Masnavi · 13th century

Famine in Damascus

Saadiسعدی

چنان قحط سالی شد اندر دمشق

Such a year of famine came to Damascus

که یاران فراموش کردند عشق

that lovers forgot their love.

چنان آسمان بر زمین شد بخیل

The sky grew so miserly towards the earth

که لب تر نکردند، زرع و نخیل

that neither crops nor palms could wet their lips.

بخوشید سرچشمه‌های قدیم

The ancient springs ran dry;

نماند آب، جز آب چشم یتیم

no water was left but the tears of orphans.

نبودی به‌جز آه بیوه زنی

Nothing rose but a widow’s sigh,

اگر بر شدی دودی از روزنی

if any smoke went up from a roof-hole.

چو درویش بی‌رنگ دیدم درخت

I saw the trees as pale and bare as dervishes,

قوی بازوان، سست و درمانده سخت

and the strong-armed grown weak and sorely helpless.

نه در کوه سبزی نه در باغ شخ

No green on the mountain, no shoot in the garden:

ملخ بوستان خورده، مردم ملخ

the locusts had eaten the orchards, and the people ate the locusts.

From: The Bustan (The Orchard)
Translation: Persiahaus Editors
Source: Draft translation from the Ganjoor text
Persian text: Ganjoor

A note for readers

The opening of a story in the first chapter of the Bustan, on justice and good government. Saadi describes a famine in Damascus, then meets a rich friend worn down to skin and bone, who explains that he suffers not from want but from the suffering of the poor: a man on the shore cannot rest while his friends are drowning. The first couplet is among the most quoted in Persian.