EXCUSE FOR REMISSNESS IN SERVICE AND CAUSE FOR PREFERRING SOLITUDE

  My negligence and backwardness in diligent attendance at the royal

court resemble the case of Barzachumihr, whose merits the sages of

India were discussing but could at last not reproach him with anything

except slowness of speech because he delayed long and his hearers were

obliged to wait till he delivered himself of what he had to say.

When Barzachumihr heard of this he said: 'It is better for me to

consider what to speak than to repent of what I have spoken.'

        A trained orator, old, aged,

        First meditates and then speaks.

        Do not speak without consideration.

        Speak well and if slow what matters it?

        Deliberate and then begin to talk.

        Say thyself enough before others say enough.

        By speech a man is better than a brute

        But a beast is better unless thou speakest properly.

  How then could I venture to appear in the sight of the grandees of

my lord, may his victory be glorious, who are an assembly of pious men

and the centre of profound scholars? If I were to be led in the ardour

of conversation to speak petulantly, I could produce only a trifling

stock-in-trade in the noble presence but glass beads are not worth a

barleycorn in the bazar of jewellers, a lamp does not shine in the

presence of the sun, and a minaret looks low at the foot of Mount

Alvend.

        Who lifts up his neck with pretentions,

        Foes hasten to him from every side.

        Sa'di has fallen to be a hermit.

        No one came to attack a fallen man.

        First deliberation, then speech;

        The foundation was laid first, then the wall.

  I know bouquet-binding but not in the garden. I sell a sweetheart

but not in Canaan. Loqman the philosopher, being asked from whom he

had learnt wisdom, replied: 'From the blind, who do not take a step

before trying the place.' First move about, then stir out.

        Try thy virility first, then marry.

        Though a cock may be brave in war

        He strikes his claws in vain on a brazen falcon.

        A cat is a lion in catching mice

        But a mouse in combat with a tiger.

  But, trusting in the liberal sentiments of the great, who shut their

eyes to the faults of their inferiors and abstain from divulging the

crimes of humble men, we have in this book recorded, by way of

abridgment, some rare events, stories, poetry and accounts about

ancient kings, spending a portion of our precious life in the task.

This was the reason for composing the book Gulistan; and help is

from Allah.

        This well-arranged composition will remain for years,

        When every atom of our dust is dispersed.

        The intention of this design was that it should survive

        Because I perceive no stability in my existence,

        Unless one day a pious man compassionately

        Utters a prayer for the works of dervishes.

  The author, having deliberated upon the arrangement of the book, and

the adornment of the chapters, deemed it suitable to curtail the

diction of this beautiful garden and luxuriant grove and to make it

resemble paradise, which also has eight entrances. The abridgment

was made to avoid tediousness.

           I The Manners of Kings

          II On the Morals of Dervishes

         III On the Excellence of Content

          IV On the Advantages of Silence

           V On Love and Youth

          VI On Weakness and Old Age

         VII On the Effects of Education

        VIII On Rules for Conduct in Life

        At a period when our time was pleasant

        The Hejret was six hundred and fifty-six.

        Our intention was advice and we gave it.

        We recommended thee to God and departed.