Saadi

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.

Abu Mohammad Moshrefoldin Mosleh ebn Abdollah ebn Mosharraf (Persian: ابومحمّد مصلح‌الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی), better known by his pen name Saadi (Persian: سعدی, romanized: Saʿdī), also known as Sadi of Shiraz (سعدی شیرازی, Saʿdī Shīrāzī; born 1210; died 1291 or 1292), was a major Persian poet and prose writer of the Islamic Golden Age. He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts.

Quotes

• He—in whose nature, is the ugly disposition
  Sees not the peacock,—only his ugly foot.
  • Bustan (1257), Chapter 7. Tr. H. Wilberforce Clarke, The Bustan (London: Wm. H. Allen & Co, 1879) p. 341

• Have patience! All things are difficult before they become easy.
  • Moncure D. Conway, The Sacred Anthology (London: Trübner & Co, 1874) p. 211

• He who is a slave to his stomach seldom worships God.
  • Pestanji C. Taskar, A Grammar of the Persian Tongue, pt. 2 (Bombay, 1886) p. 172

• To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.
  • Sara A. Hubbard (ed.) Catchwords of Cheer (Chicago: R. F. Seymour, 1900) n.p.

• When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; when it is full, the spirit becomes body.
  • Quoted in R. W. Emerson's Preface to Francis Gladwin, The Gulistan or Rose Garden (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1865) p. x

• Every leaf of the tree becomes a page of the sacred scripture once the soul has learnt to read.
  • Indirectly quoted in H. I. Khan, The Sufi Message, vol. 2 (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1960) p. 262

Gulistan (1258)

• In the faculty of speech man excels the brute; but if thou utterest what is improper, the brute is thy superior.
  • Introduction. Tr. James Ross, The Gulistan, or Flower Garden (London: J. M. Richardson, 1823) p. 107

• There is a difference between him who claspeth his mistress in his arms, and him whose eyes are fixed on the door expecting her.
  • Chapter 1, story 7. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 129

• بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
  که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند
  چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار
  دگر عضوها را نماند قرار
  تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی
  نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی
  Banī 'ādam a'zā-ye yek peykar-and
  ke dar 'āfarīn-aš ze yek gowhar-and
  čo 'ozvī be dard āvarad rūzgār
  degar 'ozvhā-rā na-mānad qarār
  to k-az mehnat-ē dīgarān bīqam-ī
  na-šāyad ke nām-at nahand ādamī
  • Human beings are members of a whole,
    In creation of one essence and soul.
    If one member is afflicted with pain,
    Other members uneasy will remain.
    If you have no sympathy for human pain,
    The name of human you cannot retain.
  • Chapter 1, story 10. Tr. M. Aryanpoor, in Ranjit Bolt, The Art of Translation (London: Oberon, 2010) p. 50

• If thou covetest riches, ask not but for contentment, which is an immense treasure.
  • Chapter 2, story 26. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 223

• I never lamented about the vicissitudes of time or complained of the turns of fortune, except on the occasion when I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers. But when I entered the great mosque of Kufah with a sore heart, and beheld a man without feet, I offered thanks to the bounty of God, consoled myself for my want of shoes, and recited: "A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated man less valuable than a blade of fresh grass on the table, and to him who has no means nor power a burnt turnip is [as good as] a roasted fowl."
  • Chapter 3, story 19. Tr. Sir Richard Burton, Tales From the Gulistan (London: Philip Allan & Co Ltd, 1928) p. 130 (Persian version)

• Use a sweet tongue, courtesy, and gentleness, and thou mayst manage to guide an elephant with a hair.
  • Chapter 3, story 27. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 292 [1]

• When gnats act in concert they will bring down an elephant: when ants set to work, and move in a body, they can strip a fierce lion of its hide.
  • Chapter 3, story 27. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 294 [2]

• Were the diver to think on the jaws of the shark, he would never lay hands on the precious pearl.
  • Chapter 3, story 27. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 299

• Whatever makes an impression on the heart seems lovely in the eye.
  • Chapter 5, story 1. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 317

• Science is for the cultivation of religion, not for worldly enjoyments.
  • Chapter 8, story 4. Tr. Edward B. Eastwick, The Gulistan; or, Rose-Garden (Hertford: Stephen Austin, 1852) p. 264

• Who despises an insignificant enemy resembles him who is careless about fire.
  • Chapter 8, story 12. Tr. Sir Richard Burton (1928) p. 226

• Whatever is produced in haste goes easily to waste.
  • Chapter 8, story 36. Tr. cited in Mohammed M. Zaki, American Global Challenges: The Obama Era (2011) p. 16

• Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself, in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance.
  • Chapter 8, story 37. Tr. Francis Gladwin, The Gulistān: Rose-Garden (London: Parbury, Allen, and Co, 1834) p. 274

• Whoever interrupts the conversation of others to make a display of his own fund of knowledge, makes notorious his own stock of ignorance.
  • Chapter 8, story 96. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 461

• Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare.
  But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.
  • Quoted in Idries Shah, The Sufis (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964) p. 192

Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient (1882)

Boston: George H. Ellis [3]

• A little and a little collected together becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop form an inundation.
  • "Beginnings", no. 15

• "How hast thou so profound a lore attained?"
  "To ask another, I was ne’er ashamed."
  • "Uses and Sanctions", no. 14

• The wise man never heard a joke
  But living wisdom from it broke;
  The fool no wisdom ever learned
  But it in him to folly turned.
  • "Uses and Sanctions", no. 20

• Each is bounded by his nature,
  And remains the same in stature,
  In the valley, on the mountain:
  Scoop from ocean or from fountain
  With a poor hand or a richer,
  You can only fill your pitcher.
  • "Fate", no. 165

• Our condition is like the darting lightning, one instant flashing and the next disappearing. Sometimes we are seated above the fourth heaven, and at other times we cannot see the back of our feet.
  • "Miscellaneous", no. 272

• He only has drunk the pure wine of unity who has forgotten, by remembering God, all else in both worlds.
  • "The Ineffable One", no. 500

• To pious minds, each verdant leaf displays
  A volume teeming with the Almighty’s praise.
  • "The Symbolism and Incarnation", no. 552

• From earth arise bright colors, scent, and food,
  To please the eye, the brain, and hunger’s mood.
  Bees honey give, sweet dew the heavens shed,
  The dates from palms, and trees from seeds are bred.
  Gnawing his hand, each gardener shows despair:
  For who but He can make the world so fair?
  The sun, the moon, the Pleiades on high,—
  Thy chandeliers; thy palace roof, the sky!
  The rose from thorns, and musk from bags He brings;
  Gold from the mines, a leaf from dry wood springs.
  His own hand drew thine eye and brow so fair;
  A friend one cannot leave to other’s care.
  That mighty One, who hath so cherished thee
  With blessings varied as the colored sea,—
  In praising him, our lives we ought to spend:
  Our tongues can’t count his virtues without end.
  O God! my heart is blood, sore wounds mine eyes:
  For, lo! I see thy praise beyond me lies.
  I say not beasts and ants and flies thee praise,
  But angel hosts, amazed, their hands upraise!
  Although by all the world thy praise is rung,
  Ten thousand thousands yet remain unsung.
  Saadi, depart! thy pen and paper quit;
  Take not that road which has no end to it!
  • "Celebration and Worship", no. 592

• A return of good for good is a slight reciprocity; but the true recompense is to confer benefits on him who has injured thee.
  • "Ethical", no. 609

• O brothers, Mecca is in front, and robbers in the rear. By proceeding, we escape; and, if we sleep, we die.
  • "Universality", no. 658

• Not all the year, the vines their clusters keep:
  Now fruitful are, now leafy tears do weep.
  Sunlike, the pure are shadowed by a cloud;
  As sparks on water are the envious crowd:
  Those, by degrees, their former radiance shed;
  These are extinguished in a wat’ry bed.
  Fear not the dark, my friend, howe’er profound:
  Perchance therein life’s water may be found.
  Let not despair, though dark, thy soul dismay,
  For night is pregnant with the glorious day.
  • "Trial and Sorrow", no. 704

• In Suna’s town, my child’s life passed away;
  How can I tell the sadness of that day!
  As fair as Joseph, God creates a slave;
  Then, Jonah-like, he’s swallow’d by the grave.
  In this fair world, scarce grown, the cypress form
  Uprooted is, by death’s relentless storm.
  It is not strange the rose on earth should grow,
  So many rose-like bodies sleep below.
  Madly I longed to see his form once more,
  So off the tomb the weighty stone I tore.
  Fear seized me in that place, so dark and strange:
  It made me shake, and all my color change.
  Then came a voice (my child’s) from out the bier:
  "Dost thou feel terror at this darksome sight?
  Live, then, with care, and let thy works be bright.
  If thou dost wish thy grave as light as day,
  Illume life’s lamp with virtue’s shining ray."
  Saadi, he eats the fruit who plants the tree;
  Who sows the seed will fruitful harvests see.
  • "Trial and Sorrow", no. 705

A Dictionary of Thoughts (1891)

New York: Cassell Publishing Co [4]

• The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.
  • "Blessedness", p. 45

• Take warning by the misfortunes of others, that others may not take example from you.
  • "Caution", p. 57

• Let him who neglects to raise the fallen, fear lest, when he falls, no one will stretch out his hand to lift him up.
  • "Charity", p. 64

• The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.
  • "Contrast", p. 88

• That which is not allotted the hand cannot reach; and what is allotted you will find wherever you may be.
  • "Destiny", p. 114

• Capacity without education is deplorable, and education without capacity is thrown away.
  • "Education", p. 136

• O wise man, wash your hands of that friend who associates with your enemies.
  • "Enemies", p. 143

• The telling of a falsehood is like the cut of a sabre; for though the wound may heal, the scar of it will remain.
  • "Falsehood", p. 167

• The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.
  • "Fortune", p. 183

• Independence is of more value than any gifts; and to receive gifts is to lose it. — Men most commonly seek to oblige thee only that they may engage thee to serve them.
  • "Gifts", p. 194

• He who is a slave to his belly seldom worships God.
  • "Gluttony", p. 195

• I fear God, and next to God I chiefly fear him who fears him not.
  • "God", p. 197

• The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.
  • "Humility", p. 237

• Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; and if he was sensible of this he would not be ignorant.
  • "Ignorance", p. 244

• A wise man in the company of those who are ignorant, has been compared to a beautiful girl in the company of blind men.
  • "Ignorance", p. 245

• A grateful dog is better than an ungrateful man.
  • "Ingratitude", p. 260

• Two persons take trouble in vain, and use fruitless endeavors, — he who acquires wealth without enjoying it, and he who is taught wisdom but does not practice it. How much soever you may study science, when you do not act wisely you are ignorant. The beast whom they load with books is not profoundly learned and wise; what knoweth his empty skull whether he carrieth firewood or books?
  • "Knowledge", p. 283

• He who learns, and makes no use of his learning, is a beast of burden with a load of books. — Does the ass comprehend whether he carries on his back a library or a bundle of faggots?
  • "Learning", p. 296

• He who is intoxicated with wine will be sober again in the course of the night, but he who is intoxicated by the cup-bearer will not recover his senses until the day of judgment.
  • "Love", p. 315

• An enemy to whom you show kindness becomes your friend, excepting lust, the indulgence of which increases its enmity.
  • "Lust", p. 320

• Obedience is not truly performed by the body, if the heart is dissatisfied.
  • "Obedience", p. 381

• Were the king at noonday to say, "This day is night," it would behoove us to reply, "Lo! there are the moon and seven stars!"
  • "Policy", p. 420

• Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; if he were sensible of this he would not be ignorant.
  • "Silence", p. 525

• God gives sleep to the bad, in order that the good maybe undisturbed.
  • "Sleep", p. 532

• A traveller without observation is a bird without wings.
  • "Travel", p. 581

• A little and a little, collected together, become a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation.
  • "Trifles", p. 585

• He who learns the rules of wisdom without conforming to them in his life is like a man who ploughs in his field but does not sow.
  • "Wisdom", p. 626

• A handsome woman is a jewel; a good woman is a treasure.
  • "Woman", p. 629

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co; New York: The Macmillan Co [5]

• Abar gar ab-i-zindagi barad
  Hargiz az shakh-i-bed bar na khori
  Bar faromaya rozgar mabar
  Kaz nai boriya shakar nakhori.
  • What though life's water from the clouds descend
    Thou'llt ne'er pluck fruit from off the willow-bough;
    Not on the base thy precious moments spend
    Thou'llt ne'er taste sugar from the reed I trow.
  • Gulistan, Chapter 1, story 4. Tr. Edward B. Eastwick (1852) p. 41

• Agar dunya na bashad, dardmandem
  Wa agar bashad, ba mihrash pae bandem
  Bala'e z'in jahan ashubtar nest
  Ki ranj-i-khatirast ar hast wa nest.
  • Have we no worldly gear,—'tis grief and pain:
    Have we it—then its charms our feet enchain.
    Can we than this a plague more troublous find,
    Which absent, present, still afflicts the mind.
  • Gulistan, Chapter 2, story 29. Tr. Edward B. Eastwick (1852) p. 131

• Agar sad sal gabar atish farozad
  Wa gar ek dam daru uftad basozad.
  • Though for a hundred years the Guebre feeds his flame
    Did he once fall therein 'twould feed on him the same.
  • Gulistan, Chapter 1, story 16. Tr. Edward B. Eastwick (1852) p. 60

• Ahanera ki morchana bikhurad
  Natawan burd azū basaiqal zang;
  Ba siyah dil che sud guftan w'az?
  Narawad mekh-i-ahanin dar sang.
  • When rust deep-seated has consumed the steel,
    Its stain will never a new polish own.
    Advice effects not those who cannot feel:
    A nail of iron cannot pierce a stone.
  • Gulistan, Chapter 2, story 20. Tr. Edward B. Eastwick (1852) p. 118

• Akibat gurg-zade gurg shavad
  Garche ba adami buzurg shavad.
  • At length the wolf-cub will become a wolf
    Even though it grow up amongst men.
  • Gulistan, Chapter 1, story 4. Tr. E. G. Brown, A Year Amongst the Persians (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1893) p. 285

External links

• Recitation of Bani Adam in Persian by Amir H. Ghaseminejad
• "Saadi" in R. W. Emerson's Poems (1847)