A tale arranged as pearls

აქამდის ამბად ნათქვამი, აწ მარგალიტი წყობილი. A group reads this public-domain Rustaveli line in the National Library’s prologue ordering. One student says the speaker is describing an actual necklace sold in a market. Another connects the pearl image with the transformation of a previously told tale into an artistically arranged poem. The instructor asks them to justify that reading through the surrounding stanza and to keep the poetic image distinct from a verified commercial transaction. A historical English translation helps compare meaning, but its introductory stanza order differs in places. The class must align actual wording rather than insist that an identical number always identifies the same passage. No full original Persian manuscript or complete current prescribed edition has been supplied in this short exercise.