Analysis of Ch 03 On The Excellence Of Contentment Story 14
Sa di 1210 (Shiraz) – 1291 (Shiraz)
A year of dearth set in at Alexandria so that even a dervish lost the reins of patience from his hands, the pearls of heaven were withheld from the earth and the lamentations of mankind ascended to the firmament.
There was no wild beast, fowl, fish or ant
Whose wailings prompted by distress had not reached the sky.
For a wonder the heart-smoke of the people did not condense
To form clouds and the torrents of their tears rain.
In such a year there was an hermaphrodite. I owe it to my friends not to describe him because it would be an abandonment of good manners, especially in the presence of great men. On the other hand, it would likewise be improper and in the way of negligence not to mention anything about him because certain people would impute it to the ignorance of the narrator. Accordingly I shall briefly describe him in the following two distichs because a little indicates much and a handful is a sample of a donkey load.
If a Tatar slays that hermaphrodite
The Tatar must not be slain in return.
How long will he be like the bridge of Baghdad
With water flowing beneath and men on the back?
Such a man, a portion of whose eulogy thou hast now heard, possessed in that year boundless wealth, bestowed silver and gold upon the needy and laid out tables for travellers. A company of dervishes who were by the presence of distress on the point of starvation were inclined to accept of his hospitality and consulted me on the subject but I struck my head back from assenting and replied:
A lion does not eat the half of which a dog consumed
Although he may die of hunger in his lair.
Though getting rich in wealth and property like Feridun
A worthless man is to be considered of no account.
Scheme | A AXXB A AXAX A AXBA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111010100111001010111011101110001101001111010101 111111111 111010111101 101001110101101 11100101111 010111101011111111011011111010011100100010111101011111010000111001110100110110101011101001010001001110011001001101010101001101010101 101011010 0101111001 11111101110 110100101101 1010101110011110101110101100101010011101100010011101010101101101000110111010000101100111111111001 01011101110101 1111110011 110101010011 01011110101101 |
Characters | 1,781 |
Words | 317 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 1, 4, 1, 4 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 91 |
Words per line (avg) | 21 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 228 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:35 min read
- 113 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Ch 03 On The Excellence Of Contentment Story 14" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33869/ch-03-on-the-excellence-of-contentment-story-14>.
Discuss this Sa di poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In