[.uk] Rose Garden of Sa'di (ISBN 0766177661)

Book Description:
1919. One book found in the Wisdom of the East series. Today, throughout Mohamedan and Parsi India and in Persia, three books are taught in the schools. The Book of the Gulistan, or Rose Garden, was finished when Sa'di was over sixty years old. It contains both prose and verse. Most often the prose tells the story and the verse points the moral; yet here and there the tale is in verse, and there are also many beautiful quatrains and couplets scattered throughout the book. The roses of Sa'di are very real, not merely heads bound upon artificial stems, but roses girt with all their thorns about them.

A bright gem of Sufi literature:
Short, but rich with tremendous philosophical depth and command of style, Sa'di's work symbolizes all that is beautiful in the liberal Islamic poetic tradition. It emerged at a time when Baghdad was once a great center of arts and sciences, and when Sufism had sprung up and thrived within a culture that would eventually come to harden its doctrines and restrict new ideas and forms of expression. Although the several short divisions of the book appeared out of joint on first reading, I would not be surprised if someone better versed than I in this field has argued well for a linear progression. Regardless, the work stands strong as a marvelous collection of witticisms, musings, and keen observations on the human condition - both subtle and blunt in type. The poet of Shiraz was evidently quite the wanderer. Educated in Baghdad, he traveled to Persia, India, Ethiopia, Syria (narrowly escaping Frankish enslavement), N. Africa, and Anatolia before returning to his homeland. His writing is often daring and irreverent, sharply critical of conventional political structures as well as newfangled religious charlatans. The commonfolk and the rich are equally exposed for their faults. But despite Sa'di's wise and stern moralizing, there remains a strong undercurrent of wry humor and an Epicurean aloofness counterbalancing the solemnity of any real ethics. One can almost see the author flashing us a cryptic smile when he preaches in verse. Is he insinuating moderation in thought? Are there hidden meanings? Is it all just an artistic exercise in irony? I for one don't know, and I find "The Rose Garden" all the more charming for inducing me to second-guess my assumptions about its intent. Cranmer-Byng has done a wonderful service in rendering an English translation of this rarely found Arabic classic.