Story OF THE MOTHER AND HER SON حکایت مادر و فرزندش
Story of the Mother and Her Son (حکایت مادر و فرزندش) is from Chapter VIII, On Thanks (در شکر بر عافیت) of Saadi’s Bustan (بوستان, “The Orchard”), written in 1257. The Persian verses are given with a rhymed English translation, couplet by couplet.
Bustan Saadi بوستان سعدی
| A youth from his mother’s wise counsels had turned; Her sorrowing heart, like the demon-fire, burned. In despair,, she his cradle in front of him brought; Saying, ” Oh weak of love, who have compacts forgot! Were you, one time, not weeping and helpless and small; And for nights, at your hands I had no sleep at all? | جوانی سر از رأی مادر بتافت دل دردمندش به آذر بتافت چو بیچاره شد پیشش آورد مهد که ای سست مهر فراموش عهد |
| Did you have in the cradle the strength you have now? You could not repel a weak fly from your brow! Are you not the same, whom a fly troubled then, Who to-day are a powerful leader of men? | نه در مهد نیروی حالت نبود مگس راندن از خود مجالت نبود؟ تو آنی کزان یک مگس رنجهای که امروز سالار و سرپنجهای |
| Again, yours will be such a state ‘neath the clay, That you can’t from yourself drive the ant swarms away. Will your eyes ever kindle their lustre again, When the worms of the tomb eat the pith of your brain? “ | به حالی شوی باز در قعر گور که نتوانی از خویشتن دفع مور دگر دیده چون برفروزد چراغ چو کرم لحد خورد پیه دماغ؟ |
| Don’t you see that a man who is blind of both eyes, When he walks, can’t the pit from the road recognize! If God you have thanked for your eyes, it is right! If you have not, your eyes also see not the light! | چه پوشیده چشمی ببینی که راه نداند همی وقت رفتن ز چاه تو گر شکر کردی که با دیدهای وگرنه تو هم چشم پوشیدهای |
| Neither reason nor sense did your tutor impart; The Maker created these gifts in your heart. If a truth-hearing mind God had kept back from you, As downright absurd, you’d have heard what was true! |
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by: Reza about (category: Bustan Saadi)
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