Analysis of Ch 01 Manner of Kings Story 13

Sa di 1210 (Shiraz) – 1291 (Shiraz)



I heard a king, who had changed night into day by pleasures, saying in his drunkenness:

"We have in the world no moment more delightful than this,  
     Because I care neither for good nor for bad nor for anyone."  
     A naked dervish, who was sleeping outside in the cold, then said:
    'O thou like whom in happiness there is no one in the world,  
     I take it if thou carest not, we also do not care."  

The king, being pleased with these words of unconcern, held out a bag of a thousand dinars from the window and said: "Dervish, spread out thy skirt." He replied: "Whence can I, who have no robe, bring a skirt?" The padshah took pity on his helpless condition, added a robe to his gift and sent it out to him but the dervish squandered the money in a short time and returned.

Property cannot abide in the hands of the free,  
     Neither patience in the heart of a lover nor water in a sieve.  

The case of the dervish having been brought to the notice of the king when he was not in good humour, he became angry and turned his face away. Therefore it has been said that intelligent and experienced men ought to be on their guard against the violence and despotism of kings because their thoughts are generally occupied with important affairs of state so that they cannot bear to be importuned by the crowd of vulgar persons.

He will be excluded from the beneficence of the padshah  
     Who cannot watch for the proper opportunity.  
     Before thou seest the occasion for speaking at hand  
     Destroy not thy power by heedless talk.  

The king said: "Drive away this impudent and prodigal mendicant who has in so short a time thrown away so much money. He does not know that the Beit-ulmal is intended to offer a morsel to the needy and not to feed the brothers of devils."

The fool who burns by day a camphor-light
     Will soon not have an oil-lamp for the night.  

One of councillor-veziers said: "My lord, it would seem proper to grant to such persons a sufficient allowance to be drawn from time to time so that they may not squander it. But anger and repulsion, as manifested by thee, are unworthy of a generous disposition as also to encourage a man by kindness and then again to distress him by disappointing his expectation."

The door ought not to be opened to applicants so  
     That, when it is ajar, it may not be shut again.  
     Nobody sees the thirsty pilgrims to Hejaz  
     Crowding at the bank of briny water.  
     Wherever a sweet spring happens to be  
     Men, birds and insects flock around it.


Scheme A XBXXX X CX X XCXX X DD B XXAXCX
Poetic Form
Metre 110111110111101001100 11001110101011 011110111111110 0101011101100111 111101001111001 1111111110111 011011111011101101010101001101111101111111110101110111001010011110111111010100100011001 1001001001101 10100011010110001 011010101110101011111011101100111011111110100001001111111010100010011011111000101010011111110111110111010 111010100100101 110110100100 0111001011011 011110111 01110111010011101101101111011111011101011001010100111010110 011111011 1111111101 1111111111101111100010010111111111111101110011100111010101000101101010011100101101110101010 0111111011001 1111011111101 110101011 101011110 0100111011 11011011
Characters 2,556
Words 463
Sentences 19
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 1, 5, 1, 2, 1, 4, 1, 2, 1, 6
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 80
Words per line (avg) 19
Letters per stanza (avg) 193
Words per stanza (avg) 46
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

2:17 min read
53

Sa di

Saadi Shirazi was a major Persian poet and prose write of the medieval period. more…

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