Chapter IX: On Penitence
OH come thou, whose age has to seventy crept !Perhaps, since it went to the winds, you have slept.With provision for living your time you employed;Not a thought about dying your conscience annoyed.At the Judgment, when Paradise Market proceeds,They will stations assign in accordance with deeds.As much stock as you bring you will bear from this place,And if you have naught you will carry disgrace.For the better the market is stocked, you will seeThat the heart of the pauper more wretched will be.If two score and ten direms by five are reduced,A wound in your heart by Grief's nails is produced.When two score and ten years shall have over you passed,Consider a boon the "five days" that still last !If a tongue had been left to the poor, helpless dead,Lamenting and weeping he thus would have said:"Oh living ! since power of speech in you shows,Like the dead on God's mention your lips do not close !Since our opportunity passed in neglect,You should look upon this as your time to reflect !"
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
- pauper n.
- A poor person; especially, one development on private or public charity. Also used adjectively; as, pouper immigrants, pouper labor. [L. See Poor.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter IX: On Penitence 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 IX: On Penitence, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/9-1.html, id L29735.
Form and metre
Chapter IX: On Penitence 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 97%).
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 creptA · sleptA · employedB · annoyedB · proceedsC · deedsC · placeD · disgraceD · seeE · beE · reducedF · producedF · passedG · lastG · deadH · saidH · showsI · closeI · neglectJ · reflectJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| OH come thou, whose age has to seventy crept ! | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| Perhaps, since it went to the winds, you have slept. | 11 | ˘/········· |
| With provision for living your time you employed; | 12 | ·˘/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Not a thought about dying your conscience annoyed. | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| At the Judgment, when Paradise Market proceeds, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| They will stations assign in accordance with deeds. | 12 | ··/˘˘/·˘/˘·· |
| As much stock as you bring you will bear from this place, | 12 | ············ |
| And if you have naught you will carry disgrace. | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
| For the better the market is stocked, you will see | 12 | ··/˘·/˘····· |
| That the heart of the pauper more wretched will be. | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| If two score and ten direms by five are reduced, | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| A wound in your heart by Grief's nails is produced. | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| When two score and ten years shall have over you passed, | 12 | ············ |
| Consider a boon the "five days" that still last ! | 11 | ˘/˘········ |
| If a tongue had been left to the poor, helpless dead, | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Lamenting and weeping he thus would have said: | 11 | ˘/˘·/˘····· |
| "Oh living ! since power of speech in you shows, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| Like the dead on God's mention your lips do not close ! | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Since our opportunity passed in neglect, | 12 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| You should look upon this as your time to reflect !" | 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.