batch.motif.persian-sadi-gulistan-ross-gutenberg-l3204-l3269
---
record_id: batch.motif.persian-sadi-gulistan-ross-gutenberg-l3204-l3269
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
passage_locator:
label: XXVII / CHAPTER IV / CHAPTER V / XVIII.; lines 3204-3269
start: '3204'
end: '3269'
translation: The Persian Literature, Volume 2, The Gulistan
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: 'The passage presents the story of Laila and Mujnun before an Arabian king:
Mujnun is reproved for abandoning society, explains that only one who sees through
his loving perception can understand Laila''s beauty, and compares his pain to
wounds and stings known only to sufferers. A second exemplum describes a young
man and beloved damsel in a vessel who fall into a whirlpool; as he is dying,
he asks the pilot to save his beloved rather than himself. The narrator draws
a lesson about complete devotion to the chosen heart-consoler, identified parenthetically
as God, and links this lesson back to Laila and Mujnun.'
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: People tell an Arabian king that Mujnun, despite knowledge and wisdom, has
gone to the desert and abandoned himself to distraction because of Laila.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The king orders Mujnun brought before him and reproves him for forsaking human
society.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: Mujnun weeps and says his critics would understand his love if they could
see Laila.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: The king has Laila found among the Arab tribes and brought into his seraglio
courtyard.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: The king sees Laila as tawny, physically feeble, and less beautiful than menials
in his harem.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: Mujnun says the king would need to look through Mujnun's eye to perceive Laila's
charms.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: Mujnun states that only someone with the same malady can understand his condition
and hear his tale.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: Mujnun uses images of firewood burning brighter, a wound, a hornet sting,
salt, and a wounded limb to describe love's pain and fellow-feeling.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:9
text: A handsome young man and a lovely damsel are sailing in a vessel on the deep
when they fall together into a whirlpool.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:10
text: When the pilot offers help, the young man tells him to leave him and take
the hand of his beloved.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:11
text: The young man dies after making the speech, and the lovers' lives end in this
manner.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:12
text: The narrator instructs the audience to devote the whole heart to the chosen
heart-consoler, identified as God, and to shut the eyes to the rest of the world.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: obs:13
text: The narrator says that if Laila and Mujnun returned to life, they could read
the history of love in this chapter.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Arabian king
description: A king of Arabia who hears the account of Laila and Mujnun, summons
Mujnun, reproves him, and later judges Laila's appearance.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Mujnun
description: A lover of Laila described as knowledgeable and wise but distracted,
desert-dwelling, and unable to be understood except through shared love-suffering.
role_refs:
- role:2
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Laila
description: Mujnun's beloved; she is brought before the king, who finds her unimpressive
in ordinary physical terms.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Friends and critics of Mujnun
description: People who reproach Mujnun for his love of Laila and do not understand
his condition.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Handsome young man
description: A well-disposed young man in a vessel with a lovely damsel who, while
dying in a whirlpool, asks that his beloved be saved instead of him.
role_refs:
- role:2
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:11
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Lovely damsel
description: The beloved of the young man, sailing with him in the vessel and endangered
in the whirlpool.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:11
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Pilot
description: The pilot who comes to offer the young man assistance during the whirlpool
episode.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Narrator / Sa'di
description: The didactic speaker who draws lessons about love, courtship, and devotion
to God.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
roles:
- id: role:1
label: royal judge and reprover
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The king summons Mujnun, reproves him, and evaluates Laila's appearance.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- id: role:2
label: lover
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:5
basis: Mujnun speaks of his love for Laila; the young man prioritizes his beloved
while dying.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:10
- id: role:3
label: beloved
assigned_to:
- fig:3
- fig:6
basis: Laila is the object of Mujnun's love; the damsel is called the young man's
beloved.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:10
- id: role:4
label: uncomprehending critics
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: They reproach Mujnun for loving Laila and are represented as unable to see
what he sees.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:5
label: sufferer who explains love's pain
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Mujnun explains that only a fellow-sufferer can understand his disorder and
pain.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: role:6
label: self-sacrificing beloved-protector
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The young man tells the pilot to save his beloved rather than himself.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- ev:11
- id: role:7
label: rescuer
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: The pilot comes to offer assistance during the whirlpool crisis.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: role:8
label: moral instructor
assigned_to:
- fig:8
basis: The narrator draws a lesson about love and devotion to God.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: desert withdrawal
literal_form: Mujnun turns his face toward the desert and abandons human society.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: sym:2
label: lover's eye
literal_form: The king is told to contemplate Laila through the wicket of Mujnun's
eye.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:3
label: fire kindled by friction
literal_form: Two pieces of dry firewood rubbed together burn brighter.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs:
- fire
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:4
label: wound, sting, and salt
literal_form: Mujnun compares love's pain to a wound, a hornet sting, and salt on
a wounded limb.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: sym:5
label: vessel on the deep
literal_form: A vessel sailing on the mighty deep carries the young man and damsel.
associated_figures:
- fig:5
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: sym:6
label: whirlpool
literal_form: The lovers fall together into an overwhelming vortex or whirlpool.
associated_figures:
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: sym:7
label: beloved's hand
literal_form: The dying young man asks the pilot to take the hand of his beloved.
associated_figures:
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Mujnun summoned and reproved
summary: An Arabian king hears of Mujnun's desert withdrawal for love of Laila,
has him brought before him, and reproves him for abandoning human society.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: scene:2
label: Mujnun defends his love
summary: Mujnun weeps and says that his critics would understand if they could behold
Laila as he does.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:6
- id: scene:3
label: The king views Laila
summary: Laila is brought before the king, who finds her physically unimpressive,
while Mujnun perceives the king's judgment and explains that ordinary sight cannot
grasp his love.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: scene:4
label: Images of shared suffering
summary: Mujnun says his disorder can only be understood by another with the same
malady and illustrates the point with images of burning firewood, wounds, stings,
and salt.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: scene:5
label: Lovers in the whirlpool
summary: A young man and beloved damsel fall into a whirlpool from a vessel; when
the pilot offers aid, the young man asks that the beloved be saved instead of
himself, and the lovers die.
figure_refs:
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:5
- sym:6
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:11
- id: scene:6
label: Didactic conclusion
summary: The narrator presents the exemplum as instruction in love, urges whole-hearted
devotion to the chosen heart-consoler, identified as God, and connects the lesson
back to Laila and Mujnun.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:8
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: love misunderstood by ordinary judgment
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The king and critics cannot understand Mujnun's love through ordinary social
or visual standards, while Mujnun says the king must see through his eye.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
confidence: high
cautions: The passage presents this as a didactic love exemplum rather than a formal
mythic episode.
- id: motif:2
label: beloved perceived through transformed sight
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_beloved
- mystical_quest
basis: Mujnun claims Laila's charms require the viewpoint of a lover; the narrator
later directs whole-hearted devotion to the heart-consoler, identified as God.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:12
confidence: medium
cautions: The first story concerns human Laila; the divine application appears in
the narrator's moral rather than in the literal plot.
- id: motif:3
label: shared suffering as the condition of understanding
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: Mujnun says a suitable companion must have the same malady and that the pain
of a wound is known only to fellow-sufferers.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
confidence: high
cautions: This is an ethical-psychological motif in a wisdom text, not a supernatural
motif.
- id: motif:4
label: self-sacrifice for the beloved in mortal danger
taxonomy_refs:
- sacrifice
basis: In the whirlpool, the young man refuses rescue for himself and asks the pilot
to save his beloved instead; he dies after making this speech.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- ev:11
confidence: high
cautions: The damsel's fate is not separately detailed beyond the statement that
the lovers' lives ended.
- id: motif:5
label: water peril as test of faithful love
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The lovers fall from a vessel into a whirlpool, and the young man's fidelity
is displayed in the crisis.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:11
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage uses the water peril as an exemplum of love; no larger voyage
or afterlife structure is described.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage itself links the drowning lovers' exemplum with the Laila and
Mujnun love pattern by saying that Laila and Mujnun, if returned to life, could
read the history of love in this chapter.
claim_level: same_function
target: Laila and Mujnun love exemplum and the whirlpool lovers exemplum within
the same passage
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- ev:11
- ev:13
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: This is an intra-passage functional comparison about exemplifying love,
not evidence of historical contact or common inheritance.
- id: claim:2
claim: 'Both exempla present love as something unintelligible to the uninitiated
but clarified through extreme experience: Mujnun through love-suffering, and the
young man through dying loyalty.'
claim_level: same_function
target: paired love exempla in the passage
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:10
- ev:11
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage does not explicitly state this abstract comparison in these
terms; it is inferred from the juxtaposition and narrator's didactic framing.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 3204-3209
quote_or_summary: An Arabian king is told that Mujnun, though knowledgeable and
wise, has turned toward the desert and abandoned himself to distraction because
of Laila.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 3209-3214
quote_or_summary: The king orders Mujnun brought into his presence and asks why
he has assumed brutish manners and forsaken human society.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 3215-3224
quote_or_summary: Mujnun weeps and says friends reproach him for loving Laila; he
wishes they could see her so that his excuse would be manifest.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 3225-3229
quote_or_summary: The king resolves to see Laila, orders her produced, and she is
found among the Arab tribes and brought to the seraglio courtyard.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 3229-3234
quote_or_summary: The king sees Laila as tawny and physically feeble, and judges
even low menials of the harem to surpass her in beauty and elegance.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:6
type: quote
locator: lines 3234-3238
quote_or_summary: Mujnun says the king should contemplate Laila 'through the wicket
of a Mujnun's eye' so that the spectacle's miracle might be shown.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quote from provided passage.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 3238-3243
quote_or_summary: Mujnun says the king lacks fellow-feeling for his disorder and
that a companion must have the same malady to hear his tale all day.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 3243-3253
quote_or_summary: Mujnun describes love-pain through images of dry firewood burning
brighter, wounds, hornet stings, salt, and a wounded limb.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: lines 3258-3261
quote_or_summary: A handsome young man and lovely damsel are in a vessel on the
mighty deep and fall together into a whirlpool.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:10
type: quote
locator: lines 3261-3264
quote_or_summary: 'When the pilot offers assistance, the young man answers from
the vortex: ''Leave me, and take the hand of my beloved!'''
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quote from provided passage.
- id: ev:11
type: summary
locator: lines 3264-3267
quote_or_summary: The world admires the dying young man's speech; the narrator says
not to learn love from one who neglects a beloved in danger and states that the
lovers' lives ended thus.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:12
type: summary
locator: lines 3267-3269
quote_or_summary: The narrator urges the listener to devote the whole heart to the
chosen heart-consoler, identified parenthetically as God, and shut the eyes to
the world beside.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from provided passage.
- id: ev:13
type: quote
locator: lines 3269
quote_or_summary: The narrator says that if Laila and Mujnun returned to life, they
might read 'the history of love in this chapter.'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/persian/project-gutenberg/gulistan-sadi-ross.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quote from provided passage.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: Literal extraction is straightforward from the supplied passage. Motif labels
are provisional and limited to patterns directly supported by the two love exempla
and the narrator's moral.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
No external sources or comparisons were used. Taxonomy references were limited to supplied motif-family and symbol lists where directly supportable.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:persian-sadi-gulistan-ross-gutenberg__l3204-l3269
passage_sha256=0b32e40f61b831f1f67e1a47649e0b69e8598ba4bd5e80f20c645c16dae0a800