... A bud from the Rose-Garden of the Gulistan, planted in
the six hundred and fifty-sixth year of the Hejira by the
Magician of Speech, the Sheikh Moslih-Eddin Sadi of Shiraz,
and arranged after eight divisions corresponding with the
Eight Gates of Paradise.... In the reign of the King of
Kings, Abou-Bequer ben Sad, the Most Magnificent, Viceregent
of Solomon, Shadow of the Most High God upon Earth.... In
the Name of God the Most Merciful.
... In those days there were robbers who dwelt in the mountain regions
of the land, having fortresses above the eagles' nests, so that no
army might successfully assail them. Their name weighed as a terror
upon the land, and they closed up the ways of the caravans, and wasted
the valleys, and overcame even the king's troops by their strength and
their fierceness--all being mountain-born and worshipers of devouring
fire. So the governors of the mountain provinces held council together,
and devised cunning plans by which to allure the robbers from their
inaccessible mountain dwelling, so as to destroy them utterly.
Therefore it came to pass that while the robbers were pursuing after
a caravan, the bravest troops of the king concealed themselves in the
defiles of the mountain, and there in silence awaited the return of the
band with many rich spoils and captives of price for ransom. And when
the robbers returned at night, hard pressed by that greatest enemy of
the wary, whose name is Sleep, the Persian soldiers set upon them, and
smote them, and bound their arms behind their backs, and drove them
as a herd of wild sheep into the city. So they were brought into the
presence of the king.
And the king commended the wisdom of the governors of the provinces,
saying: "Had ye not thus prevailed against them by craft, the strength
of the robbers might have waxed with each day of immunity, until it
would have been beyond our power to destroy them. The spring may be
closed at its mouth with a small covering; but when it shall have been
swollen to a river by long flowing, a man may not cross its current
even upon the back of an elephant.... Let each and all of these
prisoners be forthwith put to death as robbers are put to death under
our law."
But among these robbers there was a youth slender and shapely as a
young palm; and the fruit of his adolescence was yet unripe, the
verdure of the rose-garden of his cheeks had scarcely begun to bud. And
by reason of the beauty of the boy, a kindly vizier bowed his white
beard before the steps of the throne, and kissed the footstool of the
king, and prayed him with words of intercession: "Hear the prayer of a
slave, O Master of the World, Axis of the Circle of Time, Shadow upon
Earth of the Most High God!... This child hath never eaten of the
fruit of life, never hath he enjoyed the loveliness of the flower of
youth.... O Master of Kings, thy slave hopes that in thy universal
generosity and boundless bounty, thou wilt impose upon thy slave a
fresh obligation of gratitude, by sparing the life of this child."...
Kindly was the king's heart, but his mind was keen also and clear as
edge of diamond; and he knitted his brows because the discourse seemed
to him unwise, and therefore pleased him not: "O vizier, dost thou not
know that the influence of the good can make no impression upon the
hearts of those whose origin is evil? Hast thou not heard it said that
the willow giveth no fruit, however fertilizing the rain of heaven?
Shall we extinguish a fire, and leave charcoal embers alight? Shall we
destroy only the adult viper, and spare her young? It is better that
these people be utterly destroyed, root and branch, race and name."...
But the aged vizier, bowing respectfully, again prayed the king, justly
commending the wisdom of his words, but seeking exceptions and parables
from the sayings of the wise and the traditions of the prophets: "The
words of the Successor of Solomon are wisdom supreme to thy slave; and
were this boy indeed raised up by the wicked, he would surely become
as they. Yet thy slave believes that were he educated only by the best
of men, he might become most virtuous. Nor would thy slave spare aught
requisite to adorn the boy's heart and to make blossom the garden of
his mind.... The prophetical tradition saith: 'There is no child born
of woman that is not naturally born into Islam, though his father and
mother might afterward make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Gheber.... And
even the dog Kitmir, that followed and guarded the Seven Holy Sleepers
of Mecca, was able to enter Paradise by seizing with his teeth the hem
of their blessed robes."...
Then many other ministers and rulers of provinces, unwisely bewitched
by the beauty of the boy, united themselves with the vizier in potent
intercession. The king's face moved not, and the shadow remained upon
it; but he answered: "I pardon the boy by reason of the weakness of
your hearts, yet I perceive no advantage therein. O vizier, bear in
mind that the beneficent rains of heaven give radiance to the splendors
of the tulip and strength to the venom of serpent-plants. Remember well
that the vilest enemy may not be despised, and that the stream now too
shallow for the fish may so swell as to carry away the camel with his
burthen."...
But the vizier, weeping with joy, took the boy home, and clothed
him and fed him, and brought him up as his own sons and as the sons
of princes. Masters he procured for him, to make him learned in the
knowledge of tongues and of graces and of military accomplishments--in
the arts of archery and sword-play and horsemanship, in singing and
in the musical measurement of speech, in courtesy and truth, above all
things, and those high qualities desirable in the service of the King
of Kings upon earth. So strong and beautiful he grew up that the gaze
of all eyes followed whithersoever he moved, even as the waves all
turn their heads to look upon the moon; and all, save only the king,
smiled upon him. But the king only frowned when he stood before him,
and paid no heed to the compliments uttered concerning the young man.
One day, the vizier, in the pride of his happiness, said to the king:
"Behold! by the work of thy slave, the boy hath been reclaimed from
the ways of his fathers; the fountain of his mind hath been opened by
wise teachers, and the garden of his heart blossoms with the flowers of
virtuous desire."
But the king only laughed in his beard, and said: "O vizier, the young
of the wolf will always be a wolf, even though he be brought up with
the children of a man."
...And when the time of two winters had dimmed the recollection of
the king's words, it came to pass at last that the young man, riding
out alone, met with a band of mountain robbers, and felt his heart
moved toward them. They, also, knowing his race by the largeness and
fierceness of his eyes, and the eagle-curve of his nostrils, and
the signs of the wild blood that made lightnings in his veins, were
attracted to him, and spake to him in the mountain-tongue of his
fathers. And all the fierceness of his fathers returned upon him, with
longings for the wind-voices of the peaks, and the madness of leaping
water, and the sleeping-places above the clouds where the eagles
hatched their young, and the secrets of the unknown caverns, and the
altar of flickering fire.... So that he made compact with them; and,
treacherously returning, slew the aged vizier together with his sons,
and robbed the palace, and fled to the mountains, where he took refuge
in his father's ancient fortress, and became a leader of outlaws. And
they told the tale to the king.
Then the king, wondering not at all, laughed bitterly and said: "O ye
wise fools! how can a good sword be wrought from bad iron? how may
education change the hearts of the wicked? Doth not the same rain which
nourisheth the rose also nourish the worthless shrubs that grow in
salty marshes? How shall a salty waste produce nard? Verily, to do good
unto the evil is not less blameworthy than to do evil unto the good."