pref. in- in + ferre to carry, bring: cf. F. inférer. See 1 st Bear.]
- backbiting n.
- Secret slander; detraction.
- manliness n.
- The quality or state of being manly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VII: Story about Evil-speaking 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 VII: Story about Evil-speaking, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/7-11.html, id L29694.
Form and metre
Chapter VII: Story about Evil-speaking 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 92%).
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 badA · ladA · beginB · sinB · vileC · whileC · discloseD · showsD · viewE · trueE · hearF · earF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Regarding a man who is good or is bad, | 11 | ˘/˘········ |
| Do not speak any evil! oh sensible lad ! | 11 | ···/˘/·/˘˘· |
| For you make a bad man your own foe, to begin, | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| And if he be good, you commit a great sin ! | 11 | ······˘/··· |
| Whoever informs you that so and so's vile, | 11 | ˘/˘˘/······ |
| You may safely infer is himself bad, the while. | 12 | ··/˘˘/·˘/··· |
| For, so and so's acts he feels bound to disclose, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| And from this wicked action his backbiting shows. | 12 | ···/˘/˘·/·˘· |
| When you speak ill of men, in expressing your view, | 12 | ·······˘/˘·· |
| You do wrong! even if you should state what is true! | 11 | ···/······· |
| The sayings of men, through their manliness, hear ! | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘· |
| To Sadi or Saharward, do not give ear ! | 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.