Gulistan
The Gulistan (also known as Golistan), which is subtitled "The Rose Garden", is a work written primarily in prose by the medieval Persian poet Saadi.
We find ourselves before a mainstay of Persian literature and also of all times and cultures, its depth being almost unfathomable. It is a series of short and succinct stories or anecdotes that have a similar structure: first the approach is stated and between this and the outcome, voices that could be those of the narrator himself (that is, Saadi), or certain characters from each story, they enunciate a couple of linked aphorisms of great depth and relevance. The story usually continues until its outcome and at the end of it we usually have, as a moral, another pair of linked aphorisms. Sometimes there are only the intermediate aphorisms or, if the story is very short, only those at the end.
This work represents, in addition to the interesting arguments of the stories, the situations, etc., that are shown in it, the most pertinent and extensive collection of aphorisms related by a single person, in this case it is Saadi. Therefore, anyone who tries to improve this work will crash headlong into it, which stands as a mainstay, as we have already said, of universal literature. Just as in his Don Quijote Cervantes put proverbs or sayings of importance to the reader into the mouth of Sancho Panza, as we have already commented, we will appreciate that Saadi's work is at the level or exceeds the words of Sancho, mainly, in the work that we put as a comparison.
Despite this, the vast Iranian or Persian culture, which perhaps also sins a little vague (like the Chinese), for not making an effort to try to spread it beyond its borders, has not tried to translate this work into all languages.
The influence of the work is vast as well. Not only in Iran itself, where aphorisms are mentioned in normal people's conversations, but also because of the mention of one of the Gulistan passages by the United Nations, very wisely, that being said.
We find ourselves before a mainstay of Persian literature and also of all times and cultures, its depth being almost unfathomable. It is a series of short and succinct stories or anecdotes that have a similar structure: first the approach is stated and between this and the outcome, voices that could be those of the narrator himself (that is, Saadi), or certain characters from each story, they enunciate a couple of linked aphorisms of great depth and relevance. The story usually continues until its outcome and at the end of it we usually have, as a moral, another pair of linked aphorisms. Sometimes there are only the intermediate aphorisms or, if the story is very short, only those at the end.
This work represents, in addition to the interesting arguments of the stories, the situations, etc., that are shown in it, the most pertinent and extensive collection of aphorisms related by a single person, in this case it is Saadi. Therefore, anyone who tries to improve this work will crash headlong into it, which stands as a mainstay, as we have already said, of universal literature. Just as in his Don Quijote Cervantes put proverbs or sayings of importance to the reader into the mouth of Sancho Panza, as we have already commented, we will appreciate that Saadi's work is at the level or exceeds the words of Sancho, mainly, in the work that we put as a comparison.
Despite this, the vast Iranian or Persian culture, which perhaps also sins a little vague (like the Chinese), for not making an effort to try to spread it beyond its borders, has not tried to translate this work into all languages.
The influence of the work is vast as well. Not only in Iran itself, where aphorisms are mentioned in normal people's conversations, but also because of the mention of one of the Gulistan passages by the United Nations, very wisely, that being said.
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