Scented Clay
Saadiسعدی
گلی خوش‌بوی در حمام روزی
One day in the bathhouse a piece of scented clay
رسید از دست محبوبی به دستم
came into my hand from the hand of a beloved.
بدو گفتم که «مشکی یا عبیری؟
I said to it, ‘Are you musk or ambergris,
که از بوی دلاویز تو مستم؟»
that your heart-catching scent makes me drunk?’
بگفتا: «من گلی ناچیز بودم
It said, ‘I was a worthless piece of clay,
و لیکن مدتی با گل نشستم
but for a time I sat beside the rose.
کمال همنشین در من اثر کرد
The perfection of my companion worked in me;
وگرنه من همان خاکم که هستم»
otherwise I am the same earth that I am.’
A note for readers
These lines come from the preface of the Golestan. They turn on a pun: gel is clay, of the scented kind once used for washing in the bathhouse, and gol is the rose, and in Persian script the two words are written alike. The clay owes its scent to its company, and the poem is quoted as a lesson in the influence of good companions.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the ramparts of Tus,
with the skull of Kay Kavus set down before it.
A Bird on the Walls of Tus
یکی قطره باران ز ابری چکید
خجل شد چو پهنای دریا بدید
A drop of rain fell from a cloud;
it was ashamed when it saw the breadth of the sea.
A Drop of Rain
ابتدای کار سیمرغ ای عجب
جلوه‌گر بگذشت بر چین نیم‌شب
The beginning of the Simorgh’s story, how wonderful:
in all his splendour he passed over China at midnight.