گلستان سعدی
Saadi’s Golestān
Saadi's Golestān
سعدی با ذکر داستان‌های حکمت‌آمیز، با زبانی فاخر اما ساده و دلنشین هنجارهای اجتماعی را در قالب حدیث مردم، بازگویی می‌کند و با کلامی روشن خواننده را به جهان تفکر سوق می‌دهد. با این همه نثر سعدی با همه سادگی رنگ و بوی عوامانه ندارد، گرچه هزل را گاه گاهی چاشنی سخنان بی‌همتای خود می‌کند. آوردن چند بیت شعر در پایان قصه‌های کوتاهش تأثیر شگفت‌آور داستان‌ها را چند برابر می‌نماید
شهرخ پیرنیا –
Saadi’s book the گلستان Golestān [‘rose garden’] is a collection of short stories/fables, each one written in simple language and containing an educational moral message within. For this reason, the Golestān can be thought of as a collection of stories for everyday people. Through his clear writing, the reader is then led into Saadi’s special world of thinking. Despite its simplicity, it is not true to say that the language of the Golestān is overly common or lacking in colour or flair. On the contrary, Saadi is known for using wit and double entendre to add layers or ‘flavour’ to his poetry, and he ends each fable with rhyming couplets in order to emphasise its conclusion in a memorable way.
– By Shahrokh Pirnia
Excerpt 1 from Saadi's Golestān, (from Chapter 4 , fable number 8):
Poem recited by Hāleh Sattāri Pour
Several officials of Sultan Mahmud [a Ghaznavid king] once asked Hasan Maymandi [his court minister] what the sultan had told him about a certain affair. He replied: ‘You must yourselves have heard it.’ They rejoined: ‘What he says to thee he does not think proper to communicate to the like of us.’ He answered: ‘Because he trusts that I shall not reveal it. Then why do you ask me to do so?’
‘A knowing man will not utter every word which occurs to him.
It is not proper to endanger one’s head for the king’s secret.’
Tani chand az bandegān-e mahmud goftand hasan-e mey-mandi rā ke soltān emruz to rā che goft dar folān maslehat? Goft “bar shomā ham pushide nabāshad.” Goftand “ānche bā tu guyad, be amsāl-e mā goftan ravā nadārad.” Goft: “be e’temād-e ān ke dānad ke naguyam, pas cherā hami-porsid?”
‘Na har sokhan ke bar-āyad beguyad ahl-e shenākht,
Be serr-e shāh sar-e khishtan nashāyad bākht’
تنی چند از بندگان محمود گفتند حسن میمندی را که سلطان امروز تو را چه گفت در فلان مصلحت؟ گفت: بر شما هم پوشیده نباشد. گفتند: آنچه با تو گوید، به امثال ما گفتن روا ندارد. گفت: به اعتماد آن که داند که نگویم، پس چرا همی‌پرسید؟
نه هر سخن که برآید بگوید اهل شناخت
به سرّ شاه سر خویشتن نشاید باخت
Excerpt 2 from Saadi's Golestān, (from Chapter 4, fable number 11):
Poem recited by Hāleh Sattāri Pour
An astrologer, having entered his own house, saw a stranger sitting down beside his wife, and, getting angry, began to insult him, whereon both fell upon each other and fought so that turmoil and confusion ensued. A pious man who was at the scene exclaimed:
‘How knowest thou what is in the zenith of the sky,
If thou art not aware of who is in thy house?’
– English translation of the last two lines courtesy of www.sufinama.org
Monajjemi be khāne dar-āmad, yeki mard-e bigāne rā did bā zan-e u be ham neshaste, doshnām va saqat goft va fetne va āshub khāst. Sāheb-deli ke bar in vāqef bud goft:
‘To bar owj-e falak che dāni chi-st
Ke nadāni ke dar sarā-yat ki-st’
منجّمی به خانه درآمد. یکی مرد بیگانه را دید با زن او به هم نشسته. دشنام و سقط گفت و فتنه و آشوب خاست. صاحبدلی که بر این واقف بود گفت
تو بر اوج فلک چه دانی چیست
که ندانی که در سرایت کیست
Excerpt 3 from Saadi's Golestān, 'Bani Ādam' (from Chapter 1, fable number 10):
Poem recited by Hāleh Sattāri Pour
‘The sons of Adam are limbs of a frame,
For in creation, from one soul they came.
If hard times cause one member to feel pain,
At ease and rest, the others can’t remain.
If a limb’s in pain and you do not care,
The title ‘human being’ you can’t share!’
English translation 2:
‘Human Beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul,
If one member is inflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain,
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you can not pertain.’
Bani ādam a’zā-ye yek peykar-and
Ke dar āfarinesh ze yek gowhar-and
Chu ozvi be dard āvard ruzgār
Degar ozv-hā rā namānad qarār
To k-az mehnat-e digarān bi-ghami
Nashāyad ke nām-at nahand ādami
بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوی به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضوها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی‌غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی
Notes:
This excerpt from the Golestān is perhaps one of Saadi’s most famous. It has even been inscribed on a large carpet inside the United Nation’s headquarters in New York. There are two popular versions of this poem, with the key difference being the first line:
اعضای یکدیگرند a’zā-ye yek-digar-and ‘they are members of one another’
or
اعضای یک پیکرند a’zā-ye yek peykar-and ‘they are members of one frame’.
We have provided you with two different English translations of this poem, the first version translating from یک پیکر yek peykar and the second version translating from یکدیگر yek-digar.
It should be noted that the Persian Language Online team prefers the version which uses یک پیکرند yek peykar-and, which we believe to be the original version written by Saadi. ‘Members of one frame’ implies intrinsically that all humans are equal, whilst also belonging to something bigger than themselves, such as a shared sense of ‘human feeling’. Whereas ‘members of one another’ doesn’t carry this implication that all humans are mutually dependent pieces of something bigger – it is missing the bigger picture idea of an interconnected sense of belonging to or ‘frame’ of humanity that grounds us all to one another.
Excerpt 4 from Saadi's Golestān, (from Chapter 1, fable number 37):
Poem recited by Hāleh Sattāri Pour
Someone had brought information to Nushirvan the Just that an enemy of his had been removed from this world by God the most high. He asked: “Hast thou heard anything about his intending to spare me?”
‘There is no occasion for our rejoicing at a foe’s death,
Because our own life will also not last forever.’
Kasi mozhde pish-e anushirvān-e ādel āvard, ke shenidam ke folān doshman-e to rā khodā-ye azz va jall bardāsht, goft: hich shenidi ke marā bogzāsht:
‘Agar bemord adu jā-ye shādmāni nist
Ke zendegāni-ye mā niz jāvdāni nist’
کسی مژده پیش انوشیروان عادل آورد، گفت: شنیدم که فلان دشمن تو را خدای عزّ و جلّ برداشت. گفت: هیچ شنیدی که مرا بگذاشت؟
اگر بمرد عدو جای شادمانی نیست
که زندگانی ما نیز جاودانی نیست
