Book Description

'You're my most precious Soul & my Friend' THE GHAZALS OF SA'DI Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Sa'di (Saadi or Sadi) of Shiraz (1210-1291), a contemporary of Rumi who influenced him, was a Sufi Perfect Master (Qutub) Poet who expressed himself in the ruba'i form as well as hundreds of ghazals in his beautiful Divan that often also contained images from dervish dancing. Sa'di was a great traveller who spent forty years on the road throughout the Middle-East, North Africa and India and many of the incidents he experienced he wrote down in his two most famous works when he finally returned to his beloved birth-place... The Rose Garden (Gulistan) and The Orchard (Bustan). Sadi's mystical love poetry, his ghazals, although almost unknown in the West, are loved by his fellow-countrymen almost as much as those of Hafiz whom he greatly influenced. Here for the first time in English they can be read in all their beauty and power and spirit. The correct rhyme-structure has been kept as well as the beauty and meaning of these unique mystical poems. All of the wonderful 603 ghazals from Sa'di's Badayi and Tayyibat have been translated in clear, modern, meaningful English. Introduction: Life & Times & Poetry of Sadi of Shiraz and his influence on the East and the West and on the form and meaning of the ghazal. a Sufi Glossary and a large Selected Bibliography. Large Format Paperback "7 x 10" 517 pages. 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 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). "Perfect Translation." Amir, Amazon.com Paul Smith (b.1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Omar Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Baba Farid, Shah Latif, Mu'in, Lalla Ded, 'Iraqi, Ghalib, Nazir, Bulleh Shah, Ibn 'Arabi, Ibn Farid, Rab'ia, Majnun, Mansur Hallaj, Rahman Baba, Iqbal, Ghalib and many others as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and a dozen screenplays.