Gulistan of Sa'di

The Golestān (Persian گلستان " The Rose Garden " ), written in 1259, is a collection of Persian poems and stories. In addition to the Bustān it is the second well-known works of the Persian poet Saadi and is one of the most important works of Persian literature.

The predominantly written in prose and verse laced with various forms and meters work is thematically and formally modeled the Bustān, but did not appear in ten, but in eight chapters - like the eight gates of Paradise. The work contains stories and personal anecdotes colored, aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections. It includes chapters on how to deal with the Kings, on the morality of the Dervishes, about the satisfaction and the benefits of silence, love and youth, weakness and age, the effects of education and rules about the good life.

The question of the intention of his work answered Saadi in the introduction to Golestān as follows:

"The next morning When the intention of returning had prevailed over the opinion of tarrying, I saw did my friend had in his skirt collected roses, sweet basil, hyacinths and fragrant herbs with the determination to carry them to town, whereon I said: ' Thou knowest did the roses of the garden are perishable and the season passes away 'and philosophers have said: ' Whatever is not of long duration is not to be cherished '. He asked: ' Then what is to be done? I replied: ' I may compose for the amusement of Those Who look and for the instruction of Those Who are present a book of a Rose Garden, a Golestān, Whose leaves can not be touched by the tyranny of automnal blasts and the delight of spring Whose the vicissitudes of time will be unable to change into the inconstancy of autumn. -

Of what use will be a dish of roses to thee? - Take a leaf from my rose -garden. - A flower endures but five or six days - But this rose -garden is always delightful ".

The rose garden and the Bustān are characterized by a high level of linguistic elegance and fluidity. In addition, both featuring a high degree of effectiveness of the language. The Bustān However, a stronger seriousness is awarded in tone and intent.

Effect

The rose garden inspired many other works, including the Baharestan of Jami ( 1497 ). Many of the 405 proverbs and aphorisms established in the common parlance of all Persian society.

Even abroad, such as Turkey, Arabia and India, the plant enjoyed in the 16th century notoriety and served in the 19th century in British India as a teaching text for the Persian language.

Through the translations of the rose garden also succeeded in the European cultural space where Saadi soon made ​​under the enlightened readers of the 18th century a reputation as an educational and entertaining poets of the custom (English manner ) and morality. Due to the fad of the Oriental tale itself Saadi awareness among others, Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Renan, Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spread. Ralph Waldo Emerson led the work in the Americas and put it in front as one of the world 's sacred books. Henry David Thoreau quoted from, inter alia, in Walden.

Translations

Translations into European languages ​​began in the 17th century with, among other things André du Ryer (French) (1634 ), Friedrich Ochsenbach ( German ) ( 1636), Stephen Sulivan (1774 ) (English), Francis Gladwin (1806 ) and many others. Numerous translations followed in other languages, including Urdu, Russian, Italian, Romanian and Polish.

Known quote

The entrance of the United Nations hall is decorated with a quote from the Golestān ( The Rose Garden, 1, from the lifestyle of the Kings)

Translated:

The children of Adam are made of a material, as members of a womb of God, the Lord devised. Once a suffering only happens one of these links, then sounds his grief at once in all of them resist. A person that is not the plight of people stirred brothers, does not deserve that he still leads the human name.

This translation more true.

The children of Adam are made of a material, as members of one body of God, the Lord devised.

Once a suffering only happens one of these links, then sounds his grief at once in all of them resist.

A person that is not the plight of people stirred brothers, does not deserve that he still leads the human name.

German -language publications ( selection)

• Bellmann, Dieter (ed.), Graf, Karl Heinrich ( Translator ). Sheikh Saadi. The Rose Garden. C. H. Beck, 1998 ISBN 3-406-43337-5
• Gelpke, Basil (ed., translator ). Sheikh Saadi. Hundred and one story from the Rose Garden: A Breviary of oriental art of living. Manesseplatz -Verlag, 1997 ISBN 3-7175-1354-0
• Gelpke, Rudolf. Saadi of Shiraz. Hundred and one story from the Rose Garden: A Breviary of oriental art of living. Piper, 2004 ISBN 3-492-24334-7
• Goepel, Kathleen (ed.). Sheikh Saadi. The Rose Garden. Peacock, Berlin 1997 ISBN 3-86093-103-2