A Year with Sadi

A YEAR WITH SADI Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Sadi of Shiraz, along with Hafiz, Nizami & Rumi is considered one of the great mystical and romantic poets of Persia. His masterpieces, The Rose Garden and The Bustan (Orchard) have been a major influence in the East and West for the past 700 years. His Divan of ghazals are still much loved. His ruba'is have also been an influence on the poets that followed him. Here is a selection of 366 poems from his ghazals, ruba'is and masnavis. Introduction includes his Life and Times and Poetry. There is also a Selected Bibliography. The correct rhyme-structure has been kept as well as the beauty and meaning of these wise, inspirational and spiritual poems. 393 pages. Thoreau: "I can find no difference between Sadi and myself... He is not Persian, he is not ancient, he is not strange to me... If Sadi were to come back to claim a personal identity with the historical Sadi, he would find there were too many of us..." Emerson: "Sadi, though he has not the lyric flights of Hafiz, has wit, practical sense, and just moral sentiments. He is the poet of friend¬ship, love, self-devotion, and serenity." COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ'S 'DIVAN'. "It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of many mystical works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. "Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz." Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith (b.1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Lalla Ded, Mahsati and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, children's books, biographies and a dozen screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com