Bani Adam
-Sa'adi Shirazi* (1213-1293) Persian (Farsi)
first - the voice of Tissa Mirfakrai
followed by the voice of Zohreh Bayatrizi
Bani Odam azoye yek pekarand*
Children of Adam are members of one body
Ke dar ofahrinesh ze yek goharand
Who are created from the same origin;
Cho ozvi beh dard ovarad ruzgor
If one member is in pain,
Degar ozvho ra namonad karor (garor)
the other members cannot be at peace.
continue - Bani Adam - part 2 (Arabic)
*It’s interesting that Tissa and Zoreh used different Persian words at this point.
Tissa explains, "The two different version are both valid. Remember that we are talking about a 13th century poem,
which has been handed down by several generations of copyists as well as orally.
"yek pey-karand" means they are limbs of the same body,
while "yek digarand" means they are like each other's limbs."
*Biography of Sa'adi Shirazi
Saadi was born in Shiraz around 1200. He died in Shiraz around 1292. He lost his father in early childhood. With the help of his uncle, Saadi completed his early education in Shiraz . Later he was sent to study in Baghdad at the renowned Nezamiyeh College , where he acquired the traditional learning of Islam.
The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Persia led him to wander abroad through Anatolia , Syria , Egypt , and Iraq . He also refers in his work to travels in India and Central Asia . Saadi is very much like Marco Polo who traveled in the region from 1271 to 1294. There is a difference, however, between the two. While Marco Polo gravitated to the potentates and the good life, Saadi mingled with the ordinary survivors of the Mongol holocaust. He sat in remote teahouses late into the night and exchanged views with merchants, farmers, preachers, wayfarers, thieves, and Sufi mendicants. For twenty years or more, he continued the same schedule of preaching, advising, learning, honing his sermons, and polishing them into gems illuminating the wisdom and foibles of his people.
When he reappeared in his native Shiraz he was an elderly man. Shiraz , under Atabak Abubakr Sa'd ibn Zangy (1231-60) was enjoying an era of relative tranquility. Saadi was not only welcomed to the city but was respected highly by the ruler and enumerated among the greats of the province. In response, Saadi took his nom de plume from the name of the local prince, Sa'd ibn Zangi, and composed some of his most delightful panegyrics as an initial gesture of gratitude in praise of the ruling house and placed them at the beginning of his Bostan. He seems to have spent the rest of his life in Shiraz .
His best known works are the Bostan (The Orchard) and the Golestan (The Rose Garden). The Bostan is entirely in verse (epic metre) and consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice, liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behaviour of dervishes and their ecstatic practices. The Golestan is mainly in prose and contains stories and personal anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a variety of short poems, containing aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections. Saadi demonstrates a profound awareness of the absurdity of human existence. The fate of those who depend on the changeable moods of kings is contrasted with the freedom of the dervishes.
For Western students the Bostan and Golestan have a special attraction; but Saadi is also remembered as a great panegyrist and lyricist, the author of a number of masterly general odes portraying human experience, and also of particular odes such as the lament on the fall of Baghdad after the Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics are to be found in Ghazaliyat ("Lyrics") and his odes in Qasa'id ("Odes"). He is also known for a number of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human kindness and cynicism, humour, and resignation displayed in Saadi's works, together with a tendency to avoid the hard dilemma, make him, to many, the most typical and lovable writer in the world of Iranian culture.
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