The Rose Garden (Golestn or Gulistan)

Sa’dī (ca. 1213-1291 C.E.)

Published 1258 C.E.

Iran

Musharrif al-Dīn ibn Muṣlih al-Dīn, known as Sa’di or Saadi, wrote both poetry and prose in Persian. The Rose Garden is a combination of the two genres: mostly prose, with poems and lines of poetry scattered throughout. The stories and anecdotes in The Rose Garden offer examples of wisdom drawn from history and literature. Sa’di clearly admired Sufis, and he devotes a section of the work to “The Wisdom of Dervishes”; in it, the Sufi dervishes challenge rulers to behave morally, unafraid of earthly consequences. There are examples of rulers who are driven from power because of their cruelty, greed, or even stupidity. In other anecdotes, people are advised to avoid conflict when possible: suggesting, in one famous example, that a kind lie sometimes might be better than a harmful truth. The Rose Garden influenced authors such as Johannes Wolfgang Goethe, Victor Hugo, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it is still popular today.

Written by Laura J. Getty

6.2.1 The Rose Garden of Sa’dī

Sa’dī, translated by L. Cranmer-Byng and S. A. Kapadia

License: Public Domain

Chapter I

The Manners of Kings, Faithlessness of the World

This was written over the portico of the Palace of King Feridun.

The world, O brother! may with none abide.

Look to thy God, let Him suffice alone!

This world that cherished thee will cast aside:

A little while and all thy wealth is flown.

What matter when depart thou must,

If death should find thee in the dust, Or call thee from thy throne!

A Vision of Sultan Mahmud

One of the Kings of Khorasan in a dream beheld the vision of Sultan Mahmud, an hundred years after he had died. His whole body seemed to have crumbled and turned to dust, save only his eyes, which were moving in their sockets and looking about them. All the learned ones failed to interpret this, except a Dervish, who made obeisance and said: “He is still looking to see how it came to pass that his kingdom belongs to others.”

Image 6.1: Saadi in a Rose Garden | Saadi (also Sa’di) stands in a garden with another man, surrounded by flowers with a mountain the background.

Author: Govardhan

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Verses

Many are they, once famed, beneath the ground,

That left no record of their little worth,

And the old corse surrendered, earth to earth,

Was so consumed that not a bone is found.

The glories of King Nusherwan remain,

And time remembers his munificence.

Be generous, O friend! ere passing hence,

They shall proclaim thee with the moons that

wane.

On the Deception of Appearances

The man that never will declare his thought

Conceals a soul of honour or of sin.

Dost think yon silent jungle holdeth naught?

Perchance a lurking tiger sleeps therein.

Friendship

He is no friend who in thine hour of pride

Brags of his love and calls himself thy kin.

He is a friend who hales his fellow in,

And clangs the door upon the wolf outside.

Retirement and Peace

A vezier, having been deprived of his post, joined the brotherhood of Dervishes. The blessing of their society was such upon him that he acquired content once more. The Sultan became well disposed towards him, and bade him resume his office; but he refused, saying: “It is better to be retired than busy.”

Verses

Those that have sought the hermit’s cell where

quiet seasons rule

Have drawn the venom of the dog, the malice of

the fool;

They tore their controversies up, the pen away

they flung,

And so escaped the critic’s lash, and foiled the

slanderer’s tongue.

The king said: “Verily we are in need of one sufficiently intelligent who is able to carry on the affairs of the government.” He answered: “It is a sign of sufficient intelligence not to meddle with such matters.”

Toil and Servitude

There were two brothers in Egypt, one of them in the service of the Sultan, the other living by his own industry. The rich man once asked his poor brother why he did not serve the Sultan, in order to be released from the hardships of toil? He answered: “Why dost thou not labour, in order to be free from the baseness of service, since wise men have said it is better to eat barley-bread and sit at ease than to be girt with a golden girdle and stand in service?”

On Rejoicing Over a Fallen Foe

A certain person told Nusherwan the Just that God Most High had taken from this world an enemy of his. He asked: “Hast thou heard by any means that He intendeth to spare me?”

Exult not o’er the dying foe! One day

Thou too must quit thy tenement of clay

Chapter II

The Morals of Dervishes

Fault-Finding and Self-Conceit

I remember being pious in my youth, given to night vigils, prayers, and abstinence. One night I was sitting with

my father, on whom God have mercy, keeping awake and holding the precious Koran in my lap, whilst the company around us slept. I said: “Of these people not one lifts up the head or bows the knee (in prayer). They are all sound asleep, as though they were dead.” He answered: “Little one of thy father, would that thou wert also asleep, rather than proclaiming the faults of others.”

Verses

The braggart sees himself alone,

Since he is veiled in self-conceit;

Were God’s all-seeing eye his own,

He would no weaker braggart meet.

Forbearance

A band of vagabonds meeting a Dervish spoke evilly to him, beat him and ill-used him, whereupon he brought his complaint to his superior. The Director replied: “My son! the patched gown of the Dervishes is the garb of resignation, and he who, wearing it, cannot bear with injury, is but a pretender to whom our garb is forbidden.”

Distich

Thou canst not stir the river’s bed with stones:

Wisdom aggrieved is but’a shallow brook.

Verses

If any injure thee, thy spleen control,

Since by forgiveness thou shalt cleanse thy soul.

O brother, since the end of all is dust,

Be dust, ere unto dust return thou must.

Humility

Hark to my tale, how once a quarrel rose

Betwixt a flag and curtain in Bagdad,—

How, drooping from the march, the dusty flag

Reproached the curtain: “Art not thou and I

Both servants in the Sultan’s court? I know

No respite from his service. From the light

Of cock-crow to the gloom of nightingales

I travel, travel: thou hast neither siege

Nor battle to endure, nor whirling sand,

Nor wind, nor heat to suffer; while my step

Is ever on the march. Why art thou held

More honoured? Thou art cherished by slim boys

Of moon-pale beauty, jasmine-scented maids

Touch thee caressingly; while I am rolled

By raw recruits, and ofttimes on the trail

Carried head downwards.”

Then the curtain spake:

“My head is humbly on the threshold laid,

Unlike thine own, that flaunting would defy

The golden-armoured sun. Whoever rears

The neck of exaltation shall descend

Most speedily neck level with the dust.”

The Dervish Way

The way of dervishes is gratefulness, praise,

worship, obedience, contentment, and charity,

believing in the unity of God, faith, submission,

and patience. Whoever hath these qualities is

indeed a Dervish, though he may wear fine

raiment; whereas the idler, who neglecteth

prayer, who goeth after ease and pleasure, turneth

day into night in the bondage of desire, and night

into day in the slumber of forgetfulness, eateth

whatever he layeth hold on, and speaketh that

which is uppermost, he is an evil-doer, though

he may wear the garb of the Dervishes.

Verses

Thou who within of good resolve art bare,

Yet dost the mantle of the righteous wear;

Thou who hast but a reed-mat to thy floor,

Hang not the rainbow-curtain on the door.

Chapter III

The Preciousness of Contentment

Wisdom and Worldly Power

Two sons of princes lived in Egypt, the one given to the study of science, the other heaping up riches, till the former became the wise man of the age, and the latter the King of Egypt. Then the rich man looked with the eye of scorn upon the philosopher, and said: “I have reached the sovereign power whilst thou remainest poor as before.” He replied: “O brother! I must needs be grateful to the Most High Creator, that I have found the inheritance of the prophets, while thou hast obtained the inheritance of Pharaoh and Haman —the Kingdom of Egypt.”

Mesnevi

I am that ant which under foot is trod.

No wasp am I, for man to curse my sting.

How can I rightly thank Almighty God

That I am harmless both to clown and king?

Frugality

It is written in the annals of Ardeshir Babekan that he asked an Arabian physician how much food ought to be taken daily. He answered: “The weight of one hundred dirrhems were enough.” The king asked him: “What strength will this quantity give me?” He replied: “This quantity will carry thee; but whatever’ more is taken, thou wilt be the carrier of it.”

Eat to live, thy prayers repeating;

Think not life was made for eating.

Self-Dependence

They asked of Hâtim Tai if he had seen any one in the world of nobler sentiments than himself. He replied: “Yes, one day I slew forty camels to give a banquet to Arab chieftains. I went forth upon some affair to a corner of the desert, where I saw a gatherer of sticks, who had piled up a heap of brushwood. I asked him why he had not become a guest of Hâtim, seeing that many people had gathered around his carpet. But he replied:

‘He that hath bread procured by honest sweat,

To Hâtim will not bear to be in debt.’

Then I perceived that his sentiments were nobler than mine own.”

Pearls and Starvation

I saw an Arab sitting amid a circle of jewelers at Bosrah, and telling them tales. He said: “Once I lost my way in the desert, and had consumed all my provisions. I was prepared to die, when suddenly I beheld a bag of pearls. Never shall I forget the joy I felt, deeming them to be parched grain, nor the bitterness and despair with which I found them to be pearls.”

Verses

In deserts, amid shifting sand and drouth,

Nor pearl nor shell is manna to the mouth.

Ah! what avails, when food and strength are

gone,

The girdle with its pearls or pebbles strown?

Chapter IV

The Blessing of Silence

On the Choice of Words

Subhân Vail is held to have had no peer in oratory, since he had spoken before an assembly for a whole year without using the same phrase twice; but if the same meaning happened to occur, he expressed it in another way: and this is one of the accomplishments of courtiers and princes.

Mesnevi

A word, if binding on the heart and sweet,

Is worthy of belief and approbation.

What thou hast said ne’er let thy tongue repeat:

We do not twice partake the same collation.

On Interruptions

I once heard a philosopher say that no one has ever confessed his own ignorance, save him who begins to talk whilst another has not yet finished.

Mesnevi

Words have a head, O shrewd man, and a tail;

Into no other’s discourse fit thine own.

The man of sound discretion will not fail

To bide his time and hold the floor alone.

On Hearing Ourselves

A certain preacher was wont to think that his harsh voice gave pleasure, and often he shouted aloud and needlessly. Thou mightest have said that the raven of separation was the burden of his song; and the verse, for the most detestable of voices is surely the voice of asses, appears to have fitted him. This distich is also concerning him:

When Abu-l-Fares brays of Heaven’sbliss,

He rocks the ruins of Persepolis.

By reason of his rank the people of the place endured this defect, and did not think fit to distress him. Afterwards, however, another preacher of those parts arrived, who bore a secret grudge against him, and said: “I have dreamed about thee, and may it prove fortunate!” “What hast thou dreamed?” “I dreamed that thy voice had become melodious, and that the people had ease during thy sermons.” For a little while the preacher pondered on these words; then made answer: “Truly thou hast dreamed a blessed dream, since thou hast made me aware of my weakness. Now I know that my voice is harsh, and that the people are distressed with my loud reading; accordingly I have vowed that henceforth I will not preach save with the tones of moderation.”

Chapter VII

The Effects of Education

Knowledge is Wealth

A philosopher was teaching boys, and said to them: “O darlings of your fathers, learn a trade, since no reliance may be placed upon the possessions and riches of the world: for silver and gold are a source of peril, since either a thief may steal them at once or the owner waste them by degrees; but a profession is a living spring and wealth enduring. Although a professional man may lose his fortune, he need not grieve, for his knowledge is wealth of itself, and wherever he go he will be honoured, and sit in the upper seat: but he who has no calling will glean the crumbs and suffer want.”

Distich

He finds not easy to obey whose word was man’s behest,

Nor will he bear with insolence whom all men have caressed.

Verses

Once confusion filled Damascus,

Each one left his quiet corner;

Learned sons of lusty peasants

Were the veziers of the Caliphs:

While the silly sons of veziers

Begged their bread through every village.

Verses

Dost want thy sire’s inheritance?

Acquire his business ways,

Since all the gold that feeds thy glance

May melt within ten days.

The Lilies of Immortality

A certain illustrious man had a worthy son who died. When they asked him what he desired should be written upon the urn of the tomb, he answered: “The verses of the Holy Book are deserving of more reverence than to be written in such a place, where they might be effaced by time, or trodden upon by men, or defiled by dogs. If it is needful to write anything, let this suffice:

How gladly when the lilies bloomed,

My heart the loaded ways did roam!

Pass with the spring, O friend, and, lo!

The lilies breaking through my loam.”

Compiled ca. 632-651 B.C.E.

Mecca, Arabia (what is now Saudi Arabia)

The Quran (a.k.a. Qur’an or Koran), meaning “the recitation,” is the sacred scripture of Islam, or the word of God, and is meant to be musically read aloud. Islam, rooted in the Arabic word “salema” (meaning “peace”), means “obedience” and “submission.” Muslims believe that the Quran was revealed through the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. Existing only as an oral recitation during Muhammad’s time, the Quran was compiled in written form under the first several caliphs. The holy book is written in Arabic, Islam’s sacred language, and has 114 suras, or chapters. Translations of the Quran, although they are helpful for understanding the original, are not regarded as the same as the holy book in Arabic. As part of Abrahamic religions, the Quran shows connections to Jewish and Christian biblical characters and stories.

Written by Kyounghye Kwon