Chapter IX: Story of the Polluted Man and the Mosque
To a mosque, one polluted with mud took the road,Who because of misfortune bewilderment showed.Some one checking him said, "May your hands ruined be!Skirt soiled, do not enter a place from filth free !"Some sympathy entered my heart upon this,For the Paradise lofty has pureness and bliss.In that place of the pure, who keep hope in their view,Has a man, skirt-polluted from sin, aught to do ?He who honestly worships will Paradise gain ;He who money possesses, choice goods will obtain.You must wash your skirt clean from the rubbish of vice,For they'll shut off the stream, from above, in a trice.Do not say, " Fortune's bird from my keeping has flown;"For the end of the string in your hand is still shown.Be quick-paced, and smart! if you've practised delay ;And coming late, right, need not cause you dismay.Your hand of beseeching Death cared not to tie;Raise your hands to the shrine of the great God on high !Do not slumber ! oh, negligent sinner, arise !In excuse for your sins, shed the tears from your eyes !When to scatter your fame comes the fated decree,At least on the dust of this street let it be!And if without name, let a pleader be shown,Whose honour is higher esteemed than your own!If the Lord should expel me, in wrath, from His gate,I'll bring as my pleaders the souls of the great !
Words in this poem
- pureness n.
- The state of being pure (in any sense of the adjective).
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- honestly adv.
- Honorably; becomingly; decently.
- trice v. t.
- To pull; to haul; to drag; to pull away. [OE. trisen; of Scand. or Low German origin; cf. Sw. trissa a sheave, pulley, triss a spritsail brace, Dan. tridse a pulley, tridse to haul by means of a pulley,]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- sinner n.
- One who has sinned; especially, one who has sinned without repenting; hence, a persistent and incorrigible transgressor; one condemned by the law of God.
- pleader n.
- One who pleads; one who argues for or against; an advotate. [F. plaideur.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter IX: Story of the Polluted Man and the Mosque 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 Polluted Man and the Mosque, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/9-17.html, id L29751.
Form and metre
Chapter IX: Story of the Polluted Man and the Mosque is 26 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJBBGGKK roadA · showedA · beB · freeB · thisC · blissC · viewD · doD · gainE · obtainE · viceF · triceF · flownG · shownG · delayH · dismayH · tieI · highI · ariseJ · eyesJ · decreeB · beB · shownG · ownG · gateK · greatK
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To a mosque, one polluted with mud took the road, | 12 | ····˘/˘····· |
| Who because of misfortune bewilderment showed. | 12 | ····˘/˘˘/˘˘· |
| Some one checking him said, "May your hands ruined be! | 12 | ··/˘·····/˘· |
| Skirt soiled, do not enter a place from filth free !" | 12 | ··˘··/˘····· |
| Some sympathy entered my heart upon this, | 12 | ·/˘˘/˘˘····· |
| For the Paradise lofty has pureness and bliss. | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| In that place of the pure, who keep hope in their view, | 12 | ············ |
| Has a man, skirt-polluted from sin, aught to do ? | 12 | ····˘/˘····· |
| He who honestly worships will Paradise gain ; | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| He who money possesses, choice goods will obtain. | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘···˘/ |
| You must wash your skirt clean from the rubbish of vice, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| For they'll shut off the stream, from above, in a trice. | 12 | ············ |
| Do not say, " Fortune's bird from my keeping has flown;" | 12 | ···/˘···/˘·· |
| For the end of the string in your hand is still shown. | 12 | ············ |
| Be quick-paced, and smart! if you've practised delay ; | 12 | ···˘······˘/ |
| And coming late, right, need not cause you dismay. | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| Your hand of beseeching Death cared not to tie; | 12 | ···˘/˘··˘··· |
| Raise your hands to the shrine of the great God on high ! | 12 | ············ |
| Do not slumber ! oh, negligent sinner, arise ! | 12 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| In excuse for your sins, shed the tears from your eyes ! | 12 | ·˘/········· |
| When to scatter your fame comes the fated decree, | 12 | ··/˘····/˘˘/ |
| At least on the dust of this street let it be! | 11 | ··········· |
| And if without name, let a pleader be shown, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Whose honour is higher esteemed than your own! | 12 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘··· |
| If the Lord should expel me, in wrath, from His gate, | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| I'll bring as my pleaders the souls of the great ! | 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.