Analysis of Ch 06 On Weakness And Old Age Story 02
It is related that an old man, having married a girl, was sitting with her privately in an apartment adorned with roses, fixing his eyes and heart upon her. He did not sleep during long nights but spent them in telling her jokes and witty stories, hoping to gain her affection and to conquer her shyness. One night, however, he informed her that luck had been friendly to her and the eye of fortune awake because she had become the companion of an old man who is ripe, educated, experienced in the world, of a quiet disposition, who had felt cold and warm, had tried good and bad, who knows the diities of companionship, is ready to fulfil the conditions of love, is benevolent, kind, good-natured and sweet-tongued.
As far as I am able I shall hold thy heart
And if injured I shall not injure in return.
Though sugar may be thy food as of a parrot
I shall sacrifice sweet life to thy support.
Thou hast not fallen into the hands of a giddy youth, fun of whims, headstrong, fickle minded, running about every moment in search of another pleasure and entertaining another opinion, sleeping every night in another place and taking every day another friend.
Young men are joyous and of handsome countenance
But inconstant in fidelity to anyone.
Expect not faithfulness from nightingales
Who sing every moment to another rose.
Contrary to aged men who spend their lives according to wisdom and propriety; not according to the impulses of folly and youth.
Find one better than thyself and consider it fortunate
Because with one like thyself thou wilt be disappointed.
The old man said: ‘I continued in this strain, thinking that I had captivated her heart and that it had become my prey.’ She drew, however, a deep sigh from her grief-filled heart and said: ‘All the words thou hast uttered, weighed in the scales of my understanding, are not equivalent to the maxim I once heard enounced in my tribe: An arrow in the side of a young woman is better than an old man.’
When she perceived in the hands of her husband
Something pendant like the nether lip of a fasting man,
She said: ‘This fellow has a corpse with him
But incantations are for sleepers not for corpses.’
A woman who arises without satisfaction from a man
Will raise many a quarrel and contention.
An old man who is unable to rise from his place,
Except by the aid of a stick, how can his own stick rise?
In short, there being no possibility of harmony, a separation at last took place. When the time of the lady’s uddat had terminated, she was given in marriage to a young man who was violent, ill-humoured and empty-handed. She suffered much from his bad temper and tyrannical behaviour, and experienced the miseries of penury. She nevertheless said: ‘Praise be to Allah for having been delivered from that wretched torment, and attained this permanent blessing.’
Despite of all this violence and hasty nature
I shall try to please thee because thou art beauteous.
To be with thee in hell burning is for me
Better than to be with the other in paradise.
The smell of an onion from the mouth of a pretty face
Is indeed better than a rose from an ugly hand.
A nice face and a gown of gold brocade,
Essence of roses, fragrant aloes, paint, perfume and lust:
All these are ornaments of women.
Take a man; and his testicles are a sufficient ornament.
Scheme | X XXAX X BCBX X AX D XDXXDCEX X XBXXEXXXCX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011111010011101010001010011101011010101111101111101001010101011001001100101110101011111010001110010111010010111111110001000011010010111101111011101101011011001011101001110011 111111011111 011011110001 110111111010 1110111101 11110010110101111110101001100100110101000100100101010010010101010010101 111100110100 1100100110 011111 111001010101 10011111110101100010010101010011001 11101100101100 011111111010 0111101001110111100010111011111100111011101101111010011101011010010101111011110001101101101111 11010011010 10101010110101 1111010111 1111101110 010101001010101 11100100010 1111101011111 01101101111111 0111010100110000101111101101111001110010101111100110101011011111000100100100010011001001111110110101011101001110010 0111110001010 11111101111 11110110111 101111010010 01111010110101 1011010111101 0110011101 1011010110101 111100110 1010110010010100 |
Characters | 3,576 |
Words | 599 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 1, 4, 1, 2, 1, 8, 1, 10 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 80 |
Words per line (avg) | 18 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 263 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:59 min read
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"Ch 06 On Weakness And Old Age Story 02" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33919/ch-06-on-weakness-and-old-age-story-02>.
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