سعدی
دروغی مصلحتآمیز به که راستیِ فتنهانگیزهر که شاه آن کند که او گوید حیف باشد که جز نکو گوید
The Saadieh in the morning: limestone, round arches, roses, and the fish-house beneath all of it.
The expedient lie
Chapter 1: On the conduct of kings
I heard of a king who gave the order for a prisoner to be killed. The wretch, in that state of hopelessness, began to abuse the king and revile him — for it is said that whoever washes his hands of life says whatever is in his heart.
The king asked, "What is he saying?" One of the well-natured viziers replied, "My lord, he is saying: 'and those who restrain their anger and pardon people.'" The king was moved to mercy and spared his blood.
Another vizier, who opposed the first, said, "Men of our sort should speak nothing but the truth before kings. He was abusing you and cursing you." The king's face darkened at this and he said, "That lie of his pleased me better than this truth of yours — for that one faced toward a good end, and this one was built on malice."
دروغی مصلحتآمیز به که راستیِ فتنهانگیز
هر که شاه آن کند که او گوید حیف باشد که جز نکو گوید
An expedient lie is better than a truth that stirs strife. If a king does what his adviser says, it is a shame for that adviser to say anything but good.
Source: گلستان، تصحیح فروغی
The Golestan and the Bustan
Two books, two forms. The Golestan is rhymed prose with verse set into it; the Bustan is entirely in couplets.
Golestan
Eight chapters, in prose that rhymes without being verse. Saadi finished it in 1258, a year after the Bustan, and it has been the Persian schoolbook ever since.
GolestanBustan
Ten chapters, all in couplets. It is the book of ideals: justice, benevolence, love, humility, contentment. Where the Golestan shows people as they are, the Bustan says what they should be.
BustanThe Saadieh
Saadi's tomb on the hillside northeast of Shiraz, in a garden that was his own retreat in the thirteenth century.
The fish-house
Beneath the garden, an octagonal pool fed by a qanat that still runs. The steps go down and the air turns cold. Red fish move in the water and people drop coins in. It is the only thing under the Saadieh that moves.
- Open
- Daily, 8:00 to 21:00
- Ticket
- 30,000 toman
- Address
- Saadieh, Bustan Blvd, Shiraz
Saadi events
Saadi Day falls on 1 Ordibehesht each year at the Saadieh.
- Saadieh
Saadi Day
The Saadi commemoration at the Saadieh, with an exhibition of manuscripts.
3 Stories