Persian Poetics

“In every moment of life leaves a breath,

now that I look, few are left ‘till my death.

You were asleep while fifty years pass by,

five days are left, will you open your eye?”

—Saʿdī, the Gulistān, Introduction

The Gulistān was so popular that it became the standard textbook for Persian education from the Balkans to the Bengal. For centuries students of all backgrounds learned Persian with this work, which helped cement its place in the tradition.

Though Persian education has slowly faded following colonization, this work remains in the Muslim mind. Many of Saʿdī’s proverbs—both in Persian and in translation—are quoted by Muslims of all educational backgrounds from the Balkans to the Bengal.

Studying this valuable work gives students a view into the Turco-Indo-Persianate tradition that Saʿdī’s work was once a centerpiece of.