Saadi



Saadi Shīrāzī (Persian: ابومحمّد مصلح‌الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی), better known by his pen name Saadi (Persian: سعدی, romanized: Saʿdī), also known as Sadi of Shiraz (سعدی شیرازی, Saʿdī Shīrāzī; born 1210; died 1291 or 1292), was a major Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval period. He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts.

Gulistan (1258)
که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار دگر عضوها را نماند قرار تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی ke dar 'āfarīn-aš ze yek gowhar-and čo 'ozvī be dard āvarad rūzgār degar 'ozvhā-rā na-mānad qarār to k-az mehnat-ē dīgarān bīqam-ī na-šāyad ke nām-at nahand ādamī'' Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain. The children of Adam are limbs of a whole Having been created of one essence. When the calamity of time afflicts one limb The other limbs cannot remain at rest. If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others You are not worthy to be called by the name of "human".
 * بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
 * ''banī 'ādam a'zā-ye yek peykar-and
 * Translation:
 * Alternative translation:
 * Chapter 1, story 10

'A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated man Less valuable than a blade of fresh grass on the table And to him who has no means nor power A burnt turnip is a roasted fowl.'
 * I never lamented about the vicissitudes of time or complained of the turns of fortune except on the occasion when I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers [shoes]. But when I entered the great mosque of Kufah with a sore heart and beheld a man without feet I offered thanks to the bounty of God, consoled myself for my want of shoes and recited:
 * Chapter 3, story 19. Translated by Sir Edwin Arnold. (Persian version)


 * Use a sweet tongue, courtesy, and gentleness, and thou mayst manage to guide an elephant with a hair.
 * Chapter 3, story 28


 * When gnats act in concert they will bring down an elephant: when ants set to work, and move in a body, they can strip a fierce lion of its hide
 * Chapter 3, story 28


 * Whatever is produced in haste goes easily to waste.
 * Chapter 8, story 36