Chapter VII: Story of the Sufi and the Slanderer
Said a man to a Suf, with sanctity blest,You know not what some one behind you expressed?He said, "Silence! oh brother! and sleep it away !It is best not to know what your enemies say !Those people who carry the words of a foe,Than enemies, truly, more enmity show.The remarks of a foe, to a friend no one bears,Excepting the man who his enmity shares.A foe cannot speak with such harshness to me,That from hearing, my body should shivering be!You are worse than a foe! with your lips you unfoldThe same that the foe to you privately told!"A talebearer gives to old war a fresh life,And urges a good, gentle person to strife.Fly away from that comrade, while strength in you lies !Who says unto sleeping sedition, "Arise !"A man in a pit, with his feet firmly bound,Is better than spreading disturbance around.Between two, an encounter resembles a fire,And the ill-omened tell-tale's the fuel supplier.
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- supplier n.
- One who supplies.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VII: Story of the Sufi and the Slanderer 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 of the Sufi and the Slanderer, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/7-23.html, id L29706.
Form and metre
Chapter VII: Story of the Sufi and the Slanderer 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 94%).
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 blestA · expressedA · awayB · sayB · foeC · showC · bearsD · sharesD · meE · beE · unfoldF · toldF · lifeG · strifeG · liesH · ariseH · boundI · aroundI · fireJ · supplierJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Said a man to a Suf, with sanctity blest, | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| You know not what some one behind you expressed? | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| He said, "Silence! oh brother! and sleep it away ! | 12 | ··/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| It is best not to know what your enemies say ! | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Those people who carry the words of a foe, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| Than enemies, truly, more enmity show. | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| The remarks of a foe, to a friend no one bears, | 12 | ·˘/········· |
| Excepting the man who his enmity shares. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘· |
| A foe cannot speak with such harshness to me, | 11 | ··˘/···/˘·· |
| That from hearing, my body should shivering be! | 11 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| You are worse than a foe! with your lips you unfold | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| The same that the foe to you privately told!" | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| A talebearer gives to old war a fresh life, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And urges a good, gentle person to strife. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘·· |
| Fly away from that comrade, while strength in you lies ! | 12 | ·˘/··/······ |
| Who says unto sleeping sedition, "Arise !" | 11 | ····/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| A man in a pit, with his feet firmly bound, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Is better than spreading disturbance around. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Between two, an encounter resembles a fire, | 12 | ····˘/˘/˘·/˘ |
| And the ill-omened tell-tale's the fuel supplier. | 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.