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Poems by Saadi
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Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī , also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī ( Mawlawī ) (1207 –1273), and in western countries known as Rumi , was a 13th-century Persian poet. Many nations have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy in the past seven centuries. Rumi's reputation is beyond national and ethnic borders. His poems have been translated into several languages. His books are among the best selling in the world.
A Star without a Name
When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,
it easily forgets her
and starts eating solid food.
Seeds feed awhile on ground,
then lift up into the sun.
So you should taste the filtered light
and work your way toward wisdom
with no personal covering.
That's how you came here, like a star
without a name. Move across the night sky
with those anonymous lights.
(Mathnawi III, 1284-1288)
Translated into English by Coleman Barks Maypop, 1994. Retrieved from www.khamush.com/poems.html
Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.
Translated into English by Annemarie Schimme. Retrieved from www.khamush.com/life.html
Bū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, Saadi Shirazi mostly known by his pen-name as Saadi, was one of the chief Persian poets of the medieval period. He is well-known in Persian speaking countries as well as some European countries. He is famous for the excellence of his poems and for his elevated social and moral views. Saadi is broadly known as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition.
The following poem by Saadi’s Gulistan is inscribed on the UN building, NY, USA
All men and women are to each other
the limbs of a single body, each of us drawn
from life’s shimmering essence, God’s perfect pearl;
and when this life we share wounds one of us,
all share the hurt as if it were our own.
You, who will not feel another’s pain,
you forfeit the right to be called human.
Translated into English by Newman. R, J.
http://richardjnewman.com/my-books/selections-from-saadis-gulistan/
In response to the praise being heaped upon him by the peo¬ple he was with, the great man raised his head and said, “I am as I know myself to be.”
You who list my virtues one by one,
please stop, you’re hurting me: The traits you name
are those that all can see. You do not know
the others lying hidden in my heart.
When people look at me, they see a man
who does what’s right, and so I please their eyes,
but underneath that surface I am evil,
and ashamed, and I walk with my head held low.
I am like the peacock, praised for the colors
of his tail, but ashamed of his ugly feet.
Translated into English by Newman. R, J. http://richardjnewman.com/my-books/selections-from-saadis-gulistan/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_Shirazi
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