Golestan (Saadi)

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Saadi (right) suggests that his friend write the rose garden . Mughal miniature after Saadi's introduction, from a rose garden manuscript of circa 1645 in the Freer Gallery of Art , Washington, DC

The Golestān ( Persian گلستان"Rose Garden"), written in 1259, is a collection of Persian poems and stories. Along with Bustān , it is the second generally known work by the poet Saadi and is one of the most important works of Persian literature .

Quirk

The work, written mainly in prose and interspersed with verses of different shapes and meters , is thematically and formally based on the Bustān , but appeared not in ten, but in eight chapters - similar to the eight gates to paradise . The work contains stories and personally colored anecdotes , aphorisms , advice and humorous reflections. It includes chapters on dealing with kings, the morality of dervishes , the satisfaction and benefits of silence, love and youth, weakness and old age, the effects of upbringing and rules about the good life.

Saadi answers the question about the intention of his work in the introduction to Golestān as follows:

“In the morning, when the desire to return prevailed over the desire to stay, I saw that [my friend] was plucking together a hem of roses and basil and hyacinth and amaranth and preparing to return to town. As you know, one cannot trust the existence of the roses in the garden, I said, and cannot rely on the promises of the rose garden; but you know the saying of the wise: Where we cannot find a solid foundation, we should not bind our hearts. What is to be done? asked he. I replied: To the amusement of those observing and to the amusement of the onlookers, I can write a book of the rose garden, the leaves of which are not torn with a violent hand by the wind of the late year, and in whose spring delight the change of time does not prove its inconstancy through the fluttering sense of autumn.

Why should a whole bouquet of roses for you?
Take out a leaf from my rose garden.
After five or six days you must see the roses wither,
The beauty of my garden will endure forever. "
- Translation by Karl Heinrich Graf 1846

The rose garden and the bustān are characterized by high linguistic elegance and fluidity. In addition, both are characterized by a strong expressiveness of the language. The bustān , however, is given greater seriousness in tone and intent.

effect

The rose garden inspired many other works, including the Bahārestān of Jami (1497). Many of the 405 proverbs and aphorisms found their way into the common parlance of all Persian social classes.

The work was already well known in other countries such as Turkey , Arabia and India as early as the 16th century and served as a teaching text for the Persian language in British India in the 19th century .

Through translations, the rose garden also found its way into the European cultural area, where Saadi soon made a name for himself among enlightened readers of the 18th century as an instructive and entertaining poet of manners and morals . As a result of the fad of oriental subjects, Saadi's fame spread among others with Denis Diderot , Voltaire , Ernest Renan , Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Ralph Waldo Emerson introduced the work to the United States and presented it as One of the world's sacred books . Henry David Thoreau quoted from it a. a. in Walden .

Translations

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

Well-known quote

Saadi quote on a tombstone in Goslar

The entrance hall of the UN - headquarters in New York City is by a quote from the Golestān decorated ( "rose garden", Chapter 1, About the way of the kings, the 10th story):

بـنـی آدم اعــضــای یکديگرند
که در آفـرينــش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عـضـو ها را نـمـاند قـرار
تو کـز محنت دیگران بـی غمی
نـشــایـد که نـامـت نهند آدمی
banī ādam a'żā-ye yek-dīgar-and
ke dar āfarīneš ze yek gauhar-and
čo 'ożw-ī be-dard āwarad rūzegār
degar 'ożw-hā-rā na-mānad qarār
to k'az meḥnat-e dīgarān bī-ġamm-ī
na-šāyad ke nāmat nahand ādam-ī 


Literal translation and rewrite

Adam's children are linked as members,
Since they were born out of a pearl.
Adds only one link suffering to the world,
which keeps the other links in turmoil.
You, who are not affected by the plight of the others, is not
right to be called "a person".


Post-poetry by Karl Heinrich Graf 1846:

The Sons of Adam are all brothers,
made of one material like the members of one body.

If illness only affects one limb
, the others have neither rest nor rest.

If the other pain does not burn you in the heart,
you do not deserve to be called human.


Post-poetry in Alexandrians :

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

As soon as suffering only happens to one of these members,
then its pain is immediately reflected in all of them.

A person who is not touched by the need of fellow human beings
does not deserve to still bear man's name.

German-language editions (selection)

Web links

Wikiquote: Saadi  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Article in EIranica
  2. ↑ cf. Article in the Iranchamber
  3. ↑ cf. Headings of the work editions
  4. ^ Project Gutenberg
  5. ↑ cf. Article about the Bustān in the EIr
  6. ↑ cf. Article EIr
  7. ↑ cf. Article EIr
  8. ↑ Moḥammad 'Alī Forūġī (ed.): Complete works of Sa'dī , Ǧāwīdān-Verlag, pers., Tehran or date (acquired in the 1970s).
  9. ↑ Transcription according to DMG
  10. ↑ Mankind is meant.
  11. ↑ Cf. Koran 5:32: If someone kills a person, it should be as if he had killed all mankind; and if someone sustains a person, it should be as if he had sustained the life of all mankind.
  12. ^ Project Gutenberg
  13. ↑ quoted from zeit.de