Sa’di: The “Prince” of the Persian

Poetry
By:
M.S. Tajar, Ed.D.,Ph.D.
Former lecturer, Persian language & culture
University of the Phillipines, Diliman

“The green leaves of the trees,

Which dance with every breeze,
In the eyes of the wise people,
Are God’s love-letters, to please!”
Sa’di (1207-1291 A.D.)

“Take a leaf from my garden,

O’ wise men of the world, and refresh;
Flowers last only for a few days,
But, my poems are forever fresh!”
Sa’di (1207-1291 A.D.)
It was the well-known Irish poet of the early 20th Century, Mr. William Butler
Yeats (1865-1939) who once said: “poetry is born out of the quarrel with
oneself!” (This reminds us of Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines,
who, before being executed by the Spanish colonizers, expressed his own feelings
in a sad poem. In his last poem, entitle “Mi Ultimo Adios” (My Last Farewell), he
ended his poem this way: “Morir es descansar” (That means, to die is to rest from
all conflicts, abuses, oppressions, etc.)

But, then again, centuries before these two gentlemen, the poets of Persia,
who had dominated the field of poetry since the dawn of civilization, beginning
with Zoroaster ( 9628-5451 B.C.) and Maani (216-274 A.D.) the two great
Persian prophets, and the earliest well-known Persian poets, had said almost the
same thing.

Later on, some other Persian poets (like Firdausi, Hafiz, Rumi, Omar
Khayyam, Nizami, Attar, Baba Taher, etc.) have opined that: “A good poetry
comes from a broken heart, and a contrite soul.” (Like the Psalms of Prophet
David A.S. in the Old Testament).
A Persian poem reads as follows:

“Everything broken,
Is useless outright!
Except the broken heart,
That becomes so bright!”

A second Persian poem says:

“A Musk kept inside a jar,

Is not of anyone’s use;
Break it, and you shall smell,
The heavenly aroma, O’Muse!”

Still another poem, but this time in the form of a song, by the popular Iranian lady
singer, Mahasti, says:

“The Songs of all the people,

And their national story,
Is about their painful defeats,
Or about their glory!.”

The Origin of Poetry

 Nobody can say, for sure, when and where poetry was born; though some
Sociologists believe that the rhythmic chirpings of the birds, or the melodious
galloping
Of the horses, or the bells of the camels or the herds, could have started some
rhymes in the minds of the primitive man, some 35,000 years ago, and it later
evolved into the earliest forms of rhyme, music and ultimately poetry, as we know
it today.

As for the Persian poetry, which has the most outstanding collections of
poetry in the world of literature, (according to Professor Akhtar Mahdi of the
Jawaharla’l Nehru University in India and Sir Seyyed Ahmad Khan of the
Aligarh University, also in India, and many other scholars around the world) we
don’t have much accurate information about its beginnings either, but definitely it
goes beyond 3,000 years, because, as we have seen before, the Book of Avesta (or
Zand-Avesta) which contains Gathas (the Psalms of the Persian Prophet,
Zoroaster,) is more than 2,500 years old, already.

What makes a Good Poetry?

That is a tough question to answer. Because, everybody is different, and

thus, based on their different tastes, the peoples’ choices of poetry also differ
greatly; Nevertheless, just like in many other abstract ideas, the answer could also
be as easy as: “The air is fresh, because I can feel it!”

On the more technical side, we know that the two most important elements
in poetry are as follows:
1. What is being said.
2. How well it is being said.
(In Arabic and Persian literature, these are called: 1.Ma’aniy 2.Bayaan.)
However, the “How well it is being said,” in poetry is more important than
the “What is being said,” meaning, the form in poetry is more important
than the substance, although both of them are very important (just like in
painting, in which the paints and the brush are the same, but a Picasso or a
Van Gogh painting is totally different from the work of an amateur). For
further studies regarding the elements of form and substance in poetry, I
would like to refer the readers to the school of “Formalism” which
flourished in the early 19th Century, in Russia; But here, I just would like
to quote a well known Muslim scholar, by the name of Al-Jahiz, who was
an authority in the field of literature in general, and poetry in particular;
Al-Jahiz in his famous work entitled “Al-Hayawan” says:

“Every nation and every people possess some words of wisdom of their
own,
But, what makes one literature or poetry shine above the others,
 Is not much about what it says, but rather how well it says it!”

In Persian poetry, the “How to say it” or the beautiful form of the poetic
expression is second to none; in fact, it is the number one!

Signature Poetry

A unique quality of the Persian poetry which deserves to be mentioned

here is what we call a signature poetry. Unlike the western forms of art, in which
only the paintings and sculptures are “signatured” but not the poetry, in Persian
poetry, almost all the great poems are signed. In this technique, which is called
“Takhallus,” the poet weaves his/her own name into the last part of the poem, (just
like a jewel, that is woven into a masterpiece Persian rug) and the composer of
every great piece is known, by looking at the end of his/her composition.

But, in the western poetry, this “signature system,” is absent, probably

because poetry has never been that strong form of literature in the west, as it has
always been in the east.

Just to realize the difference between the two forms of poetry, one should
consider that, while in English, and other Western poetry, there are no more than a
dozen styles, in the Eastern poetry, and particularly in Persian, there are more than
537 styles!

(For reference, see Professor G.Mateen, Lecturer of the social sciences,

University of Bishkik, Republic of Kirgizistan. Also “The Persian Letters,”
Tehran, Iran 1995, p.152.)

Sa’di’s Poetry and Prose

While most of the good poets of the world are not very successful in prose
and many excellent writers of the world could not be categorized as good poets, as
well, yet, Sa’di is an exceptional case, a class of his own; he is truly a Supreme
Master of both the poetry and prose. And no other Master, in Persia or elsewhere
in the world, could match his sweetness and style.
His two Masterpieces are:

1. The Golestan (Rose Garden), which shows his mastery of prose, as well as
poetry, and a unique combination of both (something that Shakespeare
and Dante tried to create in later periods).
2. The Boostan (the Orchard) which stands at the zenith of the world poetry
in Ghazal or the odes.
 The twin books are unmatched, in their sweetness and style, not only in the
Persian Literature, but in the world literature, as a whole; and they have often
been imitated, but have never been equaled.

That is why, Sir Seyyed Ahmad Khan, the great Indian Educator, and
founder of the Aligarh University of India, says:

“The greatest Greek and Latin poets are no match for the Master poets of
Persia.” (The Persian Letters’ Sum. 2,002 P.129)

And his countryman, Professor Akhtar Mahdi of the Jawaher La’l

Nehru University of India confirms his view by saying:

“The Persian language possesses the richest literary heritage in the world,
today.” (Ibid)

Sa’di himself was aware of this fact, because some 700 years ago, he said:

“My compositions and writings are reaching China and beyond, and the
people are presenting them to each other as if they were plates of gold and
silver!” (Sa’di, the Golestan. P.15)

Many years later (or almost a century after Sa’di) his famous compatriot,
i.e. the Great Hafiz of Shiraz, raised the bar of the Persian Poetry with his
excellent love songs or the Odes, even higher.

The Hafiz of Shiraz (1325-1390 A.D) whom the American translator, Mr.
Daniel Ladinskey calls “The greatest poet who ever walked this earth,” said:

“The Parrots of India,

Will sing the love songs,
With this sugar, that I send,
From Persia to Bengal!”

So, while Sa’di was conquering the vast regions of the Central Asia and
China through the Silk Road by his poems and his prose, the Hafiz of Shiraz
went on to conquer the eastern flank of Persia, i.e. the Indian subcontinent and
the Bengal region (No wonder still there are more than 5,000 manuscripts of Sa’di
and Hafiz’s Divan in these areas, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka, Kashmir and up to China!)

These two compatriots masterpieces, later reached even Europe, and they
charmed many intellectuals of the West, like W.G. Goethe (the greatest poet in
Europe and the national poet of Germany) who even wrote his great work titled
“The Eastern Divan” as a tribute to those great Persian poets.

And thus, these two masters, who both originated from the historic city of
Shiraz- the site of the Persepolis and the grandeur of the ancient Persia, started to
conquer the world literature, from the ruins of the Old Persian Empire- the Oldest
Empire in the world.

But, the difference this time was that, while Cyrus the Great (who was
called Great some 200 years ahead of Alexander the Great) and his compatriots,
Darius the Great and Xerxes, conquered the world, with their armies, and they
established the first empire in the history, that stretched from Ethiopia up to India,
with its 127 provinces and 28 different nationalities (see Prof. Arthur Pope’s
“The History of the Persian Civilization”), their descendants like Sa’di and
Hafiz, from the same capital of Persepolis, started to conquer the world of
literature, “Not by might nor by power, but by love and by the pen!”

(Here, a popular Biblical song comes to mind that says: “Not by might,
nor by power, but my words, says the Lord.” As the late Ayatollah Khomeini
also used to say: “The pen is mightier than the sword.”)

This new generation of the Persians, re-energized by the new Islamic spirit
of culture and civilization, started a new wave of world conquest, in a different
way--- the conquest of hearts and minds. Their conquest which did not bring any
harm or bloodshed, but rather love and friendship to the nations, has lasted much
longer than the armies of Cyrus the Great, Darius the Great, Xerxes, Saladin,
Shah Abbas and Nader Shah of Persia, combined. (It just proves that the
“Dialogue of Civilizations” proposed by the former Iranian President Dr.
Mohammad Khatami in the year 2000 was a better way to universal peace, than
the American Philosophy of “Clash of Civilizations!” Incidentally, The “Dialogue
of Civilizations” proposed by the Iranian President, was adopted by the Untied
Nations, just a few months before the 9/11 tragedy. A long time ago, another
Persian Poet, who was also a great Sufi and he composed many “Rubaiyyat”, by
the name of Baba Taher, had said: “I am a Sufi, king of the kings/ My throne is
tied to my shoe strings!”)

After the poems of Sa’di and Hafiz, and many other poets from Persia
influenced the foreign lands, from India to Central Asia, Turkistan to China, and
Turkey up to the Balkans in the Eastern Europe, a unique phenomenon in the
world literature took place. Thousands of foreigners, who were greatly influenced
by the Persian Poetry and Literature, like the Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis,
Kashmiris, Turks, Albanians, Yugoslavs, Bosnians, etc. started to compose their
pomes, not only in their own native tongues, but also in Persian as well, just like a
“Baptismal of Fire” in the field of Poetry. Because, by now, the “Persian Poetry”
had already emerged as the “Standard of Poetry” in the East.

Within the span of 1000 years, in the Indian Subcontinent alone, there
emerged some 10,000 poets and writers who produced their works and
compositions in a foreign language, namely Persian, thanks to Sa’di and Hafiz
and many other Persian Masters of poetry who had shown the way.

This magic of Persian poetry went so far that even the Moghul Emperors
in India like Babur Shah and many of their ministers, started to make their own
compositions in Persian. (Could you imagine the children of Genghis Khan, the
terror, turning into some poetry-loving rulers! Truly that is magic!)

Not only the moghuls, but even the Turkish Ottomans, who conquered
parts of Europe, would seek their leisure and relaxation in composing poems, not
in their own native Turkish language, but in Persian, as a standard language of
poetry and romance.

Ghaleb of Delhi and Iqbal of Lahore

Ghaleb of Delhi (1875-1940 A.D) who is considered as the “Father of the

Urdu Poetry” in the world, used to compose most of his poems in Persian, rather
than in his own mother tongue (Urdu/Hindi).

Once, he even said:

“Look at Persian
To see all that,
Glamour and Beauty;
Forget the Urdu,
Which is a colorless,
Collection of mine!”

Indeed, Ghaleb, or “Mr. Urdu” himself was so fascinated with the Persian poetry
that not only did he compose his own masterpieces in the Persian language (80%
of his poems) but he even went so far as to declare himself “A Persian
Nightingale”. (Just like a true Sufi, who becomes one with his beloved)

Ghaleb said, and I quote:

“Ghaleb was indeed,
A lovely nightingale,
Of the Persian Rose Gardens;
I, mistakenly,
 Called him Parakeet,
Of the Indian Soil!”

Not only Ghaleb, and his brilliant student Altaf Hosain Hali (1914-1955 A.D)
but many other earlier Indian poets as well, were very much in love with Persia,
and anything Persian, especially with its poetry and romance. Even the
contemporary Indian and other South Asian poets are very much fascinated by it.
For example, the late Dr. Mohammad Iqbal, the greatest poet-philosopher of the
20th century Indian Subcontinent, who later on became the national poet of
Pakistan, and was given the title of the “Poet of the East”, composed 60-70% of
his poems in Persian, rather than in his own mother tongue (Urdu or Hindi). Once
Dr. Iqbal said:

“Though Hindi is as sweet as the sugar/ Persian language is even

sweeter!”
“The Persian Letters”
p.203

And one day, when somebody asked Dr. Iqbal why his poems were
mostly in Persian, rather than in his own native tongue, he replied: “I don’t know;
I just receive those inspirations in Persian!” Then Dr. Iqbal went on to say:
“Actually, my soul is Persian!” (Ibid)
(Incidentally, Dr. Mohammad Iqbal’s dissertation which he wrote for his Doctoral
degree in Munich University, of Germany, in 1908, was titled: “The Development
of Metaphysics in Persia.”)

The Role of Sa’di in Persian Literature

There have been many educators, teachers, gurus and Sufis in the world,
each one with his own special style and way of reaching out and touching other
peoples’ lives and their hearts and minds. A Persian proverb expresses this fact by
saying: “Every flower has its own unique aroma.”

If we compared Sa’di with all other great teachers and the literati, who
have played some fundamental roles in the field of literature, we should say that
his unique style stands out as the “Rose in comparison to others flowers.”

From Socrates to Rosseau Rolled into One

While the French philosopher-educator Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-

1778 A.D.) wrote his famous book on child education, titled “Emil” with the
concept of letting student (i.e. Emil) learn his lessons in life, through the
“University of Experience” (which “tests” you before teaching you a lesson”), and
while some 2,500 years before him, Socrates used the question and answer
system, to let the students realize what “they already knew deep within
themselves, but they did not know that they knew it,” Sa’di combined all of the
above, but this time with a unique style of weaving poetry and prose together, and
by creating a sweet language, that no one else could match, before or after him.

And he said:
If truth is bitter, as I know,
I will use sweet words, as I can,
And I will be patient, to utmost,
Until you do fully understand!”

Sa’di as a Man of Reason, for Every Season

In his Rose Garden (The Golestan) Sa’di divides his masterpiece into
different chapters, in order to talk to every generation, in their own levels of
understanding.

In one chapter, he talks about “Childhood and Youth.” In the next chapter,
he talks about “The Rulers and Their Subjects” (employees/employer) etc.

Take note of these poems by Sa’di about good governance and the abuse of
authority, which is a hot topic, nowadays:

Sa’di says:
“If the king picks just one apple, by force,
From the tree of a helpless farmer,
His soldiers will surely uproot
All apple trees, all over the land!”
(Boostan p.281)
Again he says:

“A tyrant cannot stay in power forever,

But the curse on him will be eternal!”
(Boostan p.89)

Or he says:

“A king must look after,

His poor subjects’ welfare
Like a loyal guard!
For it is not the lamb,
That’s for the shepherd
But, rather it’s the shepherd
That for the sake of the lamb
 Has already been hired!
(Boostan p.95)

And his advice to the government leaders:

“In the time of peace,

Prepare for the war;
When the flood rises,
It’s too late to build a dam!”

In each chapter Sa’di uses his own vast experiences from his many years of
travel, his happiness and sadness, successes and defeats, to share them with his
readers-- especially the youth, who are the future of every nation.
While we all admire the 16th Century Spanish novelist, Miguel de
Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”, as one of the best novels in history, yet when it
comes to sweetness and practicality, every story of Sa’di touches more hearts and
teaches more lessons in life, than probably the entire book of Don Quixote-- both
in idealism and the practicalities of life.

Look at these poems, for example:

“O thou foolish man/Bread pleases thee not!

She is my sweetheart/Who appears ugly to thee!
To those in Paradise/Purgatory seems like hell
But to those in Hell/Purgatory is Paradise!”
(Boostan p.29)

Again he says:

“If you wanted to know,

The feeling of an ant,
Under your crushing feet,
Just imagine yourself,
Under the crushing feet of,
A mighty jumbo elephant!”
(Boostan p. 72)

Sa’di as a Traveler

One of the things that make Sa’di very much different from his formidable
“rival” the Great Hafiz of Shiraz, is his extensive travels abroad. And those
travels gave him many stories to tell. Look at these stories, for example:
Story No.1

“On my way to Mecca, for the Hajj pilgrimage, I had torn my shoes,
because I was walking in the desert. I complained to Allah: “O Allah! Is this how
you take care of your visitors? I don’t even have a shoe left to walk to your
House!” “While I was complaining about my own lack of shoes, suddenly I saw a
man who had no feet!”

Story No.2

“When we were in the City of Damascus, there came a time of hardship

and starvation. The famine was so severe, and the prices were so high, and the
people were so concerned with their daily living, that nobody cared much about
love, romance and arts, anymore!”

Story No.3

When I was visiting the Turkistan of Persia (Now the Chinese region of
Central Asia, along the Silk Road) I went to a Madrasah (Islamic seminary) to pay
a visit. A young man saw me sitting there, and he asked:
-“Sheikh! Where are you from?
-:Shiraz!” I answered.
-Do you know Sa’di of Shiraz?” He asked.
-“Yes, I do!” I answered.
-“We recite his poems in our school, everyday!”
And then he recited some of them for me; I listened quietly, with much
amusement, but I said nothing! Then I thanked him and said goodbye.”

“The next day, when I was leaving the city, with a caravan, I saw the
young man running towards us; when he reached me, he said, while still panting:

“Sheikh! Why, you did not tell me that you were Sa’di, yourself?”

“For so many years I have “seen” you in your poems and your prose, and today I
see you in person, it’s unbelievable!”

Sa’di and Freedom

To Sa’di, freedom was the highest form of living, without which nothing
else would matter. Centuries before the American philosopher Henry David
Thoreau (1817-1832) espoused the “Simplicity of Life” and long before Frank
Sinatra sung his classic song “I have plenty of nothing, and nothing is plenty for
me . . .” Sa’di came up with his own composition that described a happy and free
living:

“I don’t have a camel to mount,

Nor am I a mounted camel, myself!
Neither am I a ruler of mankind,
Nor am I ruled by any other man!
Sa’di and the Human Family

Sa’di was a great believer in one big human family, in which everybody is
his brothers’ (and sisters’) keeper; and this subject has been discussed in many of
his poems, as well as in his prose.

Many centuries before the late singer John Lennon sung his signature
song, :Imagine all the people”, Sa’di composed his own classic song that is now
engraved on the walls of the United Nations, in New York, as a reminder of the
“Brotherhood of man”. It goes like this:

“Human beings,
Are parts of one body,
For since creation,
Such do they remain;
The whole of that body,
Will be in trouble,
Should one of its parts,
Suffer and be in pain!
But, if you are not
Aware, O’ don’t care,
About the pains of
Other brethren,
You don’t deserve to
Even be counted,
A member of that
Family of man!

Sa’di’s Life

Born as Moslehud Din (“The reformer of the religion”) to a scholarly

family, in the city of Shiraz, near the Ancient Persian capital of Persepolis, in the
year 1207A.D. , Sa’di started his early childhood not much different from the rest
of the children of his time and place.
 His full name is Sheikh Moslehud Din Sa’di of Shiraz. He toured many
countries and regions- Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Arabia, (India), Turkistan
(China), Yemen, Palestine, Egypt and Noth Africa. When he returned home
from those arduous travels, he settled in his native city of Shiraz, and created his
two immortal works called “Golestan: (The rose Garden), which is a unique
combination of poetry and the best of the Persian prose, a book of literature unlike
any other; and his second masterpiece, the “Boostan” (The Orchard), which
contains the purest form of Ghazal (=Odes), which are the best, not only in Persian
Poetry, but in any human tongue that there is! Those two books, which are
unrivalled up to this day! (Some 700 years later) in the annals of world literature,
have made Sa’di, probably the best poet-writer in the totem pole of literature in the
history of mankind, and undoubtedly, The “Prince” of Persian poetry.

Allow me to end this article by quoting Professor Mohammad Ali

Forooghi, one of the great scholars and writers of the 20th century Iran, and one of
the most expert “Sa’diologists” of our time.

Professor Forooghi said, and I Quote:

“Sa’di is very unique in the history of Persian literature, nay, of the

world literature, as a whole.”

“His prose is so sweet and melodious that it sounds like a poem, and his
poems flow so naturally, as if they were just a prose!”

How true! How true!

Now, with permission from the great soul of the late Prof.M.A.Forooghi,I would
also like to add the following:
“Sa’di’s words of wisdom are so profound and interesting, that even the great
minds like Goethe, Voltaire or Omar Khayyam and Al-Ghazzali, etc. can enjoy
reading and learning some more, and yet, they are so unbelievably down to earth,
that even a street-sweeper can also understand. That’s the magic of Sa’di!

But, then again, as a famous Persian proverb says:

“Nobody can explain a rose, as a Rose does itself!”

(Its like the English saying: A Rose by any name smells the same!)
So, here are two more poems from Sa’di that explain his world view, and
his personality, best:
1.
“Sa’di! A good man,
 Who has a good name,
In the Society,
He shall never die!
But, the evil ones,
-Who wrong the people,-
Are already dead,
While they’re breathing!”

2.
“Love, has a beginning,
But, love has no end,
On this lovely thought,
One should always depend!”

Thank you!