Chapter IX: Story of the Cat and its Filth
A cat with its dirt a clean place will defile ;And conceal it with dust when it sees it is vile.You are careless regarding your own evil ways ;Don't you fear lest they fall under other men's gaze?From that villanous slave, take a warning you may,Who oft from his master has broken away ;If he likes, he'll return, humbly begging, sincere ;But fetters and chains will not make him appear.In revenge, with that person you safely can fight,From whom you've a cure, or a refuge in flight.It behoves you, at present, your deeds to recall ;And not when the book becomes public to all.Though a person did evil, no evil was done,If he grieved for himself, ere his last day had run.If the breath on a mirror makes dimness arise,The heart's mirror adds to its brightness by sighs.At the sins you have done, let alarm now appear!So that, on the last day, not a soul you may fear.
Words in this poem
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chapter IX: Story of the Cat and its Filth 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 Cat and its Filth, in The Garden of Fragrance (1882), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/saadi-bostan/9-22.html, id L29756.
Form and metre
Chapter IX: Story of the Cat and its Filth is 18 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHDD defileA · vileA · waysB · gazeB · mayC · awayC · sincereD · appearD · fightE · flightE · recallF · allF · doneG · runG · ariseH · sighsH · appearD · fearD
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 cat with its dirt a clean place will defile ; | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| And conceal it with dust when it sees it is vile. | 12 | ·˘/········· |
| You are careless regarding your own evil ways ; | 12 | ··/˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| Don't you fear lest they fall under other men's gaze? | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| From that villanous slave, take a warning you may, | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| Who oft from his master has broken away ; | 11 | ····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| If he likes, he'll return, humbly begging, sincere ; | 12 | ····˘//˘/˘˘/ |
| But fetters and chains will not make him appear. | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| In revenge, with that person you safely can fight, | 12 | ·˘/··/˘·/˘·· |
| From whom you've a cure, or a refuge in flight. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| It behoves you, at present, your deeds to recall ; | 12 | ·····˘/···/· |
| And not when the book becomes public to all. | 11 | ·····˘//˘·· |
| Though a person did evil, no evil was done, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| If he grieved for himself, ere his last day had run. | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| If the breath on a mirror makes dimness arise, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| The heart's mirror adds to its brightness by sighs. | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| At the sins you have done, let alarm now appear! | 12 | ·······˘/·˘/ |
| So that, on the last day, not a soul you may fear. | 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.