T H E R O S E G A R D E N
OF SA‘DI
(OR THE GULISTAN)
BASED ON THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION BY
JAMES ROSS
J
OMPHALOSKEPSIS
Ames, Iowa
This translation is in the public domain.
Typesetting and Layout Copyright © 2000 by Omphaloskepsis
Commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is strictly prohibited.
To reproduce, post, or mirror this document, please contact
ebooks@omphaloskepsis.com for permission.
For additional free electronic titles, please visit:
www.omphaloskepsis.com/ebooks
of the customs of kings
I
Ihave heard of a king who made the sign to put a captive
to death. The poor wretch, in that state of desperation,
began to abuse the king in the dialect which
he spoke, and to revile him with asperity, as has been
said; whoever shall wash his hands of life will utter
whatever he may harbor in his heart:
“When a man is desperate he will give a latitude to his
tongue, Like as a cat at bay will fly at a dog”
—— “at the moment of compulsion when it is impossible
to fly, the hand will grasp the sharp edge of a
sword.” The king asked, saying, “What does he say?”
One of the Viziers (or nobles in attendance), and a
well-disposed man, made answer, “O my lord! he is
expressing himself and saying, “Paradise is for such as
are restraining their anger And forgiving their fellowcreatures;
and God will befriend the benevolent.”
The king felt compassion for him, and desisted from
shedding his blood. Another nobleman, and the rival
of that former, said, “It is indecorous for such peers, as
we are, to use any language but that of truth in the
presence of kings; this man abused his majesty, and
spoke what was unworthy of him.” The king turned
away indignant at this remark, and replied, “I was better
pleased with his falsehood than with this truth that
you have told; for that bore the face of good policy,
and this was founded in malignity; and the intelligent
have said, ‘A peace-mingling falsehood is preferable to
a mischief stirring truth’: Whatever prince may do that
which he (his counselor) will recommend, it must be a
subject of regret if he shall advise aught but good.”
They had written over the portico of King Feridun’s
palace: “This world, O brother! abides with none. Set
thy heart upon its maker, and let him suffice thee. Rest
not thy pillow and support on a worldly domain which
has fostered and slain many such as thou art. Since the
precious soul must resolve on going, what matters it
whether it departs from a throne or the ground?”
II
One of the kings of Khorassan saw, in a dream, Sultan
Mahmud, the son of Saboktagin, a hundred years after
his death, when his body was decayed and fallen into
dust, all but his eyes, which as heretofore were moving
4 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 5
in their sockets and looking about them. All the
learned were at a stand for its interpretation, excepting
one dervish, who made his obeisance, and said: “He is
still looking about him, because his kingdom and
wealth are possessed by others!—-Many are the heroes
whom they have buried under ground, of whose existence
above it not one vestige is left; and of that old
carcass which they committed to the earth, the earth
has so consumed it that not one bone is left. Though
many ages are gone since Nushirowan was in being,
yet in the remembrance of his munificence is his fair
renown left. Be generous, O my friend! and avail thyself
of life, before they proclaim it as an event that such
a person is not left.”
III
I have heard of a king’s son who was short and mean,
and his other brothers were lofty in stature and handsome.
On one occasion the king, his father, looked at
him with disparagement and scorn. The son, in his
sagacity, understood him and said, “O father! a short
wise man is preferable to a tall blockhead; it is not
everything that is mightier in stature that is superior in
value: “A sheep’s flesh is wholesome, that of an elephant
carrion. Of the mountains of this earth Sinai is
one of the least, Yet is it most mighty before God in
state and dignity. Heard thou not what an intelligent
lean man said one day to a sleek fat dolt? An Arab
horse, notwithstanding his slim make, is more prized
thus than a herd of asses.”
The father smiled; the pillars of the State, or courtiers
nodded their assent, and the other brothers were
mortified to the quick. ‘Till a man has declared his
mind, his virtue and vice may have lain hidden; do not
conclude that the thicket is unoccupied, peradventure
the tiger is gone asleep!
I have heard that about that time a formidable antagonist
appeared against the king. Now that an army
was levied in each side, the first person that mounted
his horse and sallied upon the plain was that son, and
he exclaimed: “I can not be that man whose back thou
mayest see on the day of battle, but am him thou
mayest descry amidst the thick of it, with my head covered
with dust and blood; for he that engages in the
contest sports with his own blood, but he who flees
from it sports with the blood of an army on the day of
fight.” He so spoke, assaulting the enemy’s cavalry,
and overthrew some renowned warriors. When he
came before the king he kissed the earth of obeisance,
6 V The Rose Garden
and said, “O thou, who didst view my body with
scorn, whilst not aware of valor’s rough exterior, it is
the lean steed that will prove of service, and not the
fatted ox, on the day of battle.”
They have reported that the enemy’s cavalry was
immense, and those of the king few in number; a body
of them was inclined to fly, when the youth called
aloud, and said, “Be resolute, my brave men, that you
may not have to wear the apparel of women!” The
troops were more courageous on this speech, and
attacked altogether. I have heard that on that day they
obtained a complete victory over the enemy. The king
kissed his face and eyes, and folded him in his arms,
and became daily more attached to him, ‘till he
declared him heir-apparent to the throne. The brothers
bore him a grudge, and put poison into his food. His
sister saw this from a window, and closed the shutter;
and the boy understood the sign, and withdrew his
hand from the dish, and said, “It is hard that the virtuous
should perish and that the vicious should occupy
their places.” Were the homayi, or phoenix, to be
extinct in the world, none would take refuge under the
shadow of an owl. They informed the father of this
event; he sent for the brothers and rebuked them, as
they deserved. Then he made a division of his domains,
Sa‘di V 7
and gave a suitable portion to each, that discontent
might cease; but the ferment was increased, as they
have said: Ten dervishes can sleep on one rug, but two
kings can not be accommodated in a whole kingdom.
When a man after God’s heart can eat the moiety of his
loaf, the other moiety he will give in alms to the poor.
A king may acquire the sovereignty of one climate or
empire; and he will in like manner covet the possession
of another.
IV
A horde of Arab robbers had possessed themselves of
the fastness of a mountain, and waylaid the track of
the caravan. The yeomanry of the villages were frightened
at their stratagems, and the king’s troops
alarmed, inasmuch as they had secured an impregnable
fortress on the summit of the mountain, and made this
stronghold their retreat and dwelling.
The superintendents of the adjacent districts consulted
together about obviating their mischief, saying: If they
are in this way left to improve their fortune, any opposition
to them may prove impracticable. The tree that
has just taken root, the strength of one man may be
able to extract; but leave it to remain thus for a time,
8 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 9
and the machinery of a purchase may fail to eradicate
it: the leak at the dam head might have been stopped
with a plug, which now it has a vent we can not ford
its current on an elephant.
Finally it was determined that they should set a spy
over them, and watch an opportunity when they had
made a sally upon another tribe, and left their citadel
unguarded. Some companies of able warriors and
experienced troops were sent, that they might conceal
themselves in the recesses of the mountain. At night,
when the robbers were returned, jaded with their
march and laden with spoil, and had stripped themselves
of their armor, and deposited their plunder, the
foremost enemy they had to encounter was sleep. Now
that the first watch of night was gone: “the disk of the
sun was withdrawn into a shade, and Jonas had
stepped into the fish’s mouth”—-the bold-hearted warriors
sprang from their ambush and secured the robbers
by pinioning them one after another.
In the morning they presented them at the royal tribunal,
and the king gave an order to put the whole to
death. There happened to be among them a stripling,
the fruit of whose early spring was ripening in its
bloom, and the flower-garden of his cheek shooting
into blossom. One of the viziers kissed the foot of the
imperial throne, and laid the face of intercession on the
ground, and said, “This boy has not yet tasted the fruit
of the garden of life, nor enjoyed the fragrance of the
flowers of youth: such is my confidence in the generous
disposition of his Majesty that it will favor a devoted
servant by sparing his blood.” The king turned his face
away from this speech; as it did not accord with his
lofty way of thinking, he replied: “The rays of the virtuous
can not illuminate such as are radically vicious;
to give education to the worthless is like throwing walnuts
upon a dome: it were wiser to eradicate the tree
of their wickedness, and annihilate their tribe; for to
put out a fire and leave the embers, and to kill a viper
and foster its young, would not be the acts of rational
beings. Though the clouds pour down the water of
vegetation, thou canst never gather fruit from a willow
twig. Exalt not the fortune of the abject, for thou canst
never extract sugar from a mat or common cane.”
The vizier listened to this speech; willingly or not he
approved of it, and applauded the good sense of the
king, and said: “What his majesty, whose dominion is
eternal, is pleased to remark is the mirror of probity
and essence of good policy, for had he been brought up
in the society of those vagabonds, and confined to their
service, he would have followed their vicious courses.
10 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 11
Your servant, however, trusts that he may be instructed
to associate with the virtuous, and take to the
habits of the prudent; for he is still a child, and the
lawless and refractory principles of that gang can not
have yet tainted his mind; and it is in tradition that—
—Whatever child is born, he is verily born after the
right way, namely Islam, Afterward his father and his
mother bring him up as a Jew, Christian, or Magi.
The wife of Lot associated with the wicked, and her
posterity failed in the gift of prophecy; the dog of the
seven sleepers (at Ephesus) for some time took the path
of the righteous, and became a rational being.”
He said this, and a body of the courtiers joined him in
intercession, ‘till the king acceded to the youth’s pardon,
and answered: “I gave him up, though I saw not
the good of it. Know thou what Zal said to the heroic
Rustem: ‘Thou must not consider thy foe as abject and
helpless. I have often found a small stream at the fountain-
head, which, when followed up, carried away the
camel and its load.’”
In short, the vizier took the boy home, and educated
him with kindness and liberality. And he appointed
him masters and tutors, who taught him the graces of
logic and rhetoric, and all manner of courtier accomplishments,
so that he met general approbation. On
one occasion the vizier was detailing some instances of
his proficiency and talents in the royal presence, and
saying: “The instruction of the wise has made an
impression upon him, and his former savageness is
obliterated from his mind.” The king smiled at this
speech, and replied: “The whelp of a wolf must prove
a wolf at last, notwithstanding he may be brought up
by a man.”
Two years after this a gang of city vagabonds got
about him, and joined in league, ‘till on an opportunity
he murdered the vizier and his two sons; and, carrying
off an immense booty, he took up the station of
his father in the den of thieves, and became a hardened
villain. The king was apprised of this event; and, seizing
the hand of amazement with the teeth of regret,
said: “How can any person manufacture a tempered
saber from base iron; nor can a base-born man, O
wiseacre, be made a gentleman by any education!
Rain, in the purity of whose nature there is no anomaly,
cherishes the tulip in the garden and common
weed in the salt-marsh. Waste not thy labor in scattered
seed upon a briny soil, for it can never be made
to yield spikenard; to confer a favor on the wicked is
of a like import, as if thou didst an injury to the good.”
12 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 13
V
At the gate of Oghlamish Patan, King of Delhi, I
(namely Sa‘di) saw an officer’s son, who, in his wit and
learning, wisdom and understanding, surpassed all
manner of encomium. In the prime of youth, he at the
same time bore on his forehead the traces of ripe age,
and exhibited on his cheek the features of good fortune:
“Above his head, from his prudent conduct, the
star of superiority shone conspicuous.”
In short, it was noticed with approbation by the king
that he possessed bodily accomplishments and mental
endowments. And sages have remarked that worth
rests not on riches, but on talents; and the discretion of
age, not in years, but on good sense. His comrades
envied his good fortune, charged him with disaffection,
and vainly attempted to have him put to death:
“but what can the rival effect so long as the charmer is
our friend?”
The king asked, saying, “Why do they show such a disinclination
to do you justice?” He replied: “Under the
shadow of his majesty’s good fortune I have pleased
everybody, excepting the envious man, who is not to
be satisfied but with a decline of my success; and let
the prosperity and dominion of my lord the king be
perpetual!” I can so manage as to give umbrage to no
man’s heart; but what can I do with the envious man,
who harbors within himself the cause of his own chagrin?
Die, O ye envious, that ye may get a deliverance;
for this is such an evil that you can get rid of it only by
death. Men soured by misfortune anxiously desire that
the state and fortune of the prosperous may decline; if
the eye of the bat is not suited for seeing by day, how
can the fountain of the sun be to blame? Dost thou
require the truth? It were better a thousand such eyes
should suffer, rather than that the light of the sun were
obscured.
VI
They tell a story of a Persian king who had stretched
forth the arm of oppression over the subjects’ property,
and commenced a system of violence and rapacity
to such a degree that the people emigrated to avoid the
vexatiousness of his tyranny, and took the road of
exile to escape the annoyance of his extortions. Now
that the population was diminished and the resources
of the State had failed, the treasury remained empty,
and enemies gathered strength on all sides. Whoever
may expect a comforter on the day of adversity, say, let
14 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 15
him practice humanity during the season of prosperity;
if not treated cordially, thy devoted slave will forsake
thee; show him kindness and affection, and the
stranger may become the slave of thy devotion.
One day they were reading, in his presence, from the
Shah-Nameh, of the tyrant Zollak’s declining dominion
and the success of Feridun. The vizier asked the
king, saying: “Can you so far comprehend that
Feridun had no revenue, domain, or army, and how
the kingdom came to be confirmed with him?” He
answered: “As you have heard, a body of people collected
about him from attachment, and gave their
assistance ‘till he acquired a kingdom.” The vizier said:
“Since, O sire, a gathering of the people is the means
of forming a kingdom, how come you in fact to cause
their dispersion unless it be that you covet not a sovereignty?
So far were good that thou wouldst patronize
the army with all thy heart, for a king with an army
constitutes a principality.” The king asked: “What are
the best means of collecting an army and yeomanry?”
He replied: “Munificence is the duty of a king, that the
people may assemble around him, and clemency, that
they may rest secure under the asylum of his dominion
and fortune, neither of which you have. A tyrant can
not govern a kingdom, for the duty
of a shepherd is not expected from the wolf. A king
that can anyhow be accessory to tyranny will undermine
the wall of his own sovereignty.”
The advice of the prudent minister did not accord with
the disposition of the king. He ordered him to be
confined, and immured him in a dungeon. It soon
came to pass that the sons of the king’s uncle rose in
opposition, levied an army in support of their pretensions,
and claimed the sovereignty of their father. A
host of the people who had cruelly suffered under the
arm of his extortion and were dispersed, gathered
around and succored them ‘till they dispossessed him
of his kingdom and established them in his stead. That
king who can approve of tyrannizing over the weak
will find his friend a bitter foe in the day of hardship.
Deal fairly with thy subjects, and rest easy about the
warfare of thine enemies, for with an upright prince
his yeomanry is an army.
IX
In his old age an Arab king was grievously sick, and
had no hopes of recovery, when lo! a messenger on
horseback presented himself at the palace-gate, and
joyfully announced, saying: “Under his majesty’s good
16 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 17
fortune we have taken such a stronghold, made the
enemy prisoners of war, and reduced all the landholders
and vassals of that quarter to obedience as subjects.”
On hearing this news the king fetched a cold
sigh, and answered: “These glad tidings are not intended
for me but for my rivals, namely, the heirs of the
sovereignty. My precious life has, alas! been wasted in
the hope that what my heart chiefly coveted might
enter at my gate. My bounden hope was gratified; yet
what do I benefit by that? There is no hope that my
passed life can return. The hand of death beats the
drum of departure. Yes, my two eyes, you must bid
adieu to my head. Yes, palm of my hand, wrist, and
arm, all of you say farewell, and each take leave of the
other. Death has overtaken me to the gratification of
my foes; and you, O my friends, must at last be going.
My days were blazed away in folly; what I did not do
let you take warning and do.”
X
At the metropolitan mosque of Damascus I was one
year fervent in prayer over the tomb of Yahiya, or
John the Baptist and prophet, on whom be God’s
blessing, when one of the Arab princes, who was
notorious for his injustice, chanced to arrive on a pilgrimage,
and he put up his supplication, asked a
benediction, and craved his wants.—-The rich and
poor are equally the devoted slaves of this shrine, and
the richer they are the more they stand in need of succor.
Then he spoke to me, saying: “In conformity
with the generous resolution of dervishes and their
sincere zeal, you will, I trust, unite with me in prayer,
for I have much to fear from a powerful enemy.” I
answered him, “Have compassion on your own weak
subjects, that you may not see disquiet from a strong
foe. With a mighty arm and heavy hand it is dastardly
to wrench the wrists of poor and helpless. Is he not
afraid who is hard-hearted with the fallen that if he
slip his foot nobody will take him by the hand?—-
Whoever sowed the seed of vice and expected a virtuous
produce, pampered a vain brain and encouraged
an idle whim. Take the cotton from thy ear and
do mankind justice, for if thou refuse them justice
there is a day of retribution. The sons of Adam are
members one of another, for in their creation they
have a common origin. If the vicissitudes of fortune
involve one member in pain, all the other members
will feel a sympathy. Thou, who art indifferent to
other men’s affliction, if they call thee a man art
unworthy of the name.”
18 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 19
XI
A dervish, whose prayers had a ready acceptance
with God, made his appearance at Baghdad. Hojaj
Yusuf (a great tyrant) sent for him and said: “Put up
a good prayer for me.” He prayed, “O God! take
from him his life!” Hojaj said, “For God’s sake, what
manner of prayer is this?” He answered: “It is a salutary
prayer for you, and for the whole sect of
Muslims.—-O mighty sir, thou oppressor of the feeble,
how long can this violence remain marketable?
For what purpose came the sovereignty to thee? Thy
death were preferable to thy tyrannizing over
mankind.”
XII
An unjust king asked a holy man, saying. “What is
more excellent than prayers?” He answered: “For you
to remain asleep ‘till mid-day, that for this one interval
you might not afflict mankind.”—-I saw a tyrant
lying dormant at noon, and said, “This is mischief,
and is best lulled to sleep. It were better that such a
reprobate were dead whose state of sleep is preferable
to his being awake.”
XIV
One of the ancient kings was easy with the yeomanry
in collecting his revenue, but hard on the soldiery in
his issue of pay; and when a formidable enemy showed
its face, these all turned their backs. Whenever the king
is remiss in paying his troops, the troops will relax in
handling their arms. What bravery can be displayed in
the ranks of battle whose hand is destitute of the
means of living?
One of those who had excused themselves was in some
sort my intimate. I reproached him and said, “He is
base and ungrateful, mean and disreputable who, on a
trifling change of circumstances, can desert his old
master and forget his obligation of many years’
employment.” He replied: “Were I to speak out, I
swear by generosity you would excuse me.
Peradventure, my horse was without corn, and the
housings of his saddle in pawn.—-And the prince who,
through parsimony, withholds his army’s pay can not
expect it to enter heartily upon his service.”—-Give
money to the gallant soldier that he may be zealous in
thy cause, for if he is stinted of his due he will go
abroad for service. So long as a warrior is replenished
with food he will fight valiantly, And when his belly is
empty he will run away sturdily.
20 V The Rose Garden
XV
One of the viziers was displaced, and withdrew into a
fraternity of dervishes, whose blessed society made its
impression upon him and afforded consolation to his
mind. The king was again favorably disposed toward
him, and offered his reinstatement in office; but he
consented not, and said, “With the wise it is deemed
preferable to be out of office than to remain in place.—
-Such as sat within the cell of retirement blunted the
teeth of dogs, and shut the mouths of mankind; they
destroyed their writings, and broke their writing reeds,
and escaped the lash and venom of the critics.”—-The
king answered: “At all events I require a prudent and
able man, who is capable of managing the State affairs
of my kingdom.” The ex-minister said: “The criterion,
O sire, of a wise and competent man is that he will not
meddle with such like matters.—-The homayi, or
phoenix, is honored above all other birds because it
feeds on bones, and injures no living creature.”
A Tamsil, or application in point.—-They asked a
Siyah-gosh, or lion-provider, “Why do you choose the
service of the lion?” He answered: “Because I subsist
on the leavings of his prey, and am secure from the illwill
of my enemies under the asylum of his valor.”
They said: “Now you have got within the shadow of
Sa‘di V 21
his protection and admit a grateful sense of his bounty,
why do you not approach more closely, that he may
include you within the circle of select courtiers and
number you among his chosen servants?” He replied,
“I should not thus be safe from his violence.”—-
Though a Gueber may keep his fire alight for a hundred
years, if he fall once within its flame it will burn
him.—-It on one occasion may chance that the courtier
of the king’s presence shall pick up a purse of gold, and
the next that he shall lie shorter by the head. And
philosophers have remarked, saying, “It is incumbent
on us to be constantly aware of the fickle dispositions
of kings, who will one moment take offense at a salutation,
and at another make an honorary dress the
return for an act of rudeness; and they have said, That
to be over much facetious is the accomplishment of
courtiers and blemish of the wise.—-Be wary, and preserve
the state of thine own character, and leave sport
and buffoonery to jesters and courtiers.
XVI
One of my associates brought me a complaint of his
perverse fortune, saying, “I have small means and a
large family, and can not bear up with my load of
poverty. Often has a thought crossed my mind, sug-
22 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 23
gesting, Let me remove into another country, that in
whatever way I can manage a livelihood none may be
informed of my good or bad luck.” —-(Often he went
asleep hungry, and nobody was aware, saying, “Who is
he?” Often did his life hang upon his lip, and none
lamented over him.)—- “On the other hand, I reflect on
the exultation of my rivals, saying, They will scoffingly
sneer behind my back, and impute my zeal in behalf of
my family to a want of humanity.—-Do but behold that
graceless vagabond who can never witness the face of
good fortune. Be will consult the ease of his own person
and abandon to distress his wife and children.—-
And, as is known, I have some small skill in the science
of accounts. If, through your respected interest, any
office can be obtained that may be the means of quieting
my mind, I shall not, during the remainder of life,
be able to express my sense of its gratitude.”
I replied, “O brother, the service of kings offers a
twofold prospect—-a hope of maintenance and a fear
for existence; and it accords not with the counsel of
the wise, under that expectation, to incur this risk.—-
No tax-gatherer will enter the dervish’s abode, saying,
Pay me the rent of a field and orchard; either put up
with trouble and chagrin, or give thy heartstrings to
the crows to pluck.”
He said, “This speech is not made as applicable to my
case, nor have you given me a categorical answer.
Have you not heard what has been remarked, ‘His
hand will tremble on rendering his account who has
been accessory to a dishonest act.—-Righteousness
will insure the divine favor; I never met him going
astray who took the righteous path.’—-And philosophers
have said, ‘Four orders of people are mortally
afraid of four others—-the revenue embezzler, of the
king; the thief, of the watchman; the fornicator, of the
eavesdropper; and the adulteress, of the censor.’ But
what has he to fear from the comptroller who has a
fair set of account books?—- ‘Be not extravagant and
corrupt while in office if thou wish that the malice of
thy rival may be circumscribed on settling thy
accounts. Be undefiled, O brother, in thy integrity, and
fear nobody; washer men will beat only dirty clothes
against a stone.’”
I replied, “The story of that fox suits your case, which
they saw running away, stumbling and getting up.
Somebody asked him, ‘What calamity has happened to
put you in such a state of trepidation?’ He said, ‘I have
heard that they are putting a camel in requisition.’ The
other answered, ‘O silly animal! what connection has
a camel with you, or what resemblance is there
24 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 25
between you and it?’ He said, ‘Be silent; for were the
envious from malevolence to insist that this is a camel,
and I should be seized for one, who would be so solicitous
about me as to inquire into my case?’ And before
they can bring the antidote from Iraq the person bitten
by the snake may be dead. In like manner, you possess
knowledge and integrity, discrimination and probity,
yet spies lie in ambush, and informers lurk in corners,
who, notwithstanding your moral rectitude, will note
down the opposite; and should you anyhow stand
arraigned before the king, and occupy the place of his
reprehension, who in that State would step forward in
your defense? Accordingly, I would advise that you
should secure the kingdom of contentment, and give
up all thoughts of preferment. As the wise have said:
“The benefits of a sea voyage are innumerable; but if
thou seek for safety, it is to be found only on shore.’”
My friend listened to this speech; he got into a passion,
caviled at my fable, and began to question it with
warmth and asperity, saying, “What wisdom or propriety,
good sense or morality, is there in this? Here is
verified that maxim of the sage, which tells us they are
friends alone that can serve us in a jail, for all our enemies
may pretend friendship at our own table.—-
‘Esteem him not a friend who during thy prosperity
will brag of his love and brotherly affection.’ I account
him a friend who will take his friend by the hand when
struggling with despair, and overwhelmed with misfortune.”
I perceived within myself, saying, “He is disturbed,
and listens to my advice with impatience”; and, having
called the sahib diwan, or lord high treasurer, in virtue
of a former intimacy that subsisted between us, I stated
his case and spoke so fully upon his skill and merits,
that he put him in nomination for a training office.
After some time, having adverted to his kindly disposition
and approved of his good management, his promotion
was in train, and he got confirmed in a much
higher station. Thus was the star of his good fortune in
ascension, ‘till it rose into the zenith of ambition; and
he became the favorite of his majesty the king, toward
whom all turned for counsel, and upon whom all eyes
rested their hopes! I rejoiced at this prosperous change
of his affairs, and said: “Repine not at thy bankrupt
circumstances, nor let thy heart despond, for the fountain
of immortality has its source of chaos. “Take
heed, O brother in affliction! and be not disheartened,
For God has in store many hidden mercies. Sit not
down soured at the revolutions of the times, for
patience is bitter, yet it will yield sweet fruit.”
26 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 27
At that juncture I happened to accompany a party of
friends on a journey to Hijaz, or Arabia Petraea. On
my return from the pilgrimage to Mecca, he came out
two stages to meet me. I perceived that his outward
plight was wretched, and his garb that of dervishes. I
asked, “How is this?” He replied, “Just as you said, a
faction bore me a grudge and charged me with malpractice;
and the king, be his reign eternal, would not
investigate the truth of that charge, and my old and
best friends stood aloof from my defense, and overlooked
my claims on our former acquaintance.—-
When, through an act of God, a man has fallen, the
whole world will put their feet upon his neck; when
they see that fortune has taken him by the hand, they
will put their hands upon their breasts, and be loud in
his praise.—-In short, I underwent all manner of persecution
‘till within this week, that the tidings of the
safe return of the pilgrims reached us, when I got a
release from my heavy durance and a confiscation of
my hereditary tenements.” I said, “At that time you
did not listen to my admonition, when I warned you
that the service of princes is, like a voyage at sea,
profitable but hazardous: you either get a treasure or
perish miserably.—-The merchant gains the shore with
gold in both his hands, or a wave will one day leave
him dead on its beach.”—-Not deeming it generous
any further to irritate a poor man’s wound with the
asperity of reproach, or to sprinkle his sore with the
salt of harsh words, I made a summary conclusion in
these two verses, and said:—- “Wert thou not aware
that thou shouldst find fetters on thy feet when thou
wouldst not listen to the generous man’s counsel?
Thrust not again thy finger into a scorpion’s hole till
thou canst endure the pain of its sting.”
XVI
I was the companion of a holy fraternity, whose manners
were correct from piety, and minds disciplined
from probity. An eminent prince entertained a high
and respectful opinion of the worth of this brotherhood,
and had assigned it an endowment. Perhaps one
of them committed an act unworthy of the character of
dervishes; for the good opinion of that personage was
forfeited, and the market of their support shut. I
wished that I could by any means re-establish the
maintenance of my friends, and attempted to wait on
the great man; but his porter opposed my entrance,
and turned me away with rudeness. I excused him conformably
with what the witty have said: “Till thou
canst take an introduction along with thee approach
not the gate of a prince, vizier, or lord; for the dog and
28 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 29
the doorkeeper, on espying a beggar, will the one seize
his skirt and the other his collar.”
When the favorite attendants of that great man were
aware of my situation, they ushered me into his presence
with respect, and offered me the highest seat; but
in humility I took the lowest, and said: “Permit that I,
the slave of the abject, should seat myself on a level
with servants.”—-The great man answered, “My God,
my God! what room is there for this speech? Wert thou
to seat thyself upon the pupil of mine eye, I would
court thy dalliance, for thou art lovely.”
In short, I took my seat, and entered upon a variety of
topics, ‘till the indiscretion of my friends was brought
upon the carpet, when I said: “What fault did the lord
of past munificence remark, that his servant should
seem so contemptible in his sight? Individually with
God is the perfection of majesty and goodness, who
can discern our failings and continue to us his support.”
When the prince heard this sentiment he subscribed
to its omnipotence; and, with regard to the
stipendiary allowance of my friends, he ordered its
continuance as heretofore, and a faithful discharge of
all arrears. I thanked him for his generosity, kissed the
dust of obeisance, apologized for my boldness, and at
the moment of taking my leave, added: “When the
fane of the Kaaba, at Mecca, became their object from
a far distant land, pilgrims would hurry on to visit it
for many farsangs. It behooves thee to put up with
such as we are, for nobody will throw a stone at a tree
that bears no fruit.”
XVIII
A prince inherited immense riches by succeeding to his
father. He opened the hand of liberality, displayed his
munificence, and bestowed innumerable gifts upon his
troops and people. “The brain will not be perfumed by
a censer of green aloes-wood; place it over the fire that
it may diffuse fragrance like ambergris. If ambitious of
a great name, make a practice of munificence, for the
crop will not shoot till thou shalt sow the seed.”
A narrow-minded courtier began to admonish him,
saying, “Verily, former sovereigns have collected this
wealth with scrupulosity and stored it advisedly.
Check your hand in this waste, for accidents wait
ahead, and foes lurk behind. God forbid that you
should want it on a day of need.-Wert thou to distribute
the contents of a granary among the people, every
master of a family might receive a grain of rice; why
30 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 31
not exact a grain of silver from each, that thou mightest
daily hoard a chamber full of treasure?”
The prince turned his face aside from this speech, so
contrary to his own lofty sentiments, and harshly reprimanded
him, saying, “A great and glorious God
made me sovereign of this property, that I might enjoy
and spend it; and posted me not a sentinel, to hoard
and watch over it.—-Carown perished, who possessed
forty magazines of treasure; Nushirowan died not,
who left behind him a fair reputation.”
XIX
They have related that at a hunting-seat they were
roasting some game for Nushirowan, and as there was
no salt they were dispatching a servant to the village to
fetch some. Nushirowan called to him, saying, “Take
it at its fair price, and not by force, lest a bad precedent
be established and the village desolated.” They
asked, “What damage can ensue from this trifle?” He
answered, “Originally, the basis of oppression in this
world was small, and every newcomer added to it, ‘till
it reached to its present extent.—Let the monarch eat
but one apple from a peasant’s orchard, and his
guards, or slaves, will pull up the tree by its root. From
the plunder of five eggs, that the king shall sanction,
his troops will stick a thousand fowls on their spits.”
XX
I have heard of a revenue-collector who would distrain
the huts of the peasantry, that he might enrich the treasury
of the sovereign, regardless of that maxim of the
wise, who have said, “Whoever can offend the Most
High, that he may gain the heart of a fellow-creature,
God on high will instigate that creature against him,
‘till he dig out the foundation of his fortune.—-That
crackling in the fame is not caused by burning rue, but
it is the sigh of the afflicted that occasions it.”
They say, of all animals the lion is the chief; and of
beasts the ass is the meanest; yet, with the concurrence
of the wise, the burden-bearing ass is preferable to the
man-devouring lion. “The poor ass, though devoid of
understanding, will be held precious when carrying a
burden; oxen and asses that carry loads are preferable
to men that injure their fellow creatures.”
The king had reported to him a part of his nefarious
conduct. He put him to the rack, and tortured him to
death. “Thou canst not obtain the sovereign’s appro-
32 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 33
bation ‘till thou make sure of the good-will of his people.
Wish thou that God shall be bountiful to thee, be
thou good thyself to the creatures of God.”
One who had suffered from his oppression passed him
at the time of his execution, and said: “It is not every
man that may have the strong arm of high station, that
can in his government take an immoderate freedom
with the subjects’ property. It is possible to cram a
bone down the throat, but when it sticks at the navel
it will burst open the belly.”
XXI
They tell a story of an evil-disposed person who struck
a pious good man on the head with a stone. Having no
power of revenge, the dervish was keeping the stone by
him ‘till an occasion when the sovereign let loose the
army of his wrath, and cast him into a dungeon. The
poor man went up and flung the stone at his head. The
person spoke to him, saying, “Who are you, and why
did you throw this stone at my head?” He answered,
“I am that poor man, and this is the same stone that
you on a certain occasion flung at my head.” He said,
“Where have you been all this time?” The poor man
answered, “I stood in awe of your high station, but
now that I find you in a dungeon, I avail myself of the
opportunity, as they have said—- ‘Whilst they saw the
worthless man in prosperity, the wise thought proper
to show him respect. Now thou hast not sharp and
tearing nails, it is prudent for thee to defer to engage
with the wicked. Whoever grappled with a steel-armed
wrist exposed his own silver arm to torture. Wait ‘till
fortune can manacle his hands, then beat out his brains
to the satisfaction of thy friends.’”
XXV
I have heard that one of the kings of Arabia directed
the officers of his treasury, saying, “You will double a
certain person’s salary, whatever it may be, for he is
constant in attendance and ready for orders, while the
other courtiers are diverted by play, and negligent of
their duty.” A good and holy man overheard this, and
heaved a sigh and groan from the bottom of his
bosom. They asked, saying, “What vision did you
see?” He replied, “The exalted mansions of his devoted
servants will be after this manner portioned out at
the judgment-seat of a Most High and Mighty
Deity!—-If for two mornings a person is assiduous
about the person of the king, on the third he will in
some shape regard him with affection. The sincerely
34 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 35
devout exist in the hope that they shall not depart disappointed
from God’s threshold. The rank of a prince
is the reward of obedience. Disobedience to command
is a proof of rejection. Whoever has the aspect of the
upright and good will lay the face of duty at this
threshold.”
XXVI
They tell a story of a tyrant who bought firewood from
the poor at a low price, and sold it to the rich at an
advance. A good and holy man went up to him and
said, “Thou art a snake, who bites everybody thou
sees; or an owl, who digs up and makest a ruin of the
place where thou sits. Although thy injustice may pass
unpunished among us, it can not escape God, the
knower of secrets. Be not unjust with the people of this
earth, that their complaints may not rise up to heaven.”
They say the unjust man was offended at his
words, turned aside his face, and showed him no civility,
as they have expressed it (in the Qur’an): He, the
glorified God, overtook him amidst his sins: ‘till one
night, when the fire of his kitchen fell upon the stack
of wood, consumed all his property, and laid him from
the bed of voluptuousness upon the ashes of hell torments.
That good and holy man happened to be passing
and observed that he was remarking to his friends,
“I can not fancy whence this fire fell upon my
dwelling.” He said, “From the smoke of the hearts of
the poor!—-Guard against the smoke of the soreafflicted
heart, for an inside sore will at last gather into
a head. Give nobody’s heart pain so long as thou canst
avoid it, for one sigh may set a whole world into a
flame.”
They have related that these verses were inscribed in
golden letters upon Kai-khosrau’s crown: “How many
years, and what a continuance of ages, that mankind
shall on this earth walk over my head. As the kingdom
came to me from hand to hand, so it shall pass into the
hands of others.”
XXVII
A person had become a master in the art of wrestling;
he knew three hundred and sixty sleights in this art,
and could exhibit a fresh trick for every day throughout
the year. Perhaps owing to a liking that a corner of
his heart took for the handsome person of one of his
scholars, he taught him three hundred and fifty-nine of
those feats, but he was putting off the instruction of
one, and under some pretense deferring it. In short the
youth became such a proficient in the art and talent of
36 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 37
wrestling that none of his contemporaries had ability
to cope with him, ‘till he at length had one day boasted
before the reigning sovereign, saying, “To any superiority
my master possesses over me, he is beholden to
my reverence of his seniority, and in virtue of his tutorage;
otherwise I am not inferior in power, and am his
equal in skill.” This want of respect displeased the
king. He ordered a wrestling match to be held, and a
spacious field to be fenced in for the occasion. The
ministers of State, nobles of the court, and gallant men
of the realm were assembled, and the ceremonials of
the court marshaled. Like a huge and lusty elephant,
the youth rushed into the ring with such a crash that
had a brazen mountain opposed him he would have
moved it from its base. The master being aware that
the youth was his superior in strength, engaged him in
that strange feat of which he had kept him ignorant.
The youth was unacquainted with its guard.
Advancing, nevertheless, the master seized him with
both hands, and lifting him bodily from the ground,
raised him above his head and flung him on the earth.
The crowd set up a shout. The king ordered them to
give the master an honorary dress and handsome
largess, and the youth he addressed with reproach and
asperity, saying, “ You played the traitor with your
own patron, and failed in your presumption of opposing
him.” He replied, “ O sire! my master did not overcome
me by strength and ability, but one cunning trick
in the art of wrestling was left which he was reserved
in teaching me, and by that little feat had to-day the
upper hand of me.” The master said, “ I reserved
myself for such a day as this. As the wise have told us,
Put it not so much into a friend’s power that, if hostilely
disposed, he can do you an injury.’ Have you not
heard what that man said who was treacherously dealt
with by his own pupil: ‘ Either in fact there was no
good faith in this world, or nobody has perhaps practiced
it in our days. No person learned the art of
archery from me who did not in the end make me his
butt.’?”
XXVIII
A solitary dervish had taken up his station at the corner
of a desert. A king was passing by him. Inasmuch
as contentment is the enjoyment of a kingdom, the
dervish did not raise his head, nor show him the least
mark of attention and, inasmuch as sovereignty is
regal pomp, the king took offense, and said : “The
tribe of ragged mendicants resemble brute beasts, and
have neither grace nor good manners.” The vizier
stepped up to him, and said: “O generous man! the
sovereign of the universe has passed by you; why did
38 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 39
you not do him homage, and discharge the duty of
obeisance?” He answered and said, “ Speak to your
sovereign, saying: Expect service from that person who
will court your favor; let him moreover know that
kings are meant for the protection of the people, and
not the people for the subjects of kings. —-Though it
be for their benefit that his glory is exalted, yet is the
king but the shepherd of the poor. The sheep are not
intended for the service of the shepherd, but the shepherd
is appointed to tend the sheep. —-Today thou
mayest observe one man proud from prosperity,
another with a heart sore from adversity; have
patience for a few days ‘till the dust of the grave can
consume the brain of that vain and foolish head. When
the record of destiny came to take effect, the distinction
of liege and subject disappeared. Were a person to
turn up the dust of the defunct, he could not distinguish
that of the rich man from the poor.”
These sayings made a strong impression upon the king;
he said: “Ask me for something.” He replied: “What I
desire is, that you will not trouble me again!” The king
said, “Favor me with a piece of advice.” He answered:
“Attend to them now that the good things of this life
are in thy hands; for wealth and dominion are passing
from one hand into another.”
XXX
A king ordered an innocent person to be put to death.
The man said, “Seek not your own hurt by venting any
anger you may entertain against me.” The king asked,
“How?” He replied, “The pain of this punishment will
continue with me for a moment, but the sin of it will
endure with you forever.—The period of this life passes
by like the wind of the desert. Joy and sorrow, beauty
and deformity, equally pass away. The tyrant vainly
thought that he did me an injury, but round his neck it
clung and passed over me.” The king profited by this
advice, spared his life, and asked his forgiveness.
XXXI
The cabinet ministers of Nushirowan were debating an
important affair of State, and each delivered his opinion
according to the best of his judgment. In like manner
the king also delivered his sentiments, and Abuzarchamahr,
the prime minister, accorded in opinion
with him. The other ministers whispered to him, saying,
“What did you see superior in the king’s opinion
that you preferred it to the judgment of so many wise
heads?” He replied: “Because the event is doubtful,
and the opinion of all rests in the pleasure of the most
40 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 41
high God whether it shall be right or wrong.
Accordingly it is safer to conform with the judgment of
the king, because if that shall prove wrong, our obsequiousness
to his will shall secure us from his displeasure.
—-To sport an opinion contrary to the judgment
of the king were to wash our hands in our own blood.
Were he verily to say this day is night, it would
behoove us to reply: Lo! there are the moon and seven
stars.”
XXXII
An impostor plaited his hair and spoke, saying, “I am
a descendant of Ali”; and he entered the city along
with the caravan from Hijaz, saying, “I come a pilgrim
from Mecca”; and he presented a Casidah or elegy to
the king, saying, “ I have composed it!” The king gave
him money, treated him with respect, and ordered him
to be shown much flattering attention; ‘till one of the
courtiers, who had that day returned from a voyage at
sea, said, “I saw him on the Eeduzha, or anniversary of
sacrifice at Busrah; how then can he be a Hadji, or pilgrim?”
Another said, “Now I recollect him, his father
was a Christian at Malatiyah (Malta); how then can he
be a descendant of Ali?” And they discovered his verses
in the divan of Anwari. The king ordered that they
should beat and drive him away, saying, “How came
you to utter so many falsehoods?” He replied, “O sovereign
of the universe! I will utter one speech more,
and if that may not prove true, I shall deserve whatever
punishment you may command.” The king asked, “
What may that be?” He said: “ If a peasant bring thee
a cup of junket, two measures of it will be water and
one spoonful of it buttermilk. If thy slave spoke idly be
not offended, for great travelers deal mostly in the
marvelous!” The king smiled and replied, “You never
in your life spoke a truer word.” He directed them to
gratify his expectations, and he departed happy and
content.
XXXIII
They have related that one of the viziers would compassionate
the weak and meditate the good of everybody.
He happened to fall under the royal displeasure,
and they all strove to obtain his release. Such as had
him in custody were indulgent in their restraint, and his
fellow-grandees were loud in proclaiming his virtues,
‘till the king pardoned his fault. A good and holy man
was apprised of these events, and said: “In order to
conciliate the good-will of friends, it were better to sell
our patrimonial garden; in order to boil the pot of well-
42 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 43
wishers, it were good to convert our household furniture
into firewood. Do good even to the wicked; it is as
well to shut a dog’s mouth with a crumb.”
XXXIV
One of Haroun-al-Rashid’s children went up to his
father in a passion, saying, “A certain officer’s son has
abused me in my mother’s name.” Haroun asked his
ministers, “ What ought to be such a person’s punishment?”
One made a sign to have him put to death;
another to have his tongue cut out; and a third, to have
him fined and banished. Haroun said: “O my child! it
were generous to forgive him; but if you have not resolution
to do that, do you abuse his mother in return, yet
not to such a degree as to exceed the bounds of retaliation,
for in that case the injury would be on our part,
and the complaint on that of the antagonist.—-In the
opinion of the prudent he is no hero that can dare to
combat a furious elephant but that man is in truth a
hero who, when provoked to anger, will not speak
intemperately. A cross-grained fellow abused a certain
person; he bore it patiently, and said “O well-disposed
man! I am still more wicked than thou art calling me;
for I know my defects better than thou canst know
them.”
XXXV
I was seated in a vessel, along with some persons of distinction,
when a boat sunk astern of us and two brothers
were drawn into the whirlpool. One of our gentlemen
called to the pilot, saying, “Save those two drowning
men and I will give you a hundred dinars.” The
pilot went and rescued one of them, but the other perished.
I observed, “That man’s time was come, therefore
you were tardy in assisting him, and alert in saving
this other.” The pilot smiled, and replied, “What you
say is the essence of inevitable necessity; yet was my
zeal more hearty in rescuing this one, because on an
occasion when I was tired in the desert he set me on a
camel; whereas, when a boy I had received a horsewhipping
from that other.” God Almighty was all justice
and equity: Whoever labored unto good experienced
good in himself; And he who toiled unto evil
experienced evil. So long as thou art able grate
nobody’s heart, for in this path there must be thorns.
Expedite the concerns of the poor and needy; for thy
own concerns may need to be expedited.
XXXVII
A person announced to Nushirowan the Just, saying,
“I have heard that God, glorious and great, has
44 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 45
removed from this world a certain man who was your
enemy.” He said, “Hhave you had any intelligence that
he has overlooked me? In the death of a rival I have no
room for exultation, since my life also is not to last
forever.”
XXXVIII
At the court of Kisra, or Nushirowan, a cabinet council
was debating some State affair. Abu-zarchamahr,
who sat as president, was silent. They asked him,
“Why do you not join us in this discussion?” He
replied, “ Such ministers of State are like physicians,
and a physician will prescribe a medicine only to a sick
man; accordingly, so long as I see that your opinions
are judicious, it were ill-judged in me to obtrude a
word.—-While business can proceed without my interference,
it does not behoove me to speak on the subject;
but were I to see a blind man walking into a pit, I
would be much to blame if I remained silent.”
XXXIX
When he reduced the kingdom of Misr, or to obedience,
Haroun-al-Rashid said, “ In contempt of that
impious rebel (Pharaoh), who, in his pride of the sovereignty
of Egypt, boasted a divinity, I will bestow its
government only on the vilest of my slaves.” He had a
Negro bondsman, called Khosayib, preciously stupid,
and him he appointed to rule over Egypt. They tell us
that his judgment and understanding were such, that
when a body of farmers complained to him, saying,
“We had planted some cotton shrubs on the banks of
the Nile, and the rains came unseasonably, and swept
them all away,” he replied, “You ought to sow wool,
that it might not be swept away!” A good and holy
man heard this, and said: “Were our fortune to be
increased in proportion to our knowledge, none could
be scantier than the share of the fool; but fortune will
bestow such wealth upon the ignorant as shall astonish
a hundred of the learned. Power and fortune
depend not on knowledge, they are obtained only
through the aid of heaven; for it has often happened in
this world that the illiterate are honored, and the wise
held in scorn. The fool in his idleness found a treasure
under a ruin; the chemist, or projector, fell the victim
of disappointment and chagrin.”
46 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 47
I
Aperson of distinction asked a parsa, or devout
and holy man, saying, “What do you offer in
justification of a certain abid all other species
of Muhammadan monk, whose character others have
been so ready to question?” He replied: “In his outward
behavior I see nothing to blame, and with the
secrets of his heart I claim no acquaintance.—-
Whomsoever thou sees in a parsa’s habit, consider him
a parsa, or holy, and esteem him as a good man; and if
thou know not what is passing in his mind, what business
has the moatasib, or censor, with the inside of the
house?”
II
I saw a dervish who, having laid his head at the fane
of the Kaaba of Mecca, was complaining and saying,
“O gracious, O merciful God! thou know what can
proceed from the sinful and ignorant that may be worthy
of thy acceptance!—-I brought my excuse of
imperfect performance, for I have no claim on the
of the morals of dervishes
score of obedience. The wicked repent them of their
sins; such as know God confess a deficiency of worship.”
Abids, or the pious, seek a reward of their devotion,
merchants a profit on their traffic. I, a devoted servant,
have brought hope, not obedience, and have come as a
beggar, and not for lucre! Do unto me what is worthy
of thyself; but deal not with me as I myself have
deserved. Whether thou wilt slay me or pardon my
offense, my head and face are prostrate at thy threshold.
Thy servant has no will of his own; whatever thou
commands, that he will perform. At the door of the
Kaaba I saw a petitioner, who was praying and weeping
bitterly. I ask not, saying, “Approve of my obedience,
but draw the pen of forgiveness across my sins.”
III
Within the sanctuary of the Kaaba, at Mecca, I saw
Abdu’l-cadur the Gilani, who having laid his face upon
the Hasa, or black stone, was saying, “Spare and pardon
me, O God! and if, at all events, I am doomed to
punishment, raise me up at the day of resurrection
blindfolded, that I may not be put to shame in the eyes
of the righteous.” Every morning when the day begins
to dawn, with my face in the dust of humility, I am say-
48 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 49
ing, “O thou, whom I never can forget, dost thou ever
bestow a thought on thy servant?”
IV
A thief got into a holy man’s cell; but, however much
he searched, he could find nothing to steal, and was
going away disappointed. The good soul was aware of
what was passing, and taking up the rug on which he
had slept, he put it in his way that he might not miss
his object.—-I have heard that the heroes on the path
of God will not distress the hearts of their enemies.
How canst thou attain this dignified station who art at
strife and warfare with thy friends? The loving kindness
of the righteous, whether before your face or
behind your back, is not such that they will censure
you when absent, and offer to die for you when present.—-
Face to face meek as a lamb, behind your back
like a man devouring wolf. Whoever brings you, and
sums up the faults of others, will doubtless expose
your defects to them.
V
Some traveling mendicants had agreed to club in a
body and participate in the cares and comforts of society.
I expressed a wish that I might be one of the party,
but they refused to admit me. I said: “It is rare and
inconsistent with the generous dispositions of dervishes
to turn their faces from a good-fellowship with the
poor, and to deny them its benefits, for on my part I
feel such a zeal and good-will, that in the service of the
liberal I am likely to prove rather an active associate
than a grievous load. Though not one of those who are
mounted on the camels, I will do my best, that I may
carry their saddle-cloths. One of them answered and
said: “Be not offended at what you have heard for
some days back a thief joined us in the garb of a
dervish, and strung himself upon the cord of our
acquaintance.—-How can people know what he is that
wears that dress? The writer can alone tell the contents
of the letter.” In consequence of that reverence in
which the dervish character is held, they did not think
of his profligacy and admitted him into their society.
The outward character of the holy is a patched cloak;
this much is sufficient, that it has a threadbare hood.
Be industrious in thy calling, and wear whatever dress
thou chooses. Put a diadem on thy head, and bear a
standard on thy shoulder. Holiness does not consist in
a coarse frock. Let a zahid, or holy man, be truly
pious, and he may dress in satin. Sanctity is not merely
a change of dress; it is an abandonment of the
world, its pomp and vanity. It requires a hero to wear
50 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 51
a coat of mail, for what would it profit to dress an hermaphrodite,
or coward, in a suit of armor?
In short we had one day traveled ‘till dark, and at
night composed ourselves for sleep under the wall of a
castle. That graceless thief took up his neighbor’s ewer,
saying, “I am going to my ablutions”; and he was setting
out for plunder. Behold a religious man, who
threw a patched cloak over his shoulders; he made the
covering of the Kaaba the housing of an ass. So soon
as he got out of sight of the dervishes, he scaled a bastion
of the fort and stole a casket. Before break of day
that gloomy-minded robber had got a great way off,
and left his innocent companions asleep. In the morning
they were all carried into the citadel, and thrown
into a dungeon. From that time we have declined any
addition to our party, and kept apart to ourselves, For
there is safety in unity, But danger in duality or a multitude.
When an individual of a sect committed an act
of folly, the high and the low sank in their dignity.
Dost thou not see that one ox in a pasturage will cast
a slur upon all the oxen of the village? I said: “Let
there be thanksgiving to a Deity of majesty and glory
that I am not forbid the benefits of dervishes, notwithstanding
I am in appearance excluded from their society;
and I am instructed by this narration, and others
like me may profit by its moral during their remaining
lives.—-From one indiscreet person in an assembly a
host of the prudent may get hurt. If they fill a cistern
to the brim with rose-water, and let a dog fall into it,
the whole will be contaminated.”
VI
A zahid was the guest of a king. When he sat down at
table he ate more sparingly from that than his appetite
inclined him, and when he stood up at prayers he continued
longer at them than it was his custom; that they
might form a high opinion of his sanctity.—-I fear, O
Arab! that thou wilt not reach the Kaaba; for the road
that thou art taking leads to Turkestan, or the region
of infidels. When he returned home he ordered the
table to be spread that he might eat. His son was a
youth of a shrewd understanding. He said: “O father,
perhaps you ate little or nothing at the feast of the
king?” He answered, “In his presence I ate scarce anything
that could answer its purpose!” Then retorted
the boy, “Repeat also your prayers, that nothing be
omitted that can serve a purpose.” Yes, thy virtues
thou hast exposed in the palm of thy hand, thy vices
thou has hid under thy arm-pit. Take heed, O hypocrite,
what thou wilt be able to purchase with this
base money on the day of need or day of judgment.
52 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 53
VII
I remember that in my early youth I was overmuch
religious and vigilant, and scrupulously pious and
abstinent. One night I sat up in attendance on my
father, on whom be God’s mercy, never once closed my
eyes during the whole night, and held the precious
Qur’an open on my lap, while the company around us
were fast asleep. I said to my father: “Not an individual
of these will raise his head that he may perform his
genuflections, or ritual of prayer; but they are all so
sound asleep, that you might conclude they were
dead.” He replied: “O emanation of your father, you
had also better have slept than that you should thus
calumniate the failings of mankind.—-The braggart
can discern only his own precious person; he will draw
the veil of conceit all around him. Were fortune to
bestow upon him God’s all-searching eye, he would
find nobody weaker than himself.”
X
On one occasion, at the metropolitan mosque of
Balbuk, I was holding forth, by way of admonition to
a congregation cold and dead at heart, and not to be
moved from the materialism of this world into the
paths of mysticism. I perceived that the spirit of my
discourse was making no impression, nor were the
sparks of my enthusiasm likely to strike fire into their
humid wood. I grew weary of instructing brutes, and
of holding up a mirror to an assembly of the blind; but
the door of exposition was thrown open, and the chain
of argument extended; and in explanation of this text
in the Qur’an, “We are nearer to him (God) than the
vein of his neck”—-I had reached that passage of my
sermon where I thus express myself: “Such a mistress
as is closer to me in her affection than I am to myself,
but this is marvelous that I am estranged from her.
What shall I say, and to whom can I tell it, that she lies
on my bosom and I am alienated from her.”
The intoxicating spirit of this discourse ran into my
head, and the dregs of the cup still rested in my hand,
when a traveler, as passing by, entered the outer circle
of the congregation, and its expiring undulation lit
upon him. He sent forth such a groan that the others
in sympathy with him joined in lamentation, and the
rawest of the assembly bubbled in unison. I exclaimed,
“Praise be to God! those far off are present in their
knowledge, and those near by are distant from their
ignorance. If the hearer has not the faculty of comprehending
the sermon, expect not the vigor of genius in
the preacher. Give a scope to the field of inclination,
54 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 55
that the orator may have room to strike the ball of eloquence
over it.”
XI
One night in the desert of Mecca, from an excess of
drowsiness, I had not a foot to enable me to proceed;
and, laying my head on the earth, I gave myself up for
lost, and desired the camel-driver to leave me to my
fate.—-How could the foot of the poor jaded pedestrian
go on, now that the Bactrian dromedary got impatient
of its burden? While the body of a fat man is getting
lean, a lean man must fall the victim of a hardship.
The camel-driver replied: “O brother, holy Mecca is
ahead, and the profane robber behind; if you come forward
you escape, but if you stay here you die!” During
the night journey of the caravan, and in the track of
the desert, it is fascinating to doze under the acaciathorn
tree; but, on this indulgence, we must resign all
thoughts of surviving it.
XII
I saw on the seashore a holy man who had been torn
by a tiger, and could get no salve to heal his wound.
For a length of time he suffered much pain, and was all
along offering thanks to the Most High. They asked
him, saying, “Why are you so grateful?” He answered,
“God be praised that I am overtaken with misfortune
and not with sin! Were that beloved friend, God, to
give me over to death, take heed, and think not that I
should be solicitous about life. I would ask, What hast
thou seen amiss in thy poor servant that thy heart
should take offense at me? for that could alone give me
a moment’s uneasiness.”
XIII
Having some pressing occasion, a dervish stole a rug
from the hut of a friend. The judge ordered that they
should cut off his hand. The owner of the rug made
intercession for him, saying, “I have forgiven him.”
The judge replied, At your instance I can not relax the
extreme sentence of the law.” He said: “In what you
ordered you spoke justly. Nevertheless, whoever steals
a portion of any property dedicated to alms must not
suffer the forfeiture of his hand, for A religious mendicant
is not the proprietor of anything; and whatever
appertains to dervishes is devoted to the necessitous.”
The judge withdrew his hand from punishing him, and
by way of reprimand asked, “Had the world become
so circumscribed that you could not commit a theft but
56 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 57
in the dwelling of such a friend?” He answered, “Have
you not heard what they have said, ‘ Sweep everything
away from the houses of your friends, but knock not
at the doors of your enemies.’ When overwhelmed
with calamity let not thy body pine in misery. Strip thy
foes of their skins, and thy friends of their jackets.”
XIV
A king said to a holy man, “Are you ever thinking of
me?” “Yes,” replied he, “at such times as I am forgetting
God Almighty! He will wander all around whom
God shall drive from his gate; and he will not let him
go to another door whom he shall direct into his
own.”
XV
One of the righteous in a dream saw a king in paradise,
and a parsa, or holy man, in hell. He questioned
himself, saying, “What is the cause of the exaltation of
this, and the degradation of that, for we have fancied
their converse?” A voice came from above, answering,
“This king is in heaven because of his affection for the
holy, and that parsa is in hell because of his connection
with the kingly.”—-What can a coarse frock, rosary,
and patched cloak avail? Abstain from such evil works
as may defile thee. There is no occasion to put a felt
cowl upon thy head. Be a dervish in thy actions, and
wear a Tartarian coronet.
XVI
A pedestrian, naked from head to foot, left Cufah with
the caravan of pilgrims for Hijaz, or Mecca, and came
along with us. I looked at and saw him destitute of
every necessary for the journey; yet he was cheerfully
pushing on, and bravely remarking: “I am neither
mounted on a camel nor a mule under a burden. I am
neither the lord of vassals nor the vassal of a lord. I
think not of present sorrows or past vanities, but
breathe the breath of ease and live the life of freedom!”
A gentleman mounted on a camel said to him, “O
dervish, whither are you going? return, or you must
perish miserably.” He did not heed what he said, but
entered the desert on foot and proceeded. On our
reaching the palm plantation of Mahmud, fate overtook
the rich man, and he died. The dervish went up
to his bier and said, “I did not perish amidst hardship
on foot, and you expired on a camel’s back.” A person
sat all night weeping by the side of a sick friend. Next
58 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 59
day he died, and the invalid recovered!—-Yes! many a
fleet horse perished by the way, and that lame ass
reached the end of the journey. How many of the vigorous
and hale did they put underground, and that
wounded man recovered!
XX
They asked Lucman, the fabulist, “From whom did
you learn manners?” He answered, “From the unmannerly,
for I was careful to avoid whatever part of their
behavior seemed to me bad.” They will not speak a
word in joke from which the wise can not derive
instruction; let them read a hundred chapters of wisdom
to a fool, and they will all seem but a jest to him.
XXI
They tell a story of an abid, who in the course of a
night would eat ten mans, or pounds, of food, and in
his devotions repeat the whole Qur’an before morning.
A good and holy man heard this, and said, “Had he
eaten half a loaf of bread, and gone to sleep, he would
have done a more meritorious act.” Keep thy inside
unencumbered with victuals, that the light of good
works may shine within thee; but you art void of wisdom
and knowledge, because thou art filled up to the
nose with food.
XXII
The divine favor had placed the lamp of grace in the
path of a wanderer in forbidden ways, ‘till it directed
him into the circle of the righteous, and the blessed
society of dervishes, and their spiritual co-operation
enabled him to convert his wicked propensities into
praiseworthy deeds, and to restrain himself in sensual
indulgences; yet were the tongues of calumniators
questioning his sincerity, and saying, He retains his
original habits, and there is no trusting to his piety and
goodness.—-By the means of repentance thou mayest
get delivered from the wrath of God, but there is no
escape from the slanderous tongue of man. He was
unable to put up with the virulence of their remarks,
and took his complaint to his ghostly father, saying, “I
am much troubled by the tongues of mankind.” The
holy man wept, and answered, “How can you be
sufficiently grateful for this blessing, that you are better
than they represent you?—-How often wilt thou
call aloud, saying, The malignant and envious are
60 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 61
calumniating wretched me, that they rise up to shed
my blood, and that they sit down to devise me mischief.
Be thou good thyself, and let people speak evil of
thee; it is better than to be wicked, and that they
should consider thee as good.”—-But, on the other
hand, behold me, of whose perfectness all entertain the
best opinion, while I am the mirror of imperfection.—
-Had I done what they have said, I should have been a
pious and moral man. Verily, I may conceal myself
from the sight of my neighbor, But God knows what is
secret and what is open. There is a shut door between
me and mankind, that they may not pry into my sins;
but what, O Omniscience! can a closed door avail
against thee, who art equally informed of what is manifest
or concealed?
XXIII
I lodged a complaint with one of our reverend
Shaikhs, saying: “A certain person has borne testimony
against my character on the score of lasciviousness.”
He answered, “Shame him by your continence.—-
Be thou virtuously disposed, that the detractor
may not have it in his power to indulge his malignity.
So long as the harp is in tune, how can it have its
ear pulled (or suffer correction by being put in tune)
by the minstrel?”
XXIV
They asked one of the Shaikhs of Sham, or Syria, saying:
“What is the condition of the Sufi sect?” He
answered, “Formerly they were in this world a fraternity
dispersed in the flesh, but united in the spirit; but
now they are a body well clothed carnally, and ragged
in divine mystery.” Whilst thy heart will be every
moment wandering into a different place, in thy
recluse state thou canst not see purity; but though thou
possesses rank and wealth, lands and chattels, if thy
heart be fixed on God, thou art a hermit.
XXV
On one occasion we had marched, I recollect, all the
night along with the caravan, and halted toward
morning on the skirts of the wilderness. One mystically
distracted, who accompanied us on that journey, set
up a loud lamentation at dawn, went a-wandering into
the desert, and did not take a moment’s rest. Next day
I said to him, “What condition was that?” He replied,
“I remarked the nightingales that they had come to
62 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 63
carol in the groves, the pheasants to prattle on the
mountains, the frogs to croak in the pools, and the
wild beasts to roar in the forests, and thought with
myself, saying, It can not be generous that all are
awake in God’s praise and I am wrapped up in the
sleep of forgetfulness!—-Last night a bird was caroling
toward the morning; it stole my patience and reason,
my fortitude and understanding. My lamentation had
perhaps reached the ear of one of my dearly-beloved
friends. He said, ‘I did not believe that the singing of a
bird could so distract thee!’ I answered, This is not the
duty of the human species, that the birds are singing
God’s praise and that I am silent.”
XXVI
Once, on a pilgrimage to Hijaz, I was the fellow-traveler
of some piously disposed young men, and on a
footing of familiarity and intimacy with them. From
time to time we were humming a tune and chanting a
spiritual hymn, and an abid, who bore us company,
kept disparaging the morals of the dervishes, and was
callous to their sufferings, ‘till we reached the palm
plantation of the tribe of Hulal, when a boy of a tawny
complexion issued from the Arab horde and sang such
a plaintive melody as would arrest the bird in its flight
through the air. I remarked the abid’s camel that it
kicked up and pranced, and, throwing the abid,
danced into the wilderness. I said: “O reverend
Shaikh! that spiritual strain threw a brute into an
ecstasy, and it is not in like manner working a change
in you!—Know thou what that nightingale of the
dawn whispered to me? What sort of man art thou,
indeed, who art ignorant of love?—-The camel is in an
ecstasy of delight from the Arab’s song. If thou hast no
taste to relish this thou art a cross-grained brute—-
Now that the camel is elated with rapture and delight,
if a man is insensible to these he is an ass. The zephyr,
gliding through the verdure on the earth,Shakes the
twig of the ban-tree, but moves not the solid rocks.
Whatever thou beholdest is loud in extolling him. That
heart which has an ear is full of the divine mystery. It
is not the nightingale that alone serenades his rose; for
every thorn on the rose-bush is a tongue in his or God’s
praise!”
XXVII
A king had reached the end of his days and had no heir
to succeed him. He made his will, stating, “You will
place the crown of sovereignty upon the head of whatever
person first enters the city gate in the morning,
and commit the kingdom to his charge.” It happened
64 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 65
that the first man that presented himself at the city gate
was a beggar, who had passed his whole life in scraping
broken meat and in patching rags. The ministers of
State and nobles of the court fulfilled the conditions of
the king’s will, and laid the keys of the treasury and
citadel at his feet. For a time the dervish governed the
kingdom, ‘till some of the chiefs of the empire swerved
from their allegiance, and the princes of the territories
on every side rose in opposition to him, and levied
armies for the contest. In short, his troops and subjects
were routed and subdued, and several of his provinces
taken from him. The dervish was hurt to the soul at
these events, when one of his old friends, who had
been the companion of his state of poverty, returned
from a journey and found him in such dignity. He
exclaimed: “Thanksgiving be to a Deity of majesty and
glory that lofty fortune succored you and prosperity
was your guide, ‘till roses issued from your thorns and
the thorns were extracted from your feet, and ‘till you
arrived at this elevated rank! Along with hardship
there is ease; or, to sorrow succeeds joy. The plant is at
one season in flower and at another withered; the tree
is at one time naked and at another clothed with
leaves.” He said: “O, my dear friend, offer me condolence,
for here is no place for congratulation. When
you last saw me I had to think of getting a crumb of
bread; now I have the cares of a whole kingdom on my
head.” If the world be adverse, we are the victims of
pain; if prosperous, the fettered slaves of affection for
it. Amidst this life no calamity is more afflicting than
that, whether fortunate or not, the mind is equally disquieted.
If thou covet riches, ask not but for contentment,
which is an immense treasure. Should a rich man
throw money into thy lap, take heed, and do not look
upon it as a benefit; for I have often heard from the
great and good that the patience of the poor is more
meritorious than the gift of the rich. Were King
Bahram Ghor to distribute a whole roasted elk, it
would not be equal to the gift of a locust’s leg from an
ant.”
XXVIII
A person had a friend who was holding the office of
king’s divan, or prime minister, and it happened that
he had not seen him for some time. Somebody
remarked, saying, “It is some time since you saw such
a gentleman.” He answered, “I am no ways anxious
about seeing him.” One of the divan’s people chanced
to be present. He asked, “What has happened amiss
that you should dislike to visit him?” He replied,
“There is no dislike; but my friend, the divan, can be
seen at a time when he is out of office, and my idle
66 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 67
intrusion might not come amiss.” Amidst the State
patronage and authority of office they might take
umbrage at their acquaintance; but on the day of vexation
and loss of place they would impart their mental
disquietudes to their friends.
XXXV
They asked a profoundly learned man, saying, “What
is your opinion of consecrated bread, or alms taking?”
He answered, “If with the view of composing their
minds, and promoting their devotions, it is lawful to
take it; but if monks collect for the sake of an endowment,
it is forbidden. Good and holy men have
received the bread of consecration for the sake of religious
retirement; and are not recluses, that they may
receive such bread.”
XXXVI
A dervish came to put up at a place where the master
of the house was a gentleman of an hospitable disposition.
He had as his guests an assembly of learned and
witty men, each of whom was repeating such a jest, or
anecdote, as is usual with the facetious. Having traveled
across a desert, the dervish was much fatigued,
and well-nigh famished. One of the company
observed, in the way of pleasantry, “You must also
repeat something.” The dervish answered, “I am not,
like the others, overstocked with learning and wit, nor
am I much read in books; and you must be satisfied
with my reciting one distich.” One and all eagerly
cried, “Let us hear it.” He said, “Hungry as I am, I sit
by a table spread with food, like a bachelor at the
entrance of a bath full of women!” They applauded
what he said, and ordered the tray to be placed before
him. The lord of the feast said, “Stay your appetite, my
friend! ‘till my handmaids can prepare for you some
forced meat.” He raised his head from the tray, and
answered, “Say there is no need for forced meat on my
tray, for a crust of plain bread is sufficient for one
baked as I have been in the desert.”
XXXVII
A disciple complained to his ghostly father, saying,
“What can I do, for I am much annoyed by the people,
who are interrupting me with their frequent visits, and
break in upon my precious hours with their impertinent
intrusions.” He replied, “To such of them as are
poor lend money, and from such as are rich ask some
in loan; and neither of them will trouble you again.”
68 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 69
Let a beggar be the harbinger of an army of Islam, or
the orthodox, and the infidel will fly his importunity as
far as the wall of China.
XXXIX
A drunken fellow had lain down to sleep on the highway,
and was quite overcome with the fumes of intoxication.
An abid was passing close by, and looking at
him with scorn. The youth raised his head, and said,
“Whenever they pass anything shameful they pass it
with compassion. Whenever thou beholdest a sinner,
hide and bear with his transgressions: Thou, who art
aware of them, why not overlook my sins with pity?
Turn not away, O reverend sir! from a sinner; but look
upon him with compassion. Though in my actions I
am not a hero, do thou pass by as the heroic would
pass me.”
XL
A gang of dissolute vagabonds broke in upon a
dervish, used opprobrious language, and beat and illused
him. In his helplessness he carried his complaint
before his ghostly father, and said, “Thus it has befallen
me.” He replied: “O my son! the patched cloak of
dervishes is the garment of resignation; whosoever
wears this garb, and can not bear with disappointment,
is a hypocrite, and to him our cloth is forbidden.—-
A vast and deep river is not rendered turbid by
throwing into it a stone. That religious man who can
be vexed at an injury is as yet a shallow brook.—-If
thou art subjected to trouble, bear with it; for by forgiveness
thou art purified from sin. Seeing, O brother!
that we are ultimately to become dust, be humble as
the dust, before thou molders into dust.”
XLI
Hear what occurred once at Baghdad in a dispute that
took place between a roll-up curtain and standard.
Covered with the road-dust, and jaded with a march,
the standard, in reproach, observed to the curtain:
“Thou and I are gentlemen in livery; we are fellow-servants
at the court of his majesty. I never enjoy a
moment’s relief from duty; early and late I am equally
marching. Thou hast never experienced any peril or a
siege, the heavy sand of the desert or dust of a whirlwind;
my foot is most forward in any enterprise. Then
why art thou my superior in dignity? Thou art cared
for by youths with faces splendid as the moon, and
handled by damsels scenting like jasmine; while I am
70 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 71
fallen into the hands of raw recruits, am rolled upon
our march, and turned upside down.” The curtain
answered: “I lay my head humble at the threshold, and
hold it not up like thine, flaring in the face of heaven!
Whoever is thus vainly rearing his crest exalts himself
only to be humbled.”
XLII
A good and holy man saw a huge and strong fellow,
who, having got much enraged, was storming with
passion and foaming at the mouth. He asked, “What
has happened to this man?” Somebody answered,
“Such a one has given him bad names!” He said, “This
paltry wretch is able to carry a thousand-weight of
stone, and can not bear with one light word! Cease to
boast of thy strong arm and pretended manhood,
infirm as thou art in mind, and mean in spirit. What
difference is there between such a man and a woman?
Though thou art strong of arm, let thy mouth utter
sweet words; it is no proof of courage to thrust thy fist
into another man’s face.—-Though thou art able to
tear the scalp off an elephant, if deficient in humanity,
thou art no hero. The sons of Adam are formed from
dust; if not humble as the I dust, they fall short of
being men.”
XLIV
A facetious old gentleman of Baghdad gave his daughter
in marriage to a shoemaker. The flint-hearted fellow
bit so deeply into the damsel’s lip that the blood
trickled from the wound. Next morning the father
found her in this plight; he went up to his son-in-law,
and asked him, saying: “Lowborn wretch! what sort of
teeth are these that thou shouldst chew her lips as if
they were a piece of leather? I speak not in play what
I have to say. Lay jesting aside, and take with her thy
legal enjoyment.—-When once a vicious disposition
has taken root in the habit, the hand of death can only
eradicate it.”
XLV
A doctor of laws had a daughter preciously ugly, and
she had reached the age of womanhood; but, notwithstanding
her dowry and fortune, nobody seemed
inclined to ask her in marriage.—-Damask or brocade
but add to her deformity when put upon a bride void
of symmetry. In short, they were under the necessity of
uniting her in the bonds of wedlock to a blind man.
They add, that soon after there arrived from Sirandip,
or Ceylon, a physician that could restore sight to the
72 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 73
blind. They spoke to the law doctor, saying, “Why do
you not get him to prescribe for your son-in-law?” He
answered: “Because I am afraid he may recover his
sight, and repudiate my daughter; for—- ‘the Husband
of an ugly woman should be blind.’”
XLVIII
They asked a wise man which was preferable,
munificence or courage? He answered, “Whoever has
munificence has no need of courage.” On the tombstone
of Bahram-Ghgor was inscribed: “The hand of
liberality is stronger than the arm of power.—-Hatim
Tayi remains not, yet will his exalted name live
renowned for generosity to all eternity. Distribute the
tithe of thy wealth in alms, for the more the gardener
prunes his vine the more he adds to his crop of
grapes.”
I
Amendicant from the west of Africa had taken his
station amidst a group of shopkeepers at Aleppo,
and was saying: “O lords of plenty! had ye a just sense
of equity, and we of contentment, all manner of importunity
would cease in this world!” O contentment! do
thou make me rich, for without thee there is no wealth.
The treasure of patience was the choice of Lokman.
Whoever has no patience has no wisdom.
II
There dwelt in Egypt two youths of noble birth, one of
whom applied himself to study knowledge, and the
other to accumulate wealth. In process of time that
became the wisest man of his age, and this King of
Egypt. Then was the rich man casting an eye of scorn
upon his philosophic brother, and saying, “I have
reached a sovereignty, and you remain thus in a state
of poverty.” He replied: “O brother! I am all the more
grateful for the bounty of a Most High God, whose
name was glorified, that I have found the heritage of
74 V The Rose Garden
on the preciousness of contentment
Sa‘di V 75
the prophets—-namely, wisdom; and you have got the
estate of Pharaoh and Haman—-that is, the kingdom
of Egypt. I am an ernmet, that mankind shall tread
under foot; not a hornet, that they shall complain of
my sting. How can I sufficiently express my grateful
sense of this blessing, that I possess not the means of
injuring my fellow creatures?”
III
I heard of a dervish who was consuming in the flame
of want, tacking patch after patch upon his ragged garment,
and solacing his mind with this couplet: “I can
rest content with a dry crust of bread and a coarse
woolen frock, for the burden of my own exertion bears
lighter than laying myself under obligation to another.”—-
Somebody observed to him, “Why do you sit
quiet, while a certain gentleman of this city is so nobly
disposed and universally benevolent, that he has girt
up his loins in the service of the religious independents,
and seated himself by the door of their hearts? Were he
apprised of your condition, he would esteem himself
obliged, and be happy in the opportunity of relieving
it.” He said: “Be silent; for it is better to die of want
than to expose our necessities before another, as they
have remarked: ‘Patching a tattered cloak and the consequent
treasure of content, is more commendable
than petitioning the great for every new garment.’” By
my troth, I swear it were equal to the torments of hell
to enter into paradise through the interest of a neighbor.
IV
One of the Persian kings sent a skillful physician to
attend Mohammed Mustafa, on whom be salutation.
He remained some years in the territory of the Arabs;
but nobody went to try his skill, or asked him for any
medicine. One day he presented himself before the
blessed prince of prophets, and complained, saying,
“The king had sent me to dispense medicine to your
companions; but, ‘till this moment, nobody has been
so good as to enable me to practice any skill that this
your servant may possess.” The blessed messenger of
God was pleased to answer, saying, “It is a rule with
this tribe never to eat ‘till hard pressed by hunger, and
to discontinue their repast while they have yet an
appetite.” The physician said, “This accounts for their
health.” Then he kissed the earth of respect and took
his leave. The physician will then begin to inculcate
76 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 77
temperance, or to extend the finger of indulgence,
when from silence his patient might suffer by excess,
or his life be endangered by abstinence: of course, the
skill of the physician is advice, and the patient’s regimen
and diet yield the fruits of health!
V
A certain person would be making vows of abstinence
and breaking them. At last a reverend gentleman
observed to him, “So I understand that you make a
practice of eating to excess; and that any restraint on
your appetite, namely, this vow, is weaker than a hair,
and this voraciousness, as you indulge it, would break
an iron chain; but the day must come when it will
destroy you.” A man was rearing the whelp of a wolf;
when full grown it tore its patron and master.
VI
In the annals of Ardashir Babagan it is recorded that
he asked an Arabian physician, saying, “What quantity
of food ought to be eaten daily?” He replied, “A
hundred dirams’ weight were sufficient.” The king
said, “What strength can a man derive from so small a
quantity?” The physician replied: “So much can support
you; but in whatever you exceed that you must
support it.—-Eating is for the purpose of living, and
speaking in praise of God; but thou believest that we
live only to eat.”
VII
Two dervishes of Khorassan were fellow-companions
on a journey. One was so spare and moderate that he
would break his fast only every other night, and the
other so robust and intemperate that he ate three
meals a day. It happened that they were taken up at
the gate of a city on suspicion of being spies, and
both together put into a place, the entrance of which
was built up with mud. After a fortnight it was discovered
that they were innocent, when, on breaking
open the door, they found the strong man dead, and
the weak one alive and well. They were astonished at
this circumstance. A wise man said, “The contrary of
this had been strange, for this one was a voracious
eater, and not having strength to support a want of
food, perished; and that other was abstemious, and
being patient, according to his habitual practice, survived
it.—-When a person is habitually temperate,
78 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 79
and a hardship shall cross him, he will get over it
with ease; but if he has pampered his body and lived
in luxury, and shall get into straitened circumstances,
he must perish.”
XI
In a battle with the Tartars, a gallant young man was
grievously wounded. Somebody said to him, “A certain
merchant has a stock of the mummy antidote; if
you would ask him, he might perhaps accommodate
you with a portion of it.” They say that merchant
was so notorious for his stinginess, that—- “If, in the
place of his loaf of bread, the orb of the sun had been
in his wallet, nobody would have seen daylight in the
world ‘till the day of judgment.” The spirited youth
replied: “Were I to ask him for this antidote, he might
give it, or he might not; and if he did it might cure
me, or it might not; at any rate, to ask such a man
were itself a deadly poison!” Whatever thou wouldst
ask of the mean, in obligation, might add to the body,
but would take from the soul.—-And philosophers
have observed, that were the water of immortality,
for example, to be sold at the price of the reputation,
a wise man would not buy it, for an honorable death
is preferable to a life of infamy.—-Wert thou to eat
colocynth from the hand of the kind-hearted, it
would relish better than a sweetmeat from that of the
crabbed.
XII
One of the learned had a large family and small
means. He stated his case to a great man, who entertained
a favorable opinion of his character. This one
turned away from his solicitation, and viewed this
prostitution of begging as discreditable with a gentleman
of education. If soured by misfortune, present
not thyself before a dear friend, for thou may also
embitter his pleasure. When thou brings forward a
distress, do it with a cheerful and smiling face, for an
openness of countenance can never retard business.—
-They have related that he rose a little in the pension,
but sank much in the estimation of the great man.
After some days, when he perceived this falling off in
his affection, he said: Miserable is that supply of food
which thou obtains in the hour of need; The pot is
put to boil, but my reputation is bubbled into vapor.
—-He added to my means of subsistence, but took
from my reputation; absolute starving were better
than the disgrace of begging.”
80 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 81
XIII
A dervish had a pressing call for money. Somebody
told him a certain person is inconceivably rich; were he
made aware of your want, he would somehow manage
to accommodate it. He said, “I do not know him.” The
other answered, “I will introduce you”; and having
taken his hand, he brought him to that person’s
dwelling. The dervish beheld a man with a hanging lip,
and sitting in sullen discontent. He said nothing, and
returned home. His friend asked, “What have you
done?” He replied, “His gift I gave in exchange for his
look: Lay not thy words before a man with a sour face,
otherwise thou may be ruffled by his ill-nature. If thou
tell the sorrows of thy heart let it be to him in whose
countenance thou may be assured of prompt consolation.”
XVI
The Prophet Moses, on whom be peace, saw a dervish
who had buried his body, in his want of clothes to
cover it, in the sand. He said: “O Moses, put up a
prayer, that the Most High God would bestow a subsistence
upon me, for I am perishing in distress.” The
blessed Moses prayed accordingly, that God on high
would succor him. Some days afterward, as he was
returning from a conference with God on Mount Sinai,
he met that dervish in the hands of justice, and a mob
following him. He asked: “What has befallen this
man?” They answered: “He had drunk wine and got
into a quarrel, and having killed somebody, they are
now going to exact retaliation.”—-The God who set
forth the seven climates of this world assigned to every
creature its appropriate lot. Had that wretched cat
been gifted with wings, she would not have left one
sparrow’s egg on the earth. It might happen that were
a weak man to get the ability, he would rise and domineer
over his weak brethren.
The blessed Moses acknowledged the wisdom of the
Creator of the universe, and confessing his own presumption,
repeated this verse of the Qur’an: “Were
God to spread abroad his stores of subsistence to servants,
verily they would rebel all over the earth”: What
happened, O vain man! that thou didst precipitate thyself
into destruction? Would that the ant might not
have the means of flying!—-A mean person, when he
has got rank and wealth, will bring a storm of blows
upon his head. Was not this at last the adage of a
philosopher, ‘That ant is best disposed of that has no
wings.’ —-The father is a man of much sweetness of
82 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 83
disposition, but the son is full of heat and passions.—
-That Being, God, who would not make thee rich,
must have known thy good better than thou could thyself
know it.
XVII
I saw an Arab, who was standing amidst a circle of
jewelers at Busrah, and saying: “On one occasion I had
missed my way in the desert, and having no road-provision
left, I had given myself up for lost, when all at
once I found a bag of pearls. Never shall I forget that
relish and delight, so long as I mistook them for
parched wheat; nor that bitterness and disappointment,
when I discovered that they were real pearls.” In
the mouth of the thirsty traveler, amidst parched
deserts and moving sands, pearl, or mother-of-pearl,
were equally distasteful. To a man without provision,
and exhausted in the desert, a piece of stone or of gold,
in his scrip, is all one.
XVIII
An Arab, suffering under all the extremity of thirst in
the desert, was saying: “Would to God that yet, before
I perish, I could but for or day gratify my wish: That a
stream of water might dash against my knees, and
could fill my leathern flask or stomach with it.” In like
manner a traveler had got bewildered in the great
desert, and had neither provisions nor strength left, yet
a few dirhams remained with him in his scrip. He kept
wandering about, but could not find the path, and
sank under his fatigue. A party of travelers arrived
where his body lay; they saw the dirams spread before
him, and these verses written in the sand: “Were he
possessed of all the gold of Jafier (a famous gold
refiner), a man without food could not satisfy his
appetite. To a wretched mendicant, parched in the
desert, a boiled turnip would relish better than an
ingot of virgin silver.”
XIX
I had never complained of the vicissitudes of fortune,
nor murmured at the ordinances of heaven, excepting
on one occasion, that my feet were bare, and I had not
wherewithal to shoe them. In this desponding state I
entered the metropolitan mosque at Khufah, and there
I beheld a man that had no feet. I offered up praise and
thanksgiving for God’s goodness to myself, and submitted
with patience to my want of shoes.—-In the
eyes of one satiated with meat a roast fowl is less
esteemed at his table than a salad; but to him who is
84 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 85
stinted of food a boiled turnip will relish like a roast
fowl.
XX
A king, attended by a select retinue, had on a sporting
excursion during the winter, got at a distance from any
of his hunting-seats, and the evening was closing fast,
when they espied from afar a peasant’s cottage. The
king said: “Let us repair thither for the night, that we
may shelter ourselves from the inclemency of the
weather.” One of the courtiers replied: “It would not
become the dignity of the sovereign to take refuge in
the cottage of a low peasant; we can pitch a tent here
and kindle a fire.” The peasant saw what was passing;
he came forward with what refreshments he had at
hand, and, laying them before the king, kissed the
earth of subserviency, and said: “The lofty dignity of
the king would not be lowered by this condescension;
but these gentlemen did not choose that the condition
of a peasant should be exalted.” The king was pleased
with this speech; and they passed the night at his cottage.
In the morning he bestowed an honorary dress
and handsome largess upon him. I have heard that the
peasant was resting his hand for some paces upon the
king’s stirrup, and saying: “The state and pomp of the
sovereign suffered no degradation by his condescension
in becoming a guest at the cottage of a peasant;
but the corner of the peasant’s cap rose to the level
with the sun when the shadow of such a monarch as
thou art fell upon his head.”
XXI
They tell a story of an importunate mendicant who
had amassed much riches. A certain king said: “It
seems that you possess immense wealth, and I have a
business of some consequence in hand. If you will
assist me with a little of it, by way of a loan, when the
public revenue is realized I will repay it and thank you
to the bargain.” He replied: “O sire, it would ill
become the sublime majesty of the sovereign of the
universe to soil the hand of lofty enterprise with the
property of such a mendicant as I am, which I have
scraped together grain by grain.” He said: “There is no
occasion to vex yourself, for I mean it for the Tartars,
as impurities are suiting for the impure: “They said,
‘The compost of a dung-hill is unclean.’ We replied,
‘That with it we u ill fill up the chinks of a necessary.’”
“If the water of a Christian’s well is defiled, and we
wash a Jew’s corpse in it, there is no sin.” I have heard
that he disobeyed the royal command, questioned its
86 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 87
justice, and resisted it with insolence. The king ordered
that the exchequer stipulations should be put in force
with rigidness and violence. When a business can not
be settled with fair words, we must of necessity make
use of foul. When a man will not contribute of his own
free will, if another enforces him he meets his desert.
XXII
I knew a merchant who had a hundred and fifty camels
of burden and forty bondsmen and servants in his
train. One night he entertained me at his lodgings in
the island of Keish, in the Persian Gulf, and continued
for the whole night talking idly, and saying: “Such a
store of goods I have in Turkestan, and such an assortment
of merchandise in Hindustan; this is the mortgage-
deed of a certain estate, and this the security
bond of a certain individual’s concern.” Then he
would say: “I have a mind to visit Alexandria, the air
of which is salubrious; but that can not be, for the
Mediterranean Sea is boisterous. O Sadi! I have one
more journey in view, and, that once accomplished, I
will pass my remaining life in retirement and leave off
trade.” I asked: “What journey is that?” He replied: “I
will carry the sulphur of Persia to Chin, where, I have
heard, it will fetch a high price; thence I will take
China porcelain to Greece; the brocade of Greece or
Venice I will carry to India; and Indian steel I will
bring to Aleppo; the glassware of Aleppo I will take to
Yemen; and with the bardimani, or striped stuffs, of
Yemen I will return to Persia. After that I will give up
foreign commerce and settle myself in a warehouse.”
He went on in this melancholy strain ‘till he was quite
exhausted with speaking. He said: “O Sadi! do you too
relate what you have seen and heard.” I replied: “Hast
thou not heard that in the desert of Ghor as the body
of a chief merchant fell exhausted from his camel, he
said, ‘Either contentment or the dust of the grave will
fill the stingy eye of the worldly minded.’”
XXIV
A weak fisherman got a strong fish into his net, but not
having the power of mastering it, the fish got the better
of him, and, dragging the net from his hand,
escaped.—-A bondsman went that he might take water
from the brook; the brook came to rise and carried off
the bondsman. On most occasions the net would bring
out the fish; on this occasion the fish escaped, and took
away the net. The other fishermen expressed their vexation,
and reproached him, saying, “Such a fish came
into your net, and you were not able to master it.” He
88 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 89
replied: “Alas! my brethren, what could be done? It
was not my day of fortune, and the fish had in this way
another day left it. And they have said: ‘Unless it be his
lot, the fisherman can not catch a fish in the Tigris;
and, except it be its fate, the fish will not die on the dry
shore.’”
XXV
A person without hands or feet killed a millepede. A
good and holy man passed by him at the time, and
said: “Glory be to God! notwithstanding the thousand
feet he had when his destiny overtook him, he was
unable to escape from one destitute of hand or
foot.”—-When the life-plundering foe comes up
behind, fate arrests the speed of the swift-going warrior.
At the moment when the enemy might approach
step by step it were useless to bend the kayani, or
Parthian bow.
XXVI
I met a fat blockhead decked in rich apparel, and
mounted on an Arab horse, with a turban of fine
Egyptian linen on his head. A person said: “O Sadi,
how comes it that you see these garments of the
learned on this ignorant beast?” I replied: “It is a vile
epistle which has been written in golden letters:
“Verily this ass, with the resemblance of a man, Has
the carcass of a calf, and the voice or bleating of a
calf.’” Thou canst not say that this brute appears like
a man, unless in his garments, turban, and outward
form. Examine into all the ways and means of his existence,
and thou shalt find nothing lawful but the shedding
of his blood: though a man of noble birth be
reduced to poverty, imagine not that his lofty dignity
can be lowered; and though he may secure his silver
threshold with a hasp of gold, conclude not that a Jew
can be thereby ennobled.”
XXVII
A thief said to a mendicant: “Are you not ashamed
when you hold forth your hand to every mean fellow
for a barley corn of silver?” He replied: “It is better to
hold forth the hand for one grain of silver than to have
it cut off for one and a half dang.”
XXIX
I saw a dervish who had withdrawn into a cave, shut
the door of communication between the world and
90 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 91
himself, and with his lofty and independent eye viewed
emperors and kings without awe or reverence.—-
Whoever opens to himself the door of mendacity must
continue a beggar ‘till the day of his death. Put covetousness
aside, and be independent as a prince; the
neck of contentment can raise its head erect. One of
the sovereigns of those parts sent a message to him,
stating: “So far I can rely on the generous disposition
of his reverence, that he will one day favor me by partaking
of my bread and salt, by becoming my guest.”
The shaikh, or holy man, consented; for the acceptance
of such an invitation accorded with the sunnah,
or law and tradition of the prophet. Next day the king
went to apologize for the trouble he had caused him.
The abid rose from his place, took the king in his arms,
showed him much kindness, and was full of his compliments.
After he was gone, one of the shaikh’s companions
asked him, saying: “Was not such condescending
kindness as you this day showed the king
contrary to what is usual; what does this mean?” He
answered: “Have you not heard what they have said:
‘It is proper to stand up and administer to him whom
thou hast seated on thy carpet, or made thy guest.’”
He could so manage that, during his whole life, his ear
should not indulge in the music of the tabor, cymbal,
and pipe. He could restrain his eyes from enjoying the
garden, and gratify his sense of smell without the rose
or narcissus. Though he had not a pillow stuffed with
down, he could compose himself to rest with a stone
under his head; though he had no heart-solacer as the
partner of his bed, he could hug himself to sleep with
his arms across his breast. If he could not ride an
ambling nag, he was content to take his walk on foot;
only this grumbling and vile belly he could not keep
under, without stuffing it with food.
92 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 93
I
I spoke to one of my friends, saying: “A prudent
restraint on my words is on that account advisable,
because in conversation there on most occasions occur
good and bad; and the eyes of rivals only note what is
bad. He replied: “O brother! that is our best rival who
does not, or will not, see our good! The malignant
brotherhood pass not by the virtuous man Without
imputing to him what is infamous.
To the eye of enmity, virtue appears the ugliest blemish;
it is a rose, O Sadi! which to the eyes of our rivals
seems a thorn. The world-illuminating brilliancy of the
fountain of the sun, in like manner, appears dim to the
eye of the purblind mole.”
II
A merchant happened to lose a thousand dinars. He
said to his son: “It will be prudent not to mention this
loss to anybody.” The son answered: “O father, it is
your orders, and I shall not mention it; but communicate
the benefit so far, as what the policy may be in
on the benefit of being silent
keeping it a secret.” He said: “That I may not suffer
two evils: one, the loss of my money; another, the
reproach of my neighbor.—-Impart not thy grievances
to rivals, for they are glad at heart, while praying, God
preserve us; or “There is neither strength nor power,
unless it be from God!’”
III
A sensible youth made vast progress in the arts and sciences,
and was of a docile disposition; but however
much he frequented the societies of the learned, they
never could get him to utter a word. On one occasion
his father said: “O my son, why do not you also say
what you know on this subject?” He replied: “I am
afraid lest they question me upon what I know not, and
put me to shame.—-Hast thou not heard of a Sufi who
was hammering some nails into the sole of his sandal.
An officer of cavalry took him by the sleeve, saying,
‘Come along, and shoe my horse.’—-So long as thou art
silent and quiet, nobody will meddle with thy business;
but once thou divulges it, be ready with thy proofs.”
IV
A man, respectable for his learning, got into a discussion
with an atheist; but, failing to convince him, he
94 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 95
threw down his shield and fled. A person asked him,
“With all your wisdom and address, learning and science,
how came you not to controvert an infidel?” He
replied: “My learning is the Qur’an, and the traditions
and sayings of our holy fathers; but he puts no faith in
the articles of our belief, and what good could it do to
listen to his blasphemy?” To him whom thou canst not
convince by revelation or tradition, the best answer is
that thou shalt not answer him.
VI
They have esteemed Sahban Wabil as unrivaled in eloquence,
insomuch that he could speak for a year before
an assembly, and would not use the same word twice;
or should he chance to repeat it, he would give it a different
signification; and this is one of the special
accomplishments of a courtier.—-Though a speech be
captivating and sweet, worthy of belief, and meriting
applause, yet what thou hast once delivered thou must
not repeat, for if they eat a sweetmeat once they find
that enough.
VII
I overheard a sage, who was remarking: “Never has
anybody acknowledged his own ignorance, except in
that person who, while another may be talking, and
has not finished what he has to say, will begin speaking:
“A speech, O wiseacre! has a beginning and an
end; bring not one speech into the middle of another.
A man of judgment, discretion, and prudence, delivers
not his speech ‘till he find an interval of silence.”
VIII
Some of the courtiers of Sultan Mahmud asked Husan
Maimandi, saying: “What did the king whisper to you
today on a certain State affair?” He said: “You are also
acquainted with it.” They replied: “You are the prime
minister; what the king tells you, he does not think
proper to communicate to such as we are.” He replied:
“He communicates with me in the confidence that I
will not divulge to anybody; then why do you ask
me?” A man of sense blabs not, whatever he may come
to know; he should not make his own head the forfeit
of the king’s secret.
IX
I was hesitating about the purchase of a dwellinghouse.
A Jew said: “I am an old housekeeper in this
street: ask the character of this house from me and buy
96 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 97
it, for it has no fault.” I replied: “True ! only that you
are its neighbor. —-Any such house as has thee for its
neighbor could scarce be worth ten dirhams of silver;
yet it should behoove us to hope that after thy death it
may fetch a thousand.”
X
A certain poet presented himself before the chief of a
gang of robbers, and recited a casidah, or elegy, in his
praise. He ordered that they should strip off his
clothes, and thrust him from the village. The naked
wretch was going away shivering in the cold, and the
village dogs were barking at his heels. He stooped to
pick up a stone, in order to shy at the dogs, but found
the earth frost-bound, and was disappointed. He
exclaimed: “What rogues these villagers are, for they
let loose their dogs, and tie up their stones!” The chief
robber saw and overheard him from a window. He
smiled at his wit, and, calling him near, said: “O
learned sir! ask me for a boon.” He replied, “I ask for
my own garments, if you will vouchsafe to give them.
I shall have enough of boons in your suffering me to
depart. Mankind expects charity from others; I expect
no charity from thee, only do me no injury.” The chief
robber felt compassion for him. He ordered his clothes
to be restored, and added to them a robe of fur and
sum of money.
XIII
At a mosque in the city of Sanjar, the capital of
Khorassan, a person was volunteering to chant forth
the call to prayers with so discordant a note as to drive
all that heard him away in disgust. The intendant of
that mosque was a just and well-disposed gentleman,
who was averse to giving offense to anybody. He said:
“O generous youth, there belong to this mosque some
muezzins, or criers, of long standing, to each of whom
I allow a monthly stipend of five dinars; now I will give
you ten to go elsewhere.” To this he agreed, and took
himself off. After a while he came to the nobleman,
and said: “O my lord! you did me an injury when for
ten dinars you prevailed upon me to quit this station,
for where I went they offered me twenty to remove to
another place, but I would not consent.” The nobleman
smiled and replied: “Take heed, and do not accept
them, for they may be content to give you fifty!—-No
person can with a mattock scrape off the clay from the
face of a hard rock in so grating a manner as thy harsh
voice is harrowing up my soul.”
98 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 99
XIV
A person with a harsh voice was reciting the Qur’an in
a loud tone. A good and holy man went up to him, and
asked: “What is your monthly stipend?” He answered,
“Nothing.” “Then,” added he, “why give yourself so
much trouble?” He said: “I am reading for the sake of
God.” The good and holy man replied: “For God’s
sake do not read for if thou chant the Qur’an after this
manner, thou must cast a shade over the glory of Islam
or Muslim orthodoxy.”
I
They asked Husan Maimandi: “How comes it that
Sultan Mahmud, who has so many handsome
bonds women, each of whom is the wonder of the
world and most select of the age, entertains not such
fondness and affection for any of them as he does for
Ayaz, who can boast of no superiority of charms?” He
replied: “Whatever makes an impression on the heart
seems lovely in the eye. That person of whom the sultan
makes choice must be altogether good, though a
compendium of vice; but where he is estranged from
the favor of the king none of the household will think
of courting him.” Were a person to view it with a fastidious
eye, the form of a Joseph might seem a deformity;
but let him look with desire on a demon, and he
will appear like an angel and cherub.
III
I saw a parsa, or holy man, so enamored of a lovely
person that he had neither fortitude to bear with, nor
resolution to declare, his passion; and, however much
100 V The Rose Garden
on love and youth
Sa‘di V 101
he was the object of remark and censure, he would not
forego this infatuation, and was saying: “I quit not my
hold on the skirt of thy garment, though thou may verily
smite me with a sharp sword. Besides thee I have
neither asylum nor defense; if I am to flee, I must take
refuge with thee.” On one occasion I reproached him,
and said: “What is become of your precious reason,
that a vile passion should thus master you?” He made
a short pause, and replied: “Wherever the king of love
came, he left no room for the strong arm of chastity.
How can that wretch live undefiled who has fallen in a
quagmire up to the neck?”
IV
A certain person had lost his heart and abandoned
himself to despair. The object of his desire was not
such a dainty that he could gratify his palate with it, or
a bird that he could lure it into his net, but a frightful
precipice and overwhelming whirlpool.—-When thy
gold attracts not the charmer’s eye, dust or gold is of
equal value with thee. His friends admonished him,
saying: “Put aside this vain fancy, for multitudes are in
the durance and chains of this same passion which you
are cherishing.” He sighed aloud, and replied: “Say to
my friends, Do not admonish me, for my eye is fixed
on the wish of her. With strength of wrist and power
of shoulders warriors overwhelm their antagonists and
charmers their lovers.” Nor can it be consistent with
the condition of love that any thought of life should
divert the heart from affection for its mistress.—-
Thou, who art the slave of thine own precious self,
play false in the affairs of love. If thou canst not make
good a passage to thy mistress, it is the duty of a lover
to perish in the attempt.—-I persist when policy is no
longer left me, though the enemy may cover me all
over with the wounds of swords and arrows. If I can
reach her I will seize her sleeve, or at all events proceed
and die at her threshold.
His kindred, whose business it was to watch over his
concerns, and to pity his misfortunes, gave him advice,
and put upon him restraints, but all to no good purpose.—-
The physician is, alas! prescribing bitter-aloes,
and his depraved appetite is craving sweetmeats!—-
Heardest thou what a charmer was saying in a whisper
to one who had lost his heart to her: “So long as thou
maintains thine own dignity, of what value can my dignity
appear in thine eye?” They informed the princess
who was the object of his infatuation, saying: “A
youth of an amiable disposition and sweet flow of
tongue is frequent in his attendance at the top of this
102 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 103
plain; and we hear him delivering brilliant speeches
and wonderful sallies of wit; it would seem that he has
a mystery in his head and a flame in his heart, for he
appears to be distractedly in love.” The princess was
aware that she had become the object of his attachment,
and that this whirlwind of calamity was raised
by himself, and spurred her horse toward him. Now
that the youth saw that it was the princess’ intention
to approach him, he wept, and said: “That personage
who inflicted upon me a mortal wound again presented
herself before me; perhaps she took compassion
upon her own victim.” However, kindly she spoke,
and asked, saying: “Who are you, and whence come
you? what is your name, and what your calling?” The
youth was so entirely overwhelmed in the ocean of
love and passion that he absolutely could not utter a
word: “Could thou in fact repeat the seven Saba, or
whole Qur’an by heart, if distracted with love, thou
wouldst forget the alphabet?”—-the princess continued:
“ Why do you not answer me? for I too am one
of the sect of dervishes, nay, I am their most devoted
slave.” On the strength of this sympathizing encouragement
of his beloved, the youth raised his head
amidst the buffeting waves of tempestuous passion,
and answered: “It is strange that with thee present I
should remain in existence; that after thou camest to
talk, I should have speech left me.”—-This he said,
and, uttering a loud groan, surrendered his soul up to
God.—-No wonder if he died by the door of his
beloved’s tent; the wonder was, if alive, how he could
have brought his life back in safety.
V
A boy at school possessed much loveliness of person
and sweetness of conversation; and the master, from
the frailty of human nature, was enamored of his
blooming skin. Like his other scholars, he would not
admonish and correct him, but when he found him in
a corner he would whisper in his ear: “I am not, O
celestial creature! so occupied with thee, that I am harboring
in my mind a thought of myself. Were I to perceive
an arrow coming right into it, I could not shut
my eye from contemplating thee.” On one occasion the
boy said: “In like manner, as you inspect my duties,
also animadvert on my tendency to vice, in order that
if you discern any immorality in my behavior, which
has met my own approbation, you can warn me
against it, that I may correct it.” He replied: “O my
child! propose this task to somebody else; for the light
in which I view you reflects nothing but virtue.” That
malignant eye, let it be plucked out in whose sight his
virtue can seem vice. Hadst thou but one perfection
104 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 105
and seventy faults, the lover could discern only that
one perfection.
VII
A person who had not seen his friend for a length of
time said to him: “Where were you? for I have been
very solicitous about you.” He replied, “It is better to
be sought after than loathed.” Thou hast come late, O
intoxicating idol! I shall not in a hurry quit my hold on
thy skirt: that mistress whom they see but seldom is at
last more desired than she is whom they are cloyed
with seeing. The charmer that can bring companions
along with her has come to quarrel; for she can not be
void of jealousy and discontent: Whenever thou
comest to visit me attended with comrades or rivals,
Though thou comest in peace, yet thy object is hostile.
For one single moment that my mistress associated
with a rival, it went well-nigh to slay me with jealousy.
Smiling, she replied: “O Sadi! I am the torch of the
assembly; what is it to me if the moth consume itself?”
VIII
In former times, I recollect, a friend and I were associating
together like two kernels within one almond
shell. I happened unexpectedly to go on a journey.
After some time, when I was returned, he began to
chide me, saying: “During this long interval you never
sent me a messenger.” I replied: “It vexed me to think
that the eyes of a courier should be enlightened by
your countenance, whilst I was debarred that happiness.—-
Tell my old charmer not to impose a vow upon
me with her tongue; for I would not repent, were she
to attempt it with a sword. Envy stings me to the
quick, lest another should be satiated with beholding
thee, ‘till I recollect myself, and say: Nobody can have
a satiety of that!”
IX
I saw a learned gentleman the captive of attachment
for a certain person, and the victim of his reproach;
and he would suffer much violence, and bear it with
great patience. On one occasion I said, by way of
admonition: “I know that in your attachment for this
person you have no bad object, and that this friendship
rests not on any criminal design; yet, under this interpretation,
it accords not with the dignity of the learned
to expose yourself to calumny, and put up with the
rudeness of the rabble.” He replied: “O my friend,
withdraw the hand of reproach from the skirt of my
106 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 107
fatality, for I have frequently reflected on this advice
which you offer me, and find it easier to suffer contumely
on his account than to forego his company; and
philosophers have said: ‘It is less arduous to persist in
the labor of courting than to restrain the eye from contemplating
a beloved object.’—-Whoever devotes his
heart to a soul deluder puts his beard of reputation
into the hands of another. That person, without whom
thou canst not exist, if he do thee a violence, thou must
bear it. The antelope, that is led by a string, can not
bound from this side to that. One day I asked a compact
of my mistress; how often have I since that day
craved her forgiveness! A lover exacts not terms of his
charmer; I relinquished my heart to whatever she
desired me, whether to call me up to her with kindness,
or drive me from her with harshness she knows best,
or it is her pleasure.”
X
In my early youth such an event (as you know) will
come to pass. I held a mystery and intercourse with a
young person, because he had a pipe of exquisite
melody, and a form silver bright as the full moon.—-
“He is sipping the fountain of immortality, who may
taste the down of his cheek; and he is eating a sweetmeat,
who can fancy the sugar of his lips.” It happened
that something in his behavior having displeased me, I
withdrew the skirt of communication, and removed
the seal of my affection from him, and said: “Go, and
take what course best suits thee; thou regard not my
counsel, follow thine own.” I overheard him as he was
going, and saying: “If the bat does not relish the company
of the sun, the all-current brilliancy of that luminary
can suffer no diminution.” He so expressed himself
and departed, and his vagabond condition much
distressed me: The opportunity of enjoyment was lost,
And a man is insensible to the relish of prosperity ‘till
he has tasted adversity: return and slay me, for to die
before thy face were far more pleasant than to survive
in thy absence.
But, thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty, he did
not return ‘till after some interval, when that melodious
pipe of David was cracked, and that handsome
form of Joseph in its wane; when that apple his chin
was overgrown with hair, like a quince, and the allcurrent
luster of his charms tarnished. He expected
me to fold him in my arms; but I took myself aside
and said: “When the down of loveliness flourished on
thy cheek, thou drove the lord of thy attractions from
thy sight; now thou hast come to court his peace when
108 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 109
thy face is thick set with fathahs and zammahs, or the
bristles of a beard.—-The verdant foliage of thy spring
is turned yellow; place not thy kettle on my grate, for
its fire is cooled. How long wilt thou display this
pomp and vanity; hope thou to regain thy former
dominion? Make thy court to such as desire thee,
sport thy airs on such as will hire thee.—-The verdure
of the garden, they have told us, is charming; that person
(Sadi) knows it who is relating that story; or, in
other words, that the fresh-shooting down on their
charmers’ cheeks is what the hearts of their admirers
chiefly covet.—-Thy garden is like a bed of chives: the
more thou crop it, the more it will shoot.—-Last year
thou didst depart smooth as an antelope, today thou
art returned bearded like a pard. Sadi admires the
fresh-shooting down, not when each hair is stiff as a
packing-needle.—Whether thou hast patience with
thy beard or weed it from thy face, this happy season
of youth must come to a conclusion. Had I the same
command of life as thou hast of beard, it should not
escape me ‘till doomsday.” I asked him and said:
“What has become of the beauty of thy countenance,
that a beard has sprung up round the orb of the
moon?” He answered: “I know not what has befallen
my face, unless it has put on black to mourn its
departed charms.”
XII
They shut up a parrot in the same cage with a crow.
The parrot was affronted at his ugly look, and said:
“What an odious visage is this, a hideous figure; what
an accursed appearance, and ungracious demeanor!
Would to God, O raven of the desert! We were wide
apart as the east is from the west:
The serenity of his peaceful day would change into the
gloom of night, who on issuing forth in the morning
might cross thy aspect. An ill-conditioned wretch like
thyself should be thy companion; but where could we
find such another in the world?” But what is more
strange, the crow was also out of all patience, and
vexed to the soul at the society of the parrot. Bewailing
his misfortune, he was railing at the revolutions of the
skies; and, wringing the hands of chagrin, was lamenting
his condition, and saying: “What an unpropitious
fate is this; what ill-luck, and untoward fortune! Could
they any way suit the dignity of me, who would in my
day strut with my fellow-crows along the wall of a garden.—-
It were durance sufficient for a good and holy
man that he should be made the companion of the
wicked.—-What sin have I committed that my stars in
retribution of it have linked me in the chain of companionship,
and immured me in the dungeon of
110 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 111
calamity, with a conceited blockhead, and good-fornothing
babbler?—-Nobody will approach the foot of
a wall on which they have painted thy portrait; wert
thou to get a residence in paradise, others would go in
preference to hell.” I have introduced this parable to
show that however much learned men despise the
ignorant, these are a hundredfold more scornful of the
learned.—-A zahid, or holy man, fell in company with
some wandering minstrels. One of them, a charmer of
Balkh, said to him: “If thou art displeased with us, do
not look sour, for thou art already sufficiently offensive.
—-An assemblage is formed of roses and tulips,
and thou art stuck up amidst them like a withered
stalk; like an opposing storm, and a chilling winter
blast; like a ball of snow, or lump of ice.”
XIII
I had an associate, who was for years the companion
of my travels, partook of the same bread and salt, and
enjoyed the many rights of a confirmed friendship. At
last, on some trifling advantage, he gave me cause of
umbrage, and our intimacy ceased. And notwithstanding
all this, there was a hankering of good-will on both
sides; in consequence of which I heard that he was one
day reciting in a certain assembly these two couplets of
my writings: “When my idol, or mistress, is approaching
me with her tantalizing smiles, She is sprinkling
more salt upon my smarting sores. How fortunate
were the tips of her ringlets to come into my hand,
Like the sleeve of the generous in the hands of dervishes.”
This society of his friends bore testimony, and
gave applause, not to the beauty of this sentiment, but
to the liberality of his own disposition in quoting it;
while he had himself been extravagant in his encomiums,
regretted the demise of our former attachment,
and confessed how much he was to blame. I was made
aware that he too was desirous of a reconciliation;
and, having sent him these couplets, made my peace.—
- “Was there not a treaty of good faith between us, and
didst not thou commence hostilities, and violate the
compact? I relinquished all manner of society, and
plighted my heart to thee; for I did not suspect that
thou wouldst have so readily changed. If it still be thy
wish to renew our peace, return, and be more dear to
me than ever.”
XIV
A man had a beautiful wife, who died; but the mother,
a decrepit old dotard, remained a fixture in his house,
because of the dowry. He was teased to death by her
company; but, from the circumstance of the dowry, he
had no remedy. In the meantime some of his friends
112 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 113
having come to comfort him, one of them asked:
“How is it with you, since the loss of that dear
friend?” He answered: “The absence of my wife is not
so intolerable as the presence of her mother.—-They
plucked the rose, and left me the thorn; they plundered
the treasure, and let the snake remain. To have one eye
pierced with a spear were more tolerable than to see
the face of an enemy. It were better to break with a
thousand friends than to put up with one rival.”
XV
In my youth I recollect I was passing through a street,
and caught a glimpse of a moon-like charmer during
the dog-days, when their heat was drying up the moisture
of the mouth, and the samum, or desert hot-wind,
melting the marrow of the bones. From the weakness
of human nature I was unable to withstand the darting
rays of a noon-tide sun, and took refuge under the
shadow of a wall, hopeful that somebody would
relieve me from the oppressive heat of summer, and
quench the fire of my thirst with a draught of water.
All at once I beheld a luminary in the shadowed portico
of a mansion, so splendid an object that the tongue
of eloquence falls short in summing up its loveliness;
such as the day dawning upon a dark night, or the
fountain of immortality issuing from chaos. She held
in her hand a goblet of snow-cooled water, into which
she dropped some sugar, and tempered it with spirit of
wine; but I know not whether she scented it with attar,
or sprinkled it with a few blossoms from her own rosy
cheeks. In short, I received the beverage from her idolfair
hand; and, having drunk it off, found myself
restored to a new life. “Such is not my parching thirst
that it is to be quenched With the limpid element of
water, were I to swallow it in oceans.” Joy to that
happy aspect whose eye can every morning contemplate
such a countenance as thine. A person intoxicated
with wine lies giddy and awake half the night; but
if intoxicated with the cupbearer (God), the day of
judgment must be his dawn or morning.”
XVI
In the year that Sultan Mohammed Khowarazm-Shah
had for some political reason chosen to make peace
with the Wing of Khota, I entered the metropolitan
mosque at Kashghar, and met a youth incomparably
lovely, and exquisitely handsome; such as they have
mentioned in resemblance of him: “Thy master
instructed thee in every bold and captivating grace; he
taught thee coquetry and confidence, tyranny and violence.”
I have seen no mortal with such a form and
114 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 115
temper, stateliness and manner; perhaps he learned
these fascinating ways from an angel. He held the
introduction of the Zamakhshari Arabic grammar in
his hand, and was repeating:—- “Zaraba Zaidun
Amranwa—Zaid beat Amru and is the assailant of
Amru.” I said: “O my son! the Khowarazm and
Khatayi sovereigns have made peace, and does war
thus subsist between Zaid and Amru?” He smiled, and
asked me the place of my nativity. I answered: “The
territory of Shiraz.” He said: “Do you recollect any of
Sadi’s compositions?” I replied: “I am enamored with
the reader of the syntax, Who, taking offense, assails
me in like manner as Zaid does Amru. And Zaid, when
read Zaidin, can not raise his head; And how canst
thou give a zammah to a word accented with a kasrah?”
He reflected a little within himself, and said: “In
these parts we have much of Sadi’s compositions in the
Persian language; if you will speak in that dialect we
shall more readily comprehend you, for ‘You should
address mankind according to their capacities.’” I
replied: “Whilst thy passion was that of studying
grammar, all trace of reason was erased from our
hearts. Yes! the lover’s heart is fallen a prey to thy
snare: we are occupied about thee, and thou art taken
up with Amru and Zaid.” On the morrow, which had
been fixed on as the period of our stay, some of my fellow-
travelers had perhaps told him such a one is Sadi;
for I saw that he came running up, and expressed his
affection and regret, saying: “Why did you not during
all this time tell us that a certain person is Sadi, that I
might have shown my gratitude by offering my service
to your reverence?” I answered: “In thy presence I can
not even say that I am I!” —-He said: “How good it
were if you would tarry here for a few days, that we
might devote ourselves to your service.” I replied:
“That can not be, as this adventure will explain to
you.—-In the hilly region I saw a great and holy man,
who was content in living retired from the world in a
cavern. I said: ‘Why dost thou not come into the city,
that thy heart might be relieved from a load of servitude?’
He replied: ‘In it there dwell some wonderful
and angel-faced charmers, and where the path is miry,
elephants may find it slippery.’—-Having delivered this
speech, we kissed each other’s head and face, and took
our leaves.—-What profits it to kiss our mistress’s
cheek, and with the same breath to bid her adieu?
Thou mightest say that the apple had taken leave of its
friends by having this cheek red and that cheek yellow:
“Were I not to die of grief on that day I say farewell,
Thou wouldst charge me with being insincere in my
attachments.”
116 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 117
XVII
A ragged dervish accompanied us along with the caravan
for Hijaz, and a certain Arab prince presented him
with a hundred dinars for the support of his family.
Suddenly a gang of Khafachah robbers attacked the
caravan, and completely stripped it. The merchants set
up a weeping and wailing, and made much useless
lamentation and complaint. —-”Whether thou supplicates
them, or whether thou complains, the robbers
will not return thee their plunder”:—- all but that
ragged wretch, who stood collected within himself,
and unmoved by this adventure. I said: “Perhaps they
did not plunder you of that money?” He replied: “Yes,
they took it; but I was not so fond of my pet as to
break my heart at parting with it. We should not fix
our heart so on any thing or being as to find any
difficulty in removing it.” I said: “What you have
remarked corresponds precisely with what once befell
myself; for in my juvenile days I took a liking to a
young man, and so sincere was my attachment that the
Kaaba, or fane, of my eye was his perfect beauty, and
the profit of this life’s traffic his much-coveted society.—-
Perhaps the angels might in paradise, otherwise
no living form can on this earth display such a loveliness
of person. By friendship I swear that after his
demise all loving intercourse is forbidden; for no
human emanation can stand a comparison with him.
“All at once the foot of his existence stumbled at the
grave of annihilation; and the sigh of separation burst
from the dwelling of his family. For many days I sat a
fixture at his tomb, and, of the many dirges I composed
upon his demise, this is one: “On that day, when
thy foot was pierced with the thorn of death, Would to
God the hand of fate had cloven my head with the
sword of destruction, That my eyes might not this day
have witnessed the world without thee. Such am I,
seated at the head of thy dust, As the ashes are seated
on my own: Whoever could not take his rest and sleep
‘till they first had spread a bed of roses and narcissuses
for him: The whirlwind of the sky has scattered the
roses of his cheek, And brambles and thorns are shooting
from his grave.’ “After my separation from him I
came to a steady and firm determination that during
my remaining life I would fold up the carpet of enjoyment,
and never re-enter the gay circle of society.—-
Were it not for the dread of its waves, much would be
the profits of a voyage at sea; were it not for the vexation
of the thorn, charming might be the society of the
rose. Yesterday I was walking stately as a peacock in
118 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 119
the garden of enjoyment; today I am writhing like a
snake from the absence of my mistress.”
XVIII
To a certain king of Arabia they were relating the story
of Laila and Mujnun, and his insane state, saying:
“Notwithstanding his knowledge and wisdom, he has
turned his face toward the desert, and abandoned himself
to distraction.” The king ordered that they bring
him into his presence; and he reproved him, and spoke,
saying: “What have you seen unworthy in the noble
nature of man that you should assume the manners of
a brute, and forsake the enjoyment of human society?”
Mujnun wept and answered: “Many of my friends
reproach me for my love of her, namely Laila. Alas!
that they could one day see her, that my excuse might
be manifest for me! Would to God that such as blame
me could behold thy face, O thou ravisher of hearts!
that at the sight of thee they might, from inadvertency,
cut their own fingers instead of the orange in their
hands.—-Then might the truth of the reality bear testimony
against the semblance of fiction, ‘what manner
of person that was for whose sake you were upbraiding
me.” The king resolved within himself on viewing
in person the charms of Laila, that he might be able to
judge what her form could be which had caused all this
misery, and ordered her to be produced in his presence.
Having searched through the Arab tribes, they discovered
and presented her before the king in the courtyard
of his seraglio. He viewed her figure, and beheld a person
of a tawny complexion and feeble frame of body.
She appeared to him in a contemptible light, inasmuch
as the lowest menial in his harem, or seraglio, surpassed
her in beauty and excelled her in elegance.
Mujnun, in his sagacity, penetrated what was passing
in the royal mind, and said: ‘It would behoove you, O
king, to contemplate the charms of Laila through the
wicket of a Mujnun’s eye, in order that the miracle of
such a spectacle might be illustrated to you. Thou
canst have no fellow-feeling for my disorder; a companion
to suit me must have the self-same malady, that
I may sit by him the livelong day repeating my tale; for
by rubbing two pieces of dry firewood one upon
another they will burn all the brighter: “Had that
grove of verdant reeds heard the murmurings of love
Which in detail of my mistress’s story have passed
through my ear, It would somehow have sympathized
in my pain. Tell it, O my friends, to such as are ignorant
of love; Would ye could be aware of what wrings
me to the soul: the anguish of a wound is not known
120 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 121
to the hale and sound; we must detail our aches only
to a fellow sufferer It were idle to talk of a hornet to
him who has never during his life smarted from its
sting. ‘till thy condition may in some sort resemble
mine, my state will seem to thee an idle fable. Compare
not my pain with that of another man; he holds salt in
his hand, but I hold it on a wounded limb.”
XX
There was a handsome and well-disposed young man,
who was embarked in a vessel with a lovely damsel. I
have read that, sailing on the mighty deep, they fell
together into a whirlpool. When the pilot came to offer
him assistance, saying: “God forbid that he should
perish in that distress,” he was answering from the
midst of that overwhelming vortex: “Leave me, and
take the hand of my beloved!” The whole world
admired him for this speech which, as he was expiring,
he was heard to make. Learn not the tale of love from
that faithless wretch who can neglect his beloved when
exposed to danger. In this manner ended the lives of
those lovers. Listen to what has happened, that you
may understand; for Sadi knows the ways and forms
of courtship as well as the Tazi, or modern Arabic, is
understood at Baghdad. Devote your whole heart to
the heart-consoler you have chosen (namely, God), and
let your eyes be shut to the whole world beside. Were
Laila and Mujnun to return into life, they might read
the history of love in this chapter.
122 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 123
I
In the metropolitan mosque at Damascus I was
engaged in a disputation with some learned men,
when a youth suddenly entered the door, and said:
“Does any of you understand the Persian language?”
They directed him to me, and I answered: “It is true.”
He continued: “An old man of a
hundred and fifty years of age is in the agonies of
death, and is uttering something in the Persian language,
which we do not understand. If you will have
the goodness to go to him you may get rewarded; for
he possibly may be dictating his will.” When I sat
down by his bedside I heard him reciting: “ I said, I
will enjoy myself for a few moments. Alas! that my
soul took the path of departure. Alas! at the variegated
table of life I partook of a few mouthfuls, and the
fates said, enough!” I explained the signification of
these lines in Arabic to the Syrians. They were astonished
that, at his advanced time of life, he should
express himself so solicitous about a worldly existence.
I asked him: “How do you now find yourself?” He
on imbecility and old age
replied: “What shall I say?—-Hast thou never witnessed
what torture that man suffers from whose jaw
they are extracting a tooth? Fancy to thyself how
excruciating is his pain from whose precious body they
are tearing an existence!” I said: “Banish all thoughts
of death from your mind, and let not doubt undermine
your constitution; for the Greek philosophers have
remarked that although our temperaments are vigorous,
that is no proof of a long life; and that although
our sickness is dangerous, that is no positive sign of
immediate dissolution. If you will give me leave, I will
call in a physician to prescribe some medicine that may
cure you.” He replied: “Alas! alas! The landlord thinks
of refreshing the paintings of his hall, and the house is
tottering to its foundation. The physician smites the
hands of despair when he sees the aged fallen in pieces
like a potsherd; the old man bemoans himself in the
agony of death while the old attendant nurse is anointing
him with sandalwood. When the equipoise of the
temperament is overset, neither amulets nor medicaments
can do any good.”
III
In the territory of Diarbekr, or Mesopotamia, I was the
guest of an old man, who was very rich, and had a
124 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 125
handsome son. One night he told a story, saying:
“During my whole life I never had any child but this
boy. And in this valley a certain tree is a place of pilgrimage,
where people go to supplicate their wants;
and many was the night that I have besought God at
the foot of that tree before he would bestow upon me
this boy.” I have heard that the son was also whispering
his companions, and saying: “How happy I should
be if I could discover the site of that tree, in order that
I might pray for the death of my father.” The gentleman
was rejoicing and saying: “What a sensible youth
is my son!” and the boy was complaining and crying:
“What a tedious old dotard is my father!” Many years
are passing over thy head, during which thou didst not
visit thy father’s tomb. What pious oblation didst thou
make to the manes of a parent that thou shouldst
expect so much from thy son?
IV
Urged one day by the pride of youthful vanity, I had
made a forced march, and in the evening found myself
exhausted at the bottom of an acclivity. A feeble old
man, who had deliberately followed the pace of the caravan,
came up to me and said: “How come you to lie
down here? Get up; this is no fit place to rest.” I replied:
“How can I proceed, who have not a foot to stand on?”
He said: “Have you not heard what the prudent have
remarked? ‘Going on, and halting, is better than running
ahead and breaking down! ‘Ye who wish to reach
the end of your journey, hurry not on; practice my
advice, and learn deliberation. The Arab horse makes a
few stretches at full speed, and is broken down; while
the camel, at its deliberate pace, travels on night and
day, and gets to the end of his journey.”
V
An active, merry, cheerful, and sweet-spoken youth was
for a length of time in the circle of my society, whose
heart had never known sorrow, nor his lip ceased from
being on a smile. An age had passed, during which we
had not chanced to meet. When I next saw him he had
taken to himself a wife, and got a family; and the root
of his enjoyment was torn up, and the rose of his mirth
blasted. I asked him: “How is this?” He replied: “Since
I became a father of children, I ceased to play the
child.—-Now thou art old, relinquish childishness, and
leave it to the young to indulge in play and merriment.
Expect not the sprightliness of youth from the aged; for
the stream that ran by can never return. Now that the
corn is ripe for the sickle, it rears not its head as when
green and shooting. The season of youth has slipped
126 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 127
through my hands; alas! when I think on those heartexhilarating
days! The lion has lost the sturdy grasp of
his paw: I must now put up, like a lynx, with a bit of
cheese. An old woman had stained her gray locks
black. I said to her: O, my antiquated dame! thy hair I
admit thou canst turn dark by art, but thou never canst
make thy crooked back straight.”
VI
One day, in the perverseness of youth, I spoke with
asperity to my mother. Vexed at heart, she sat down in
a corner, and with tears in her eyes was saying: “You
have perhaps forgot the days of infancy, that you are
speaking to me thus harshly.—-How well did an old
woman observe to her own son, when she saw him
powerful as a tiger, and formidable as an elephant:
‘Could thou call to mind those days of thy infancy
when helpless thou wouldst cling to this my bosom,
thou wouldst not thus assail me with savage fury, now
thou art a lion-like hero, and I am a poor old woman.’”
VII
A rich miser had a son who was grievously sick. His
well-wishers and friends spoke to him, saying: “It were
proper that you either read the Qur’an throughout or
offer an animal in sacrifice, in order that the Most
High God may restore him to health.” After a short
reflection within himself he answered, “ It is better to
read the Qur’an, which is ready at hand; and my herds
are at a distance.” A good and holy man heard this
and remarked: “He makes choice of the reading part
because the Qur’an slips glibly over the tongue, but his
money is to be wrung from the soul of him. Fie upon
that readiness to bow the head in prayer; would that
the hand of charity could accompany it! In bestowing
a dinar he will stick like an ass in the mire; but ask him
to read the Al-hamdi, or first chapter of the Qur’an,
and he will recite it a hundred times.”
128 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 129
I
Acertain nobleman had a dunce of a son. He sent
him to a learned man, saying: “Verily you will
give instruction to this youth, peradventure he may
become a rational being.” He continued to give him
lessons for some time, but they made no impression
upon him, when he sent a message to the father, saying:
“This son is not getting wise, and he has well-nigh
made me a fool!” Where the innate capacity is good,
education may make an impression upon it; but no
furbisher knows how to give a polish to iron which is
of a bad temper. Wash a dog seven times in the ocean,
and so long as he is wet he is all the filthier. Were they
to take the ass of Jesus to Mecca, on his return from
that pilgrimage he would still be an ass.
II
A philosopher was exhorting his children and saying:
“O emanations of my soul, acquire knowledge, as no
reliance can be placed on worldly riches and possessions,
for once you leave home rank is of no use, and
of the impressions of education
gold and silver on a journey are exposed to the risk
either of thieves plundering them at once, or of the
owner wasting them by degrees; but knowledge is a
perennial spring and ever-during fortune. Were a professional
man to lose his fortune, he need not feel regret,
for his knowledge is of itself a mine of wealth. Wherever
he may sojourn the learned man will meet respect, and
be ushered into the upper seat, whilst the ignorant man
must put up with offal and suffer want.—-If thou covet
the paternal heritage, acquire thy father’s knowledge,
for this thy father’s wealth thou may squander in ten
days. After having been in authority, it is hard to obey;
after having been fondled with caresses, to put up with
men’s violence.—-There once occurred an insurrection
in Syria, and everybody forsook his former peaceful
abode. The sons of peasants, who were men of learning,
came to be employed as the ministers of kings; and the
children of noblemen, of bankrupt understandings,
went a begging from village to village.”
III
A certain learned man was superintending the education
of a king’s son; and he was chastising him without
mercy, and reproving him with asperity. The boy, out of
all patience, complained to the king his father, and laid
bare before him his much-bruised body. The king was
130 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 131
much offended, and sending for the master, said: “You
do not treat the children of my meanest subject with the
harshness and cruelty you do my boy; what do you
mean by this?” He replied: “To think before they
speak, and to deliberate before they act, are duties
incumbent upon all mankind, and more immediately
upon kings; because whatever may drop from their
hands and tongue, the special deed or word will somehow
become the subject of public animadversion;
whereas any act or remark of the commonalty attracts
not such notice.—-Let a dervish, or poor man, commit
a hundred indiscretions, and his companions will not
notice one out of the hundred; and let a king but utter
one foolish word, and it will be echoed from kingdom
to kingdom: therefore in forming the morals of young
princes, more pains are to be taken than with the sons
of the vulgar. Whoever was not taught good manners in
his boyhood, fortune will forsake him when he
becomes a man. Thou may bend the green bough as
thou likes; but let it once get dry, and it will require
heat to straighten it: “Verily thou may bend the tender
branch, But it were labor lost to attempt making
straight a crooked billet.’” The king greatly approved
of this ingenious detail, and the wholesome course of
discipline of the learned doctor; and, bestowing upon
him a dress and largess, raised him one step in his rank
as a nobleman!
VI
A king gave his son into the charge of a preceptor, and
said: “This is your child, educate him as you would
one of your own.” For some years he labored in teaching
him, but to no good purpose; whilst the sons of the
preceptor excelled in eloquence and knowledge. The
king blamed the learned man, and remonstrated with
him, saying: “You have violated your trust, and
infringed the terms of your engagement.” He replied:
“O king, the education is the same, but their capacities
are different!” Though silver and gold are extracted
from stones, yet it is not in every stone that gold and
silver are found. The Sohail, or star Canopus, is shedding
his rays all over the globe. In one place he produces
common leather, in another, or in Yemen, that
called Adim, or perfumed.
VII
I heard a certain learned senior observing to a disciple:
“If the sons of Adam were as solicitous after
Providence, or God, as they are after their means of
sustenance, their places in Paradise would surpass those
of the angels.” God did not overlook thee in that state
when thou wert a senseless embryo in thy mother’s
womb. He bestowed upon thee a soul, reason, temper,
132 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 133
intellect, symmetry, speech, judgment, understanding,
and reflection. He accommodated thy hands with ten
fingers, and suspended two arms from thy shoulders.
Canst thou now suppose, O good-for-nothing wretch,
that he will forget to provide thy daily bread?
VIII
I observed an Arab who was informing his son: “O my
child, God will ask thee on the day of judgment: What
hast thou done in this life? But he will not inquire of
thee: Whence didst thou derive thy origin?” That is,
they (or God) will ask, saying: “What are your
works?” But he will not question you, saying: “Who is
your father?” The covering of the Kaaba at Mecca,
which the pilgrims kiss from devotion, is not prized
from its being the fabric of a silk-worm; for a while it
associated with a venerable friend, and became, in
consequence, venerable like him.
IX
They have related in the books of philosophers that
scorpions are not brought forth according to the common
course of nature, as other animals are, but that
they eat their way through their mothers’ wombs, tear
open their bellies and thus make themselves a passage
into the world; and that the fragments of skin which
we find in scorpions’ holes corroborate this fact. On
one occasion I was stating this strange event to a good
and great man, when he answered: “My heart is bearing
testimony to the truth of this remark; nor can it be
otherwise, for as they have thus behaved toward their
parents in their youth, so they are approved and
beloved in their riper years.” On his death-bed a father
exhorted his son, saying: “O generous youth, keep in
mind this maxim: ‘Whoever is ungrateful to his own
kindred can not hope that fortune shall befriend
him.’”
X
They asked a scorpion: “Why do you not make your
appearance during the winter?” It answered: “What is
my character in the summer that I should come abroad
also in the winter?”
XIII
One year a dissension arose among the foot-travelers
on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and the author (Sadi) was
also a pedestrian among them. In truth, we fell head
and ears together, and accusation and recrimination
were bandied from all sides. I overheard a kajawah, or
134 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 135
gentleman, riding on one side of a camel-litter, observing
to his adil, or opposite companion: “How strange
that the ivory piyadah, or pawns, on reaching the top
of the shatranj, or chess-board, become fazzin, or
queens; that is, they get rank, or become better than
they were; and the piyadah, or pawns, of the pilgrimage—-
that is, our foot-pilgrims—-have crossed the
desert and become worse.” Say from me to that hadji,
or pilgrim, the pest of his fellow-pilgrims, that he lacerates
the skin of mankind by his contention. Thou art
not a real pilgrim, but that meek camel is one who is
feeding on thorns and patient under its burden.
XIV
A Hindu, or Indian, was teaching the art of playing off
fireworks. A philosopher observed to him: “This is an
unfit sport for you, whose dwelling is made of straw.”
Utter not a word ‘till thou know that it is the mirror of
what is correct; and do not put a question where thou
know that the answer must be unfavorable.
XV
A fellow had a complaint in his eyes, and went to a
horse doctor, saying: “Prescribe something for me.”
The doctor of horses applied to his eyes what he was
in the habit of applying to the eyes of quadrupeds, and
the man became blind. They carried their complaint
before the hakim, or judge. He decreed: “This man has
no redress, for had he not been an ass he would not
have applied to a horse or ass doctor!” The moral of
this apologue is, that whoever doth employ an inexperienced
person on an affair of importance, besides
being brought to shame, he will incur from the wise
the imputation of a weak mind. A prudent man, with
an enlightened understanding, entrusts not affairs of
consequence to one of mean capacity. The plaiter of
mats, notwithstanding he be a weaver, they would not
employ in a silk manufactory.
XVI
A certain great Imaan had a worthy son, and he died.
They asked him, saying: “What shall we inscribe upon
the urn at his tomb?” He replied: “Verses of the holy
Qur’an are of such superior reverence and dignity that
they should not be written in places where time might
efface, mankind tread upon, or dogs defile them; yet, if
an epitaph be necessary, let these two couplets suffice:
I said:
“Alas! how grateful it was proving to my heart, So
long as the verdure of thy existence might flourish in
136 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 137
the garden.’ He replied: ‘O my friend, have patience
‘till the return of the spring, and thou may again see
roses blossoming on my bosom, or shooting from my
dust.’”
XVII
A holy man was passing by a wealthy personage’s
mansion, and saw him with a slave tied up by the
hands and feet, and giving him chastisement. He said:
“O my son! God Almighty has made a creature like
yourself subject to your command, and has given you
a superiority over him. Render thanksgiving to the
Most High Judge, and deal not with him so savagely;
lest hereafter, on the day of judgment, he may prove
the more worthy of the two, and you be put to
shame.—-Be not so enraged with thy bondsman; torture
not his body, nor harrow up his heart. Thou might
buy him for ten dinars, but hadst not after all the
power of creating him.—-To what length will this
authority, pride, and insolence hurry thee; there is a
Master mightier than thou art. Yes, thou art a lord of
slaves and vassals, but do not forget thine own lord
Paramount-namely, God!” There is a tradition of the
prophet Mohammed, on whom be blessing, announcing:
On the day of resurrection, that will be the most
mortifying event when the good slave will be taken up
to heaven, and the wicked master sent down to hell.—
- “Upon the bondsman, who is subservient to thy command,
wreak not thy rage and boundless displeasure.
For it must be disgraceful on the day of reckoning to
find the slave at liberty and the master in bondage.”
138 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 139
I
Riches are intended for the comfort of life, and not
life for the purpose of hoarding riches. I asked a
wise man, saying: “Who is the fortunate man, and
who is the unfortunate?” He said: “That man was
fortunate who spent and gave away, and that man
unfortunate who died and left behind.—-Pray not for
that good-for-nothing man who did nothing, for he
passed his life in hoarding riches, and did not spend
them.”
II
The prophet Moses, on whom be peace, admonished
Carum, saying: “Be bounteous in like manner as God
has been bounteous to thee”: but he listened not, and
you have heard the end of him. Whoever did not an act
of charity with his silver and gold sacrificed his future
prospects on his hoard of gold and silver. If desirous
that thou shouldst benefit by the wealth of this world,
be generous with thy fellow creature, as God has been
generous with thee. The Arabs say: “Show thy genof
the duties of society
erosity, but make it not obligatory, That the benefit of
it may redound to thee”: that is, bestow and make presents,
but do not exact an obligation that the profit of
that act may be returned to you. Wherever the tree of
generosity strikes root it sends forth its boughs, and
they shoot above the skies. If thou cherishes a hope of
enjoying its fruit, by gratitude I entreat of thee not to
lay a saw upon its trunk. Render thanks to God, that
thou wert found worthy of his divine grace, that he has
not excluded thee from the riches of his bounty.
Esteem it no obligation that thou art serving the king,
but show thy gratitude to him, namely God, who has
placed thee in this service.
III
Two persons labored to a vain, and studied to an
unprofitable end: he who hoarded wealth and did not
spend it, and he who acquired knowledge and did not
practice it.—-However much thou art read in theory, if
thou hast no practice thou art ignorant. He is neither
a sage philosopher nor an acute divine, but a beast of
burden with a load of books. How can that brainless
head know or comprehend whether he carries on his
back a library or bundle of fagots?
140 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 141
IV
Learning is intended to fortify religious practice, and
not to gratify worldly traffic.—-Whoever prostituted
his temperance, piety, and science, gathered his harvest
into a heap and set fire to it.
V
An intemperate man of learning is like a blind linkboy:
He shows the road to others, but sees it not himself:
Whoever ventured his life on an unproductive
hazard gained nothing by the risk, and lost his own
stake.
VI
A kingdom is embellished by the wise, and religion
rendered illustrious by the pious. Kings stand more in
need of the company of the intelligent than the intelligent
do of the society of kings.—-If, O king! thou wilt
listen to my advice, in all thy archives thou canst not
find a wiser maxim than this: entrust thy concerns only
to the learned, notwithstanding business is not a
learned man’s concern.
VII
Three things have no durability without their concomitants:
property without trade, knowledge without
debate, or a sovereignty without government.
VIII
To compassionate the wicked is to tyrannize over the
good; and to pardon the oppressor is to deal harshly
with the oppressed.—-When thou patronizes and succors
the base-born man, he looks to be made the partner
of thy fortune.
IX
No reliance can be placed on the friendship of kings,
nor vain hope put in the melodious voice of boys; for
that passes away like a vision, and this vanishes like a
dream.—-Bestow not thy affections upon a mistress
who has a thousand lovers; or, if thou bestows them
upon her, be prepared for a separation.
X
Reveal not every secret you have to a friend, for how
can you tell but that friend may hereafter become an
142 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 143
enemy? And bring not all the mischief you are able to
do upon an enemy, for he may one day become your
friend. And any private affair that you wish to keep
secret, do not divulge to anybody; for, though such a
person has your confidence, none can be so true to
your secret as yourself.—-Silence is safer than to communicate
the thought of thy mind to anybody, and to
warn him, saying: Do not divulge it, O silly man!
confine the water at the dam-head, for once it has a
vent thou canst not stop it. Thou shouldst not utter a
word in secret which thou wouldst not have spoken in
the face of the public.
XI
A reduced foe, who offers his submission and courts
your amity, can only have in view to become a strong
enemy, as they have said: “You can not trust the sincerity
of friends, then what are you to expect from the
cajoling of foes?”
Whoever despises a weak enemy resembles him who
neglects a spark of fire.—-Today that thou canst
quench it, put it out; for let fire rise into a flame, and
it may consume a whole world. Now that thou canst
transfix him with thy arrow, permit not thy antagonist
to string his bow.
XIII
Whoever is making a league with their enemies has it
in his mind to do his friends an ill turn.—- “O wise
man! wash thy hands of that friend who is in confederacy
with thy foes.”
XIV
When irresolute in the dispatch of business, incline to
that side which is the least offensive.—Answer not
with harshness a mild-spoken man, nor force him into
war who knocks at the gate of peace.
XV
So long as money can answer, it were wrong in any
business to put the life in danger—-as the Arabs say:
“Let the sword decide after stratagem has failed”:
When the hand is balked in every crafty endeavor, it is
lawful to lay it upon the hilt of the saber.
XVI
Show no mercy to a subdued foe, for if he recover
himself he will show you no mercy.—-When thou sees
144 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 145
thy antagonist in a reduced state, curl not thy
whiskers at him in contempt for in every bone there is
marrow, and within every jacket there is a man.
XVII
Whoever puts a wicked man to death delivers
mankind from his mischief, and the wretch himself
from God’s vengeance.—-Beneficence is praiseworthy;
yet thou shouldst not administer a balsam to the
wound of the wicked. Knew he not who took compassion
on a snake, that it is the pest of the sons of
Adam.
XVIII
It is wrong to follow the advice of an adversary; nevertheless
it is right to hear it, that you may do the
contrary; and this is the essence of good policy.—-
Sedulously shun whatever your foe may recommend,
otherwise thou may wring the hands of repentance
on thy knees.
Should he show thee to the right a path straight as
an arrow, turn aside from that, and take the path to
the left.
XX
Two orders of mankind are the enemies of church and
State: the king without clemency, and the holy man
without learning.—-Let not that prince have rule over
the State who is not himself obedient to the will of God.
XXI
It behooves a king so to regulate his anger toward his
enemies as not to alarm the confidence of his friends;
for the fire of passion falls first on the angry man; afterward
its sparks will dart forth toward the foe, and him
they may reach, or they may not. It ill becomes the children
of Adam, formed of dust, to harbor in their heads
such pride, arrogance, and passion. I can not fancy all
this thy warmth and obstinacy to be created from
earth, but from fire. I went to a holy man in the land of
Bailcan, and said: “Cleanse me of ignorance by thy
instruction!” He replied: “O fakiq, or theologician! go
and bear things patiently like the earth; or whatever
thou hast read let it all be buried under the earth.”
XXII
An evil-disposed man is a captive in the hands of an
enemy (namely, himself); for wherever he may go he
146 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 147
can not escape from the grasp of that enemy’s
vengeance.—-Let a wicked man ascend up to heaven,
that he may escape from the grasp of calamity; even
thither would the hand of his own evil heart follow
him with misfortune.
XXIII
When you see discord raging among the troops of your
enemy, be on your side quiet; but if you see them united,
think of your own dispersed state.—-When thou
beholdest war among thy foes, go and enjoy peace
with thy friends; but if thou find them of one soul and
mind, string thy bow, and range stones around thy battlements.
XXVIII
Whoever is counseling a self-sufficient man stands
himself in need of a counselor.
XXIX
Swallow not the wheedling of a rival, nor pay for the
sycophancy of a parasite; for that has laid the snare of
treachery, and this whetted the palate of gluttony. The
fool is puffed up with his own praise, like a dead body,
which on being stretched upon a bier shows a momentary
corpulency. —-Take heed and listen not to the
sycophant’s blandishments, who expects in return
some small compensation; for shouldst thou any day
disappoint his object he would in like style sum up two
hundred of thy defects.
XXX
‘Till some person may show its defects, the speech of
the orator will fail of correctness.—-Be not vain of the
eloquence of thy discourse because it has the fool’s
good opinion, and thine own approbation.
XXXI
Every person thinks his own intellect perfect, and his
own child handsome.—-A Muslim and a Jew were
warm in argument to such a degree that I smiled at
their subject. The Muslim said in wrath: “If this deed
of conveyance be not authentic may I, O God, die a
Jew!” The Jew replied: “On the Pentateuch I swear, if
what I say be false, I am a Muslim like you!” Were
intellect to be annihilated from the face of the earth,
nobody could be brought to say: “I am ignorant.”
148 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 149
XXXII
Ten people will partake of the same joint of meat, and
two dogs will snarl over a whole carcass. The greedy
man is incontinent with a whole world set before him;
the temperate man is content with his crust of bread.
A loaf of brown bread may fill an empty stomach, but the
produce of the whole globe can not satisfy a greedy eye.
My father, when the sun of his life was going down, gave
me this sage advice, and it set for good, saying: “Lust is
a fire; refrain from indulging it, and do not involve thyself
in the flames of hell. Since thou hast not the strength
of burning in those flames (as a punishment in the next
world), pour in this world the water of continence upon
this fire—-namely, lust.”
XXXIII
Whoever does not do good, when he has the means of
doing it, will suffer hardship when he has not the
means.—-None is more unlucky than the misanthrope,
for on the day of adversity he has not a single
friend.
XXXIV
Life stands on the verge of a single breath; and this
world is an existence between two nonentities. Such as
truck their deen, or religious practice, for worldly pelf
are asses. They sold Joseph, and what got they by their
bargain?—-”Did I not covenant with you, O ye sons of
Adam, that you should not serve Satan; for verily he is
your avowed enemy.”—-By the advice of a foe you
broke your faith with a friend; behold from whom you
separated, and with whom you united yourselves.
XXXVI
Whatever is produced in haste goes hastily to waste.—
-I have heard that, after a process of forty years, they
convert the clay of the East into a China porcelain cup.
At Baghdad they can make a hundred cups in a day,
and thou may of course conceive their respective value.
A chicken walks forth from its shell, and goes in quest
of its food; the young of man possesses not that
instinct of prudence and discrimination. That which
was at once something comes to nothing; and this surpasses
all creatures in dignity and wisdom. A piece of
crystal or glass is found everywhere, and held of no
150 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 151
value; a ruby is obtained with difficulty, and therefore
inestimable.
XXXVII
Patience accomplishes its object, while hurry speeds to
its ruin.—-With my own eyes I saw in the desert that
the deliberate man outstripped him that had hurried
on. The wing-footed steed is broken down in his speed,
whilst the camel-driver jogs on with his beast to the
end of his journey.
XXXVIII
Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence, and
if he knew this he would no longer be ignorant.—-
When unadorned with the grace of eloquence it is wise
to keep watch over the tongue in the mouth. The
tongue, by abuse, renders a man contemptible; levity
in a nut is a sign of its being empty. A fool was undertaking
the instruction of an ass, and had devoted his
whole time to this occupation. A wise man said to him:
“What art thou endeavoring to do? In this vain
attempt dread the reproof of the censorious! A brute
can never learn speech from thee; do thou learn silence
from him.” That man who reflects not before he
speaks will only make all the more improper answer.
Either like a man arrange thy speech with judgment, or
like a brute sit silent.
XXXIX
Whoever shall argue with one more learned than himself
that others may take him for a wise man, only confirms
them in his being a fool.—-”When a person superior to
what thou art engages thee in conversation do not contradict
him, though thou may know better.”
XL
He can see no good who will associate with the wicked.—
-Were an angel from heaven to associate with a demon,
he would learn his brutality, perfidy, and hypocrisy.
Virtue thou never canst learn of the vicious; it is not the
wolf’s occupation to mend skins, but to tear them.
XLI
Expose not the secret failings of mankind, otherwise
you must verily bring scandal upon them and distrust
upon yourself.
152 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 153
XLII
Whoever acquires knowledge and does not practice it
resembles him who plows his land and leaves it
unsown.
XLVI
It is not every man that has a handsome physical exterior
that has a good moral character; for the faculty of
business or virtue resides in the heart and not in the
skin.
Thou canst in one day ascertain the intellectual faculties
of a man, and what proficiency he has made in his
degrees of knowledge; but be not secure of his mind,
nor foolishly sure, for it may take years to detect the
innate baseness of the heart.
XLVII
Whoever contends with the great sheds his own
blood.—-Thou contemplates yourself as a mighty great
man; and they have truly remarked that the squinter
sees double. Thou, who canst in play butt with a ram,
must soon find thyself with a broken pate.
XLVIII
To grapple with a lion, or to box against a naked scimitar,
are not the acts of the prudent.—-Brave not the
furious with war and opposition; before their arms of
strength cross thy hands of submission.
XLIX
A weak man, who tries his courage against the strong,
leagues with the foe to his own destruction.—
Nurtured in a shade, what strength can he have that he
should engage with the warlike in battle; impotent of
arm, he was falling the victim of folly when he set his
wrist in opposition to a wrist of iron.
L
Whoever will not listen to admonition harbors the
fancy of hearing reprehension.—-When advice gains
not an admission into the ear, if I give thee reproof,
hear it in silence.
LI
The idle can not endure the industrious any more than
the curs of the market-place, who, on meeting dogs
154 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 155
employed for sporting, will snarl at and prevent them
passing.
LII
A mean wretch, that can not vie with another in virtue,
will assail him with malignity.—-The narrow-minded
envier will somehow manage to revile thee, who in thy
presence might have the tongue of his utterance struck
dumb.
LV
To hold counsel with women is bad, and to deal generously
with prodigals a fault.—-Showing mercy upon
the sharp-fanged pard must prove an injustice to the
harmless sheep.
LVI
Whoever has his foe at his mercy, and does not kill
him, is his own enemy.—-With a stone in his hand, and
the snake’s head convenient, a wise man hesitates not
in crushing it. Certain people have seen this maxim in
an opposite point of view, saying: “It were wiser to
delay the execution of captives, inasmuch as the option
is left so that you can slay, or you can release them; but
if you shall have heedlessly put them to death, the policy
is defunct, for the opportunity of repairing is
lost.”—There is no great difficulty to separate the soul
from the body, but it is not so easy to restore life to the
dead: prudence dictates patience in giving the arrow
flight, for let it quit the bow and it never can be
recalled.
LVII
A learned man who has got into an argument with the
ignorant can have no hopes of supporting his own dignity;
and if an ignoramus by his loquacity gets the
upper hand it should not surprise us, for he is a stone
and can bruise a gem. No wonder if his spirit flag; the
nightingale is cooped up in the same cage with the
crow.—-If the man of sense is coarsely treated by the
vulgar, let it not excite our wrath and indignation; if a
piece of worthless stone can bruise a cup of gold, its
worth is not increased, nor that of the gold diminished.
LX
Genius without education is the subject of our regret,
and education without genius is labor lost. Although
embers have a lofty origin (fire being of a noble
156 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 157
nature), yet, as having no intrinsic worth, they fall
upon a level with common dust; on the other hand,
sugar does not derive its value from the cane, but from
its own innate quality.—-Inasmuch as the disposition
of Canaan was bad, his descent from the prophet
Noah stood him in no stead. Pride thyself on what
virtue thou hast, and not on thy parentage; the rose
springs from a thorn-bush, and Abraham from Azor
(either his father’s name, or fire).
LXI
That is musk which discloses itself by its smell, and not
what the perfumers impose upon us.—-If a man be
expert in any art he needs not tell it, for his own skill
will show it.
LXII
A wise man is like a vase in a druggist’s shop, silent,
but full of virtues; and the ignorant man resembles the
drum of the warrior, being full of noise, and an empty
babbler.—-The sincerely devout have remarked that a
learned man, beset by the illiterate, is like one of the
lovely in a circle of the blind, or the holy Qur’an in the
dwelling of the infidel.
LXIII
A friend whom they take an age to conciliate, it were
wrong all at once to alienate.—-In a series of years a
stone changes into a ruby; take heed, and destroy it not
at once by dashing it against another stone.
LXIV
Reason is in like manner enthralled by passion, as an
uxorious man is in the hands of an artful woman. Thou
may shut the door of joy upon that dwelling where
thou hearest resounding the scolding voice of a woman.
LXV
Intellect, without firmness, is craft and chicanery; and
firmness, without intellect, perverseness and obstinacy.—-
First, prudence, good sense, and discrimination,
and then dominion; for the dominion and good fortune
of the ignorant are the armor of rebellion against God.
LXVI
The sinner who spends and gives away is better than
the devotee who begs and lays by.
158 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 159
LXVII
Whoever foregoes carnal indulgence in order to get the
good opinion of mankind, has forsaken a lawful passion
and involved himself in what is forbidden.—-
What, wretched creature! can that hermit see in his
own tarnished mirror, or heart, who retires to a cell,
but not for the sake of God?
LXIX
A wise man should not through clemency overlook the
insolence of the vulgar, otherwise both sustain a loss,
for their respect for him is lessened and their own brutality
confirmed: —-When thou addresses the low with
urbanity and kindness, it only adds to their pride and
arrogance.
LXXIV
In a season of drought and scarcity ask not the distressed
dervish, saying: “How are you?” Unless on the
condition that you apply a balm to his wound, and
supply him with the means of subsistence.—The ass
which thou sees stuck in the slough with his rider, compassionate
from thy heart, otherwise do not go near
him. Now that thou went and asked him how he fell,
like a sturdy fellow bind up thy loins, and take his ass
by the tail.
LXXV
Two things are repugnant to reason: to expend more
than what Providence has allotted for us, and to die
before our ordained time.—-Whether offered up in
gratitude, or uttered in complaint, destiny can not be
altered by a thousand sighs and lamentations. The
angel who presides over the storehouse of the winds
feels no compunction, though he extinguish the old
woman’s lamp.
LXXVI
O you that are going in quest of food, sit down, that
you may have to eat. And, O you that death is in quest
of, go not on, for you can not carry life along with
you.—-In search of thy daily bread, whether thou
exert thyself, or whether thou dost not, the God of
Majesty and Glory will equally provide it. Wert thou
to walk into the mouth of a tiger or lion, he could not
devour thee, unless by the ordinance of thy destiny.
160 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 161
LXXVII
Whatever was not designed, the hand can not reach;
and whatever was ordained, it can attain in any situation.
—-Thou hast heard that Alexander got as far as
chaos; but after all this toil he drank not the water of
immortality.
LXXVIII
The fisherman, unless it be his lot, catches no fish in
the Tigris; and the fish, unless it be its fate, does not die
on the dry land.—-The wretched miser is prowling all
over the world, he in quest of pelf, and death in quest
of him.
LXXXI
The envious man is niggard of the gifts of Providence,
and an enemy of the innocent.—-I met a dry-brained
fellow of this sort, tricked forth in the robe of a
dignified person. I said: “O sir! if thou art unfortunate
in having this disposition, in what have the fortunate
been to blame?—-Take heed, and wish not misfortune
to the misanthrope, for his own ill-conditioned lot is
calamity sufficient. What need is there of showing illwill
to him, who has such an enemy close at his heels?”
LXXXII
A scholar without diligence is a lover without money;
a traveler without knowledge is a bird without wings;
a theorist without practice is a tree without fruit; and
a devotee without learning is a house without an
entrance.
LXXXIII
The object of sending the Qur’an down from heaven
was that mankind might make it a manual of morals,
and not that they should recite it by sections.
LXXXIV
The sincere publican has proceeded on foot; the slothful
Pharisee is mounted and gone asleep.
LXXXV
The sinner who humbles himself in prayer is more
acceptable than the devotee who is puffed up with
162 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 163
pride.—-The courteous and kind-hearted soldier of
fortune is better than the misanthropic and learned
divine.
LXXXVI
A learned man without works is a bee without honey.
—-Tell that harsh and ungenerous hornet: As thou
yield no honey, wound not with thy sting.
LXXXIX
Though a dress presented by the sovereign be honorable,
yet is our own tattered garment preferable; and
though the viands at a great man’s table be delicate, yet
is our own homely fare more sweet. —-A salad and
vinegar, the produce of our own industry, are sweeter
than the lamb and bread sauce at the table of our village
chief.
XC
It is contrary to sound judgment, and repugnant to
the maxims of the prudent, to take a medicine on
conjecture, or to follow a road but in the track of a
caravan.
XCI
They asked Imaan Mursheed Mohammed-bin-
Mohammed Ghazali, on whom be God’s mercy, how
he had reached such a pitch of knowledge. He replied:
“Whatever I was ignorant of myself, I felt no shame in
asking of others.”—-Thy prospect of health conforms
with reason, when thy pulse is in charge of a skilled
physician. Ask whatever thou know not; for the condescension
of inquiring is a guide on thy road in the
excellence of learning.
XCII
Anything you foresee that you may somehow come to
know, be not hasty in questioning, lest your consequence
and respectability may suffer.—-When Lokman
perceived that in the hands of David iron was miraculously
molded like was, he asked him not, How didst
thou do it? for he was aware that he should know it,
through his own wisdom, without asking.
XCIII
It is one of the laws of good breeding that you should
forego an engagement or accommodate yourself to the
master of the entertainment.—-If thou know that the
164 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 165
inclination is reciprocal, accommodate thy story to the
temper of the hearer Any discreet man that was in
Mujnun’s company would entertain him only with
encomiums on Laila.
XCVIII
To tell a falsehood is like the cut of a saber; for though
the wound may heal, the scar of it will remain. In like
manner as the brothers of the blessed Joseph, who,
being notorious for a lie, had no credit afterward when
they spoke the truth: God on high has said—-Jacob is
supposed to speak—(Qur’an xii. Sale ii. 35): “Nay, but
rather ye have contrived this to gratify your own passion;
yet it behooves me to be patient.”—-If a man
who is in the habit of speaking truth lets a mistake
escape him, we can overlook it; but if he be notorious
for uttering falsehoods, and tell a truth, thou wilt call
it a lie.
XCIX
The noblest of creatures is man, and the vilest of animals
is no doubt a dog; yet, in the concurring opinion
of the wise, a dog, thankful for his food, is more worthy
than a human being who is void of gratitude.—-A
dog will never forget the crumb thou gavest him,
though thou may afterward throw a hundred stones at
his head; but foster with thy kindness a low man for an
age, and on the smallest provocation he will be up
against thee in arms.
CI
It is written in the Injeel, or Gospel, stating: “O son of
man, if I bestow riches upon you you will be more
intent upon your property than upon me, and if
I leave you in poverty you will sit down dejected; how
then can you feel a relish to praise, or a zeal to worship
me?” (Proverbs xxx. 7, 8, 9).——-In the day
of plenty thou art proud and negligent; in the time
of want, full of sorrow and dejected; since in prosperity
and adversity such is thy condition, it were
difficult to state when thou wouldst voluntarily do
thy duty.
CII
The pleasure of Him, or God, who has no equal, hurls
one man from a throne of sovereignty, and another he
preserves in a fish’s belly.—-Happy proceeds his time
who is enraptured with thy praise, though, like Jonah,
he even may pass it in the belly of a fish!
166 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 167
CIII
Were the Almighty to unsheathe the sword of his
wrath, prophets and patriarchs would draw in their
heads; and were he to deign a glimpse of his benevolence,
it would reach the wicked along with the good.—
-Were he on the day of judgment to call us to a strict
account, even the prophets would have no room for
excuse. Say, withdraw the veil from the face of thy compassion,
that sinners may entertain hopes of pardon.
CIV
Whoever is not to be brought into the path of righteousness
by the punishments of this life shall be overtaken
with the punishments of that to come: “Verily, I
will cause them to taste the lesser punishment over and
above the greater punishment” (Qur’an xxxii. Sale ii.
258).—-Princes, in chastising, admonish, and then
confine; when they admonish, and thou listen not, they
throw thee into prison.
CV
Men of auspicious fortune would rather take warning
from the precepts and examples of their predecessors
than that the rising generation should take warning
from their acts.—-The bird will not approach the grain
that is spread about, where it sees another bird a captive
in the snare. Take warning by the mischance of
others, that others may not take warning by thine.
CVI
How can he help himself who was born deaf, if he can
not hear; and what can he do whose thread of fortune
is dragging him on that he may not proceed?—-The
dark night of such as are beloved of God is serene and
light as the bright day; but this good fortune results
not from thine own strength of arm, ‘till God in his
mercy deign to bestow it. To whom shall I complain of
thee? for there is no judge else, nor is any arm mightier
than thine. Him whom thou directs none can lead
astray, and him whom thou bewilders none can direct
upon his way.
CVII
The beggar whose end is good is better off than the
king whose end is evil.—-That sorrow which is the
harbinger of joy is preferable to the joy which is followed
by sorrow.
168 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 169
CVIII
The sky enriches the earth with rain, and the earth
gives it dust in return. As the Arabs say: “What the
vessels have, that they give.”—-If my moral character
strike thee as improper, do not renounce thine own
good character.
CIX
The Most High God discerns and hides what is
improper; my neighbor sees not, and is loud in his
clamor.—-God preserve us! if man knew what is hidden,
none could be safe from the animadversion of his
neighbor.
CX
Gold is got from the mine by digging into the earth;
and from the grasp of the miser by taking away his
life.—-Misers spend not, but watch with solicitude:
expectation, they say, is preferable to waste.
Next day observe to the joy of their enemies, the gold
remains, and they are dead without the enjoyment of
that hope.
CXI
Such as deal hard with the weak will suffer from the
exertion of the strong.—-It is not every arm in which
there is strength that can wrench the hand of a weak
man. Bring not affliction upon the hearts of the feeble,
lest thou may fall under the lash of the strong.
CXII
A wise man, where he meets opposition, labors to get
through it, and where he finds quiet he drops his
anchor, for there safety is on one side, and here enjoyment
in the middle of it.
CXIII
The gamester wants three sixes, but he throws only
three aces.—-The pasture meadow is a thousand times
richer than the common, but the horse has not his tether
at command.
CXIV
The dervish in his prayer is saying: “O God, have compassion
on the wicked, for to the good thou hast been
170 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 171
abundantly kind, inasmuch as thou hast made them
virtuous.”
CXV
Jemshid was the first person who put an edging round
his garment, and a ring upon his finger. They asked
him: “Why did you bestow all the decoration and
ornament on the left hand, whilst the right is the superior?”
He answered: “Sufficient for the right is the
ornament of being right.” Feridun commanded the
gilders of China that they would inscribe upon the
front of his palace: “Strive, O wise man, to make the
wicked good, for the good are of themselves great and
fortunate.”
CXVI
They said to a great and holy man: “Notwithstanding
the superiority that the right hand commands, why do
they wear the ring on the left hand?”
He replied: “Are you not aware that the best are most
neglected! “He who casts our horoscope, provision,
and fortune, bestows upon us either good luck or wisdom.”
CXVII
It is proper for him to offer counsel to kings who
dreads not to lose his head, nor looks for a reward.—
-Whether thou strew heaps of gold at his feet, or brandishes
an Indian sword over the Unitarian’s head, to
hope or fear he is alike indifferent; and in this the
divine unity alone he is resolved and firm.
CXVIII
It belongs to the king to displace extortioners, to the
superintendent of the police to guard against murderers,
and to the cazi to decide in quarrels and disputes.
No two complainants ever referred to the cazi content
to abide by justice. When thou know that in right the
claim is just, better pay with a grace than by distress
and force. If a man is refractory in discharging his revenue,
the collector must necessarily coerce him to pay
it.
CXIX
Every man’s teeth are blunted by acids excepting the
cazi’s, and they require sweets.—-That cazi, or judge,
that can accept of five cucumbers as a bribe will
confirm thee in a right to ten fields of melons.
172 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 173
CXXI
They asked a wise man, saying: “Of the many celebrated
trees which the Most High God has created lofty
and umbrageous, they call none azad, or free, excepting
the cypress, which bears no fruit; what mystery is there
in this ?” He replied: “Each has its appropriate produce
and appointed season, during the continuance of which
it is fresh and blooming, and during their absence dry
and withered; to neither of which states is the cypress
exposed, being always flourishing; and of this nature
are the a:zads, or religious independents. Fix not thy
heart on what is transitory; for the Dijlah, or Tigris,
will continue to flow through Baghdad after the race of
Caliphs is extinct. If thy hand has plenty, be liberal as
the date-tree; but if it affords nothing to give away, be
an azad, or free man, like the cypress.
CXXII
Two orders of mankind died, and carried with them
regret: such as had and did not spend, and such as
knew and did not practice. —-None can see that
wretched mortal a miser who will not endeavor to
point out his faults; but were the generous man to have
a hundred defects, his liberality would cover all his
blemishes.
Colophon
The book of the “Gulistan, or Flower-Garden,” was
completed through the assistance and grace of God.
Throughout the whole of this work I have not followed
the custom of writers by inserting verses of
poetry borrowed from former authors: “It is more
decorous to wear our own patched and old cloak than
to ask in loan another man’s garment.” Most of these
sayings have a dash of hilarity and an odor of gaiety
about them, in consequence of which short-sighted
critics extend the tongue of animadversion, saying: “It
is not the occupation of sensible men to solicit marrow
from a shriveled brain, or to digest the smoke of a
profitless lamp.” Nevertheless it can not be concealed
from the enlightened judgment of the holy and good,
to whom these discourses are specially addressed, that
the pearls of salutary admonition are threaded on the
cord of an elegance of language, and the bitter potion
of instruction sweetened with the honey of facetiousness,
that the taste of the reader may not take disgust,
and himself be debarred from the pleasure of approving
of them: “On our part we offered some good
advice, and spent an age in bringing it to perfection. If
that should not meet the ear of anybody’s good-will,
174 V The Rose Garden
Sa‘di V 175
prophets deliver their messages, or warn mankind; and
that is enough.”
O thou who peruses this book, ask the mercy of God
on the author of it: his forgiveness on the transcriber.
Petition for whatever charitable gift thou may require
for thyself, and implore pardon on the owner. The
book is finished through the favor of the Lord God
Paramount and the bestower of all good!
Contributors
Blog Archive
-
▼
2009
(70)
-
▼
September
(70)
- brihat jataka,.a good book of astrology
- lalita sahastra naam,...the thousand names of trinity
- caligula script,.act 4
- caligula script,.act 3
- caligula script,act 2
- caligula script,..act 1
- sufi saints,biographies
- 2nd sufi tale.....
- a sufi story,..zekr
- marqaba
- azemia silsila of sufies,..they worship colors
- No title
- masnavi,complete,..by rumi
- attar naama
- khalil gibran ,poems
- a poets death in his life,...by khalil jibraan
- about kalidasa
- kalidasa
- tripura rahasya
- ibn al arebi
- imam ghazali
- haakim shinai
- shekh saadi
- rose garden,by shekh saadi,..gulistaan
- fihi ma fihi,by rumi
- Another Dimension The hidden worlds has its own cl...
- attar
- Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not...
- The Face in the Mirror Enchanted IslandEnchan...
- The Conference of the BirdsFrom Wikipedia, the fre...
- Life of RumiReason is powerless in the expression ...
- sufism frm islam
- idrish shah
- omar khayyam
- hafiz
- al ghajali
- al hallaj
- attar
- ibn al arebi
- rabia
- masnavi
- The Rubaiyat of Jalal Al-Din RumiSelect translatio...
- shams tabrej
- Life & Death{look at lovehow it tangleswith the on...
- poetry of passion by rumi
- mystc poems of rumi
- love poems of sufi
- Kabir Love Songs - 8 Mein Ka Se Bujhon, Aapne Piya...
- Kabir Love Songs - 7 Naina Untari Aav Tun, Jyon Ho...
- Kabir Love Songs - 3 Sayeen Bin Darad Karejae Hoye...
- Kabir Love Songs - 2 Baalam Avo Humre Geh Re, Tum...
- Kabir Love Songs - 1 Samajh Dekh Man Meet Piyarva,...
- Some Hindvi Dohas (couplets) of KhusrauMany qawwal...
- Keh MukarnisThe Say-and-Deny Riddles of KhusroKeh ...
- Excerpts from Khusrau's Persian PoetryKhusrau prod...
- Some Farsi Couplets of KhusrauNaala-e zanjeer-e Ma...
- amir khusrau2
- amir khusrau quawalies
- visiting nizamuddin
- hosh ba dam
- nizam1
- meeting of nizam with baba fareed
- peers of delhi
- Hazrat Dr. Zahurul Hassan Sharib Gudri Shah BabaGo...
- deepali di
- iman salamat
- nizam n khusrau..........
- hazrat nizammuddin
- 2 al fatiha
- neo sufi 1
-
▼
September
(70)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment