Chapter VIII: Story of a Saint Mistaken for a Jew
A man passed a person possessing God's grace,And thought him a Jew, by the cut of his face.On the back of his neck, he inflicted a whack ;The holy man gave him the shirt from his back !Ashamed, he exclaimed, " What I've done is amiss!Forgive me ! what time for a favour is this?""I brood not on evil," he, thankfully, said,"But I am not the man who came into your head."A nature refined and a form free from pride,Surpass a good name and a wicked inside.The prowling night-robber seems better to me,Than the profligate wretch you in pious garb see.
Words in this poem
- whack v. t.
- To strike; to beat; to give a heavy or resounding blow to; to thrash; to make with whacks. [Cf. Thwack.]
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- prowling a.
- Accustomed to prowl, or engaged in roving stealthily, as for prey.
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter VIII: Story of a Saint Mistaken for a Jew 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 VIII: Story of a Saint Mistaken for a Jew, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/8-11.html, id L29729.
Form and metre
Chapter VIII: Story of a Saint Mistaken for a Jew 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 95%).
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 graceA · faceA · whackB · backB · amissC · thisC · saidD · headD · prideE · insideE · meF · seeF
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 man passed a person possessing God's grace, | 11 | ····/˘˘/˘·· |
| And thought him a Jew, by the cut of his face. | 11 | ··········· |
| On the back of his neck, he inflicted a whack ; | 12 | ·······˘/˘·· |
| The holy man gave him the shirt from his back ! | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Ashamed, he exclaimed, " What I've done is amiss! | 11 | ˘/·˘/····˘/ |
| Forgive me ! what time for a favour is this?" | 11 | ˘/·····/˘·· |
| "I brood not on evil," he, thankfully, said, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘· |
| "But I am not the man who came into your head." | 12 | ············ |
| A nature refined and a form free from pride, | 11 | ·/˘˘/······ |
| Surpass a good name and a wicked inside. | 11 | ˘/·····/˘/· |
| The prowling night-robber seems better to me, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Than the profligate wretch you in pious garb see. | 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.