Chapter IX: Story of the Rebellious Subject
A subject engaged with a monarch in strife ;To the foe he consigned him and said, "Take his life !"Held fast in that harsh executioner's clutch,To himself he was saying, with warmth weeping much,"Had I brought not the wrath of the friend on my head,By the enemy, when would my blood have been shed ?"Do not turn from the friend, if you claim to be wise,That the foe may not view you with sinister eyes.The comrade incurring the Friend's wrath, let slide !The foe's ruthless harshness will tear off his hide.With the friend be united in word and in heart,That the enemy's root from its base may depart !This hideous aspersion I cannot commend :"In pleasing a foe to cause hurt to a friend !"
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- ruthless a.
- Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless.
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- aspersion n.
- A sprinkling, as with water or dust, in a literal sense. [L. aspersio, fr. aspergere: cf. F. aspersion.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter IX: Story of the Rebellious Subject 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: Story of the Rebellious Subject, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/9-15.html, id L29749.
Form and metre
Chapter IX: Story of the Rebellious Subject is 14 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG strifeA · lifeA · clutchB · muchB · headC · shedC · wiseD · eyesD · slideE · hideE · heartF · departF · commendG · friendG
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 subject engaged with a monarch in strife ; | 12 | ·˘/˘/˘··/··· |
| To the foe he consigned him and said, "Take his life !" | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| Held fast in that harsh executioner's clutch, | 11 | ······˘/˘˘· |
| To himself he was saying, with warmth weeping much, | 12 | ·˘/··/˘··/˘· |
| "Had I brought not the wrath of the friend on my head, | 12 | ············ |
| By the enemy, when would my blood have been shed ?" | 12 | ··/˘˘······· |
| Do not turn from the friend, if you claim to be wise, | 12 | ············ |
| That the foe may not view you with sinister eyes. | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| The comrade incurring the Friend's wrath, let slide ! | 11 | ·/·˘/˘····· |
| The foe's ruthless harshness will tear off his hide. | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| With the friend be united in word and in heart, | 12 | ····˘/˘····· |
| That the enemy's root from its base may depart ! | 12 | ··/˘˘·····˘/ |
| This hideous aspersion I cannot commend : | 12 | ·/˘˘˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| "In pleasing a foe to cause hurt to a friend !" | 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.