Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Bostan of Saadi (The Orchard), Books I and II by Sheikh Muslihu-d-Din Sa'adi of Shiraz, Barlas Mirza Aqil-Hussain, Idries Shah ISBN: 0-86304-034-9 Publisher: Octagon Press, Limited Pub. Date: 01 July, 1984 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)
Rating: 3
Summary: Some trees are missing from this Orchard
Comment: "The Orchard" and "The Rose Garden" are the major works of a Persian mystic of the 13th century who called himself Saadi of Shiraz. In Iran (what once was Persia) Saadi is revered as one of the foremost poets of Persian culture. His works are part of world literature and have inspired Western authors like Diderot, Voltaire, Hugo and Balzac. Goethe included adaptations from Saadi in the "West-Oestlicher Divan". In the United States, Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed a poem of his own to Saadi.
"The Orchard" is entirely in verse (epic metre) and consists of stories illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice, benevolence, spiritual love, humility, resignation, contentment, education, gratitude, repentance and prayer) as well as of reflections on the behavior of dervishes and their ecstatic practices.
Saadi of Shiraz organized the book in 10 chapters, one chapter for each virtue. It turns out that this edition of "The Orchard" contains only the first 4 chapters. Amazon is not to blame for saying that this edition contains "Books I and II" of "The Orchard." The dust cover makes the same claim.
Surprisingly for a work of world literature, there is no complete translation of "The Orchard" in print. The web boasts a complete translation, which turns out to cover all 10 Chapters but omits substantial parts of each chapter. Islamic mystics do not sell well in English speaking countries after 9/11, so there may not be a good comprehensive translation soon.
The Persian language of Saadi of Shiraz apparently is not easy to translate. His prose style, we are told on the highly recommended website "www.iranchamber.com/literature/saadi/saadi.php", is simple but impossible to imitate, flowing quite naturally and effortlessly. Its simplicity, however, is grounded in a semantic web consisting of synonymy, homophony, and oxymoron buttressed by internal rhythm and external rhyme.
However, there is nothing that cannot be translated (with the unavoidable distortions for sure - all translators are traitors of the text). There have been excellent translations of Chinese Tang Dynasty poets, why should there be no good, enjoyable translations of a Persian poet of the stature of Saadi of Shiraz? At the moment though, there is virtually no translation I could recommend.
The translation by Mirza Aqil-Hussain for this edition of "The Orchard" is clumsy and often opaque. It appears to cling too closely to the original and lacks the creative freedom necessary to make an ancient text accessible and enjoyable for modern readers. Also, an introductory chapter on the background of Saadi of Shiraz and the tradition of Persian Sufi writing is sorely missing from this edition.
Here are some examples to illustrate my point:
When Mirza translates "The skin of the date is full of sweetness / But when you remove it, there is a stone within"(12) the choice of verb ("remove") is not only uninspired and dull, the translation also does not help the reader grasp the meaning of the image. In another translation on the web these lines read "His verses are like dates encrusted with sugar - when opened, a stone is revealed inside." And a short explanation tells the reader that "stone" is meant to allude to "truth," as in "a kernel of truth."
Another telling example is Mirza's translation of the beginning of a story: "I have heard that in the days of Hatim / There was a fleet-footed fumy horse in his stable"(119). This passage reads in another translation "Hatam Taei possessed a horse whose fleetness was as that of the morning breeze." From the glossary to this story I learn that the original Persian must have said that the horse was as fast as "smoke." Mirza's choice of "fumy" was probably inspired by "smoke," and the f-f-f alliteration most likely refers to the sound of blowing, or of a horse running very fast. These are very intelligent choices for a translation. However, in the end the image of a "fleet-footed fumy horse" is rather awkward in comparison to the more freely chosen "morning breeze."
Shiraz of Saadi used "smoke" because later in the story the fast and beautiful horse literally goes up in smoke. It is being sacrificed as a welcome meal to guests who came to admire the horse, because the host has no other meat to offer and values generosity to his guests higher than the possession a very precious horse (which is the morale of the story). Maybe the most appropriate translation would have been "Hatim possessed a horse as swift as vanishing smoke."
Bottom line: to enjoy the fruits from this orchard we need to take a different road.
 |
Title: The Rose Garden (Gulistan) of Saadi by Saadi, Omar Ali-Shah ISBN: 2909347060 Publisher: Tractus Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
 |
Title: The Rose Garden (The Gulistan) of Shekh Muslihu'd-Din Sadi of Shiraz by Sheikh Muslihu-d-Din Sadi, Edward R. Eastwick, Idries Shah ISBN: 0863040691 Publisher: Octagon Press, Limited Pub. Date: 01 June, 1979 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
 |
Title: The Conference of the Birds by Farid-Ud-Din Attar ISBN: 0140444343 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1984 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Walled Garden of Truth: The Hadiqa by Abu Al-Majd Majdud Ibn Adam Sanai Al-Ghaznavi, Hakim Sanai, David Pendlebury ISBN: 0900860359 Publisher: Octagon Press, Limited Pub. Date: 01 June, 1974 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master by Hafiz, Daniel Ladinsky ISBN: 0140195815 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
