Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The Shah Nameh

Persian Literature, Volume 2,
Comprising The Shah Nameh

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Persian Literature, Volume 2,
Comprising The
Shah Nameh, The Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan , by
Anonymous, et al, Translated by James Ross
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Title: Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The
Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: July 30, 2004 [eBook #13060]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERSIAN
LITERATURE, VOLUME 2, COMPRISING THE SHAH NAMEH,
THE RUBAIYAT, THE DIVAN, AND THE GULISTAN ***
E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Karen Lofstrom, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Notes: Volume 1 of this work can be found in Project Gutenberg's
library. See http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/10315
A few original typesetter's errors (inconsistent spelling, superfluous
quotation marks, and the like) have been corrected in the interests of
producing a smooth-reading text.
The reader will also occasionally find a line of asterisks between

sections. These are found in the original and they indicate a missing
section. It is not clear why the translator skipped these sections.
Reference to another, complete, translation of the Gulistan shows no
appreciable differences, in length or subject, between the sections
included and those excluded.

PERSIAN LITERATURE
comprising
THE SHÁH NÁMEH, THE RUBÁIYÁT THE DIVAN, AND THE
GULISTAN
Revised Edition, Volume 2
1900
With a special introduction by RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL, Ph.D.
Professor of Rabbinical Literature and the Semitic Languages at
Columbia University

CONTENTS
THE GULISTAN
Introduction

CHAPTER
I. Of the Customs of Kings
II. Of the Morals of Dervishes
III. On the Preciousness of Contentment
IV. On the Benefit of Being Silent
V. On Love and Youth
VI. Of Imbecility and Old Age
VII. Of the Impressions of Education
VIII. Of the Duties of Society

THE GULISTAN
BY
SA'DI
[Translation by James Ross]

INTRODUCTION
The Persian poet Sa'di, generally known in literary history as
Muslih-al-Din, belongs to the great group of writers known as the
Shirazis, or singers of Shiraz. His "Gulistan," or "Rose Garden," is the
mature work of his life-time, and he lived to the age of one hundred and
eight. The Rose Garden was an actual thing, and was part of the little
hermitage, to which he retired, after the vicissitudes and travels of his
earlier life, to spend his days in religious contemplation, and the
embodiment of his experience in reminiscences, which took the form of
anecdotes, sage and pious reflections, _bon-mots_, and exquisite lyrics.
When a friend visited him in his cell and had filled a basket with
nosegays from the garden of the poet with roses, hyacinths, spikenards,
and sweet-basils, Sa'di told him of the book he was writing, and
added:--"What can a nosegay of flowers avail thee? Pluck but one leaf
from my Rose Garden; the rose from yonder bush lasts but a few days,
but this Rose must bloom to all eternity."
Sa'di has been proved quite correct in this estimate of his own work.
The book is indeed a sweet garden of unfading freshness. If we
compare Sa'di with Hafiz, we find that both of them based their theory
of life upon the same Sufic pantheism. Both of them were profoundly
religious men. Like the strong and life-giving soil out of whose bosom
sprang the rose-tree, wherein the nightingales sang, was the fixed
religious confidence, which formed the support of each poet's mind,
amid all the vagaries of fancy, and the luxuriant growth of fruit and
flower which their genius gave to the world. Hafiz is the Persian
Anacreon. As he raises his voice of thrilling and unvarying sweetness,
his steps reel, he waves the thyrsus, and his flushed cheek shows the
inspiration of the vine. To him the Supreme Being has much in
common with the Indian or Thracian Dionysus, the god of perennial
youth, joyous revel, and exhilaration. Hafiz can never be the guide,

though he may be the cheerer of mortals, adding more to the gayety
than to the wisdom of life. But both in the western and in the eastern
world Sa'di must always be looked upon as the guide and enlightener of
those who taste life, and love poetry. It has been said by a wise man
that poetry is the great instructor of mature minds. Many a man turning
away in weariness from the controversies, the insincerities, and the
pretentiousness of the intellectualists around him, has exclaimed, "Give
me my Horace." But Horace with all his bonhommie, his common
sense, and his acuteness, is but the representative of a narrow