The times., 1899-08-20
A Persian Poet.

A book which will prove of interest to
students of Oriental literature is "The
Gulistan: being the Rose-Garden of Shaikh
Sa'adi," translated in prose and verse by
Sir Edwin Arnold. 1t reminds the casual
reader OF Omar Khayyam, being written in
the same metre, and dealing with some
what the same subjects. There is pre-
face, in which Arnold says:
OF late, when have wished-in my study and
among my books-to take refuge from politics
and bodily pain, and that ocean OF careless and
worthless written work upon which float the
scattered islands that fair and good in
current literature l have betaken myself to
good old Sa'ad, and especially to his "Gulistan."
The Shaikh was really the Horace and Marco
Polo of the Far East combined into rich
and gracious nature. Ancient enough to carry
with him a fine favor of the Old World, he is as
modern and as much for all time as the Roman
poet himself American Emerson
The career OF this traveler-poet Is de-
cdedly interesting. He made fourteen pill
grimages to Mecca, and wandered through
Asia Minor, Barbary, Abysinnia, Egypt,
Syria, Palestine, Armenia, Arabia, all Per-
sia, India, and a part OF Europe. One OF
his adventures is recorded in the preface
of the present book. In India he came
upon the Holy Shrine of silva, and found
that the image of the god in the temple
had habit of raising Its hands in bless
ing TO all the awe-struck and admiring
people. Sa'adi hid in a convenient place
and saw the priest working the miracle by
means of rope. The priest also saw the
intruder; there was a scuffie, and the
Brahman found himself In the deep well
of the temple, while the traveller fled for
safety. He was made prisoner by some
crusader, and after various other happen
ings came back to Shiraz in his seven
tieth year, to write the exquisite verses
now translated by Arnold.
What marvellous life was hisi To have
mingled with the strange, picturesque,
perilous, and wonderful migratory life of
time without railways and steamboats,; to
have tasted of all delights of the born
vagabond, and finally to come back, bear
ing treasures of philosophy and poetic
thought, and fitted by experience and
practice to give them expression. Truly
Sa'adi was to be envied. His translator
says of this particular work:
1t Is sort OF intellectual pilau; a literary
curry; kabab of versatile genius, where grave
and gay, humor and wisdom, laughter and tears
spiced by a soft worldiness and gentle stocism
that makes the dish irresistible however jaded
may be the mental appetite.
We have all heard-and sometimes
writhed under-the maxim, Faithful are
the wounds of a friend" but there is an
other side to that subject, and the Persian
philosopher puts it in this way: He tells
the story OF two men, one of whom lied
and the other told the truth, but from
widely different motives. This was the
verdict Of the King:
Better that lie from him than thy truth
funess from thee, since the lie of good in
tent, but the truthfuness builded on malignity.
The book is melange of anecdotes,
somewhat in the manner of the Arabian
Nights, but without their gorgeous and
extrayagant imagery, couplets. and qua
trains expressing some sentiment or bit of
philosophy, and scraps of the poets own
experience. tNew York: Harper & Bros. ST.