Saadi opens the Golestan with devotional rhymed prose and then crystallizes its claim in a two-line verse question. The checked public-domain text is Ganjoor’s transcription of the Golestan preface. Saadi composed the work in 1258.
The quotation preserves the source’s wording. This page removes editorial pronunciation marks from the target, regularizes Persian ک/ی, writes verbal prefixes with modern ZWNJ, and supplies modern punctuation. Ganjoor prints some ezafe and short vowels as reading aids; their removal here is an orthographic normalization, not a different text.
The verified mixed passage
منت خدای را، عز و جل، که طاعتش موجب قربت است و به شکر اندرش مزید نعمت. هر نفسی که فرو میرود ممد حیات است و چون برمیآید مفرح ذات. پس در هر نفسی دو نعمت موجود است و بر هر نعمتی شکری واجب.
از دست و زبان که برآید
کز عهده شکرش به درآید؟
The prose is (classical, literary, devotional). It balances paired Arabic-derived predicates—موجب قربت / مزید نعمت, ممد حیات / مفرح ذات—inside Persian clause structure. The verse then changes rhythm, removes predictable material, and poses a rhetorical question whose implied answer is “no one can adequately do so.” The shared material can be recovered with the method in Ellipsis and Gapping.
An opening without a modern finite verb
منت خدای را، عز و جل، که طاعتش موجب قربت است.
mennat-e khodây râ, azza va jall, ke tâ'at-ash mojeb-e qorbat ast.
Gratitude is due to God—mighty and majestic—whose worship brings nearness. (Saadi; classical devotional prose)
The isolated phrase منت خدای را does not follow neutral modern subject–predicate order. It belongs to a classical praise formula: literally something like “gratitude, to God.” Supplying “is due” in English is interpretation of the construction, not translation of an overt Persian verb.
The clitic in طاعتش is semantically the object of the verbal idea: “obedience to him / worship of him,” not necessarily “his act of obeying.” In nominalized expressions, Persian ـش can encode a relation that English must state with a preposition.
طاعتش موجب قربت است.
tâ'at-ash mojeb-e qorbat ast.
Obedience to him is a cause of nearness. (Saadi; formal, devotional)
در فارسی امروز میتوان گفت بندگی خدا آدمی را به او نزدیک میکند.
dar Fârsi-ye emruz mi-tavân goft bandegi-ye Khodâ âdami râ be u nazdik mi-konad.
In modern Persian one can say that worship of God brings a person nearer to him. (original explanatory paraphrase)
That version is clearer modern prose, but it loses Saadi’s concise nominal balance and rhyme in قربت / نعمت.
اندر plus a clitic, and balanced nominal predicates
و به شکر اندرش مزید نعمت.
va be shokr andar-ash mazid-e ne'mat.
And within gratitude to him lies an increase of blessing. (Saadi; classical rhymed prose)
اندر is the older/literary counterpart of modern در. Attached ـش refers back to God; its exact semantic contribution is compact, roughly “in gratitude to him / in that gratitude concerning him.” The clause also omits an overt copula. Modern prose can unpack it as و شکرگزاری از او نعمت را بیشتر میکند.
شکرگزاری از او نعمت را افزون میکند.
shokr-gozâri az u ne'mat râ afzun mi-konad.
Giving thanks to him increases blessing. (original modern paraphrase)
Saadi’s two halves mirror one another:
| Source phrase | Grammatical shape | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| طاعتش موجب قربت است | nominal subject + causal predicate | obedience leads toward nearness |
| به شکر اندرش مزید نعمت | fronted prepositional frame + verbless nominal predicate | gratitude yields increase |
This is rhetorical balance, not a reusable rule that the copula may always disappear. Copula omission here is licensed by elevated parallel prose.
One breath, two benefits
هر نفسی که فرو میرود ممد حیات است.
har nafasi ke foru mi-ravad momedd-e hayât ast.
Every breath that goes in sustains life. (Saadi; classical rhymed prose)
نفس here means a breath, not simply the self or soul. The relative clause که فرو میرود restricts it to inhalation. Arabic-derived ممد is an adjective “supporting, extending”; ezafe links it to حیات. An idiomatic translation uses a verb: “sustains life.”
و چون برمیآید مفرح ذات.
va chun bar-mi-âyad mofarreh-e zât.
And when it comes out, it refreshes the being. (Saadi; classical rhymed prose)
Temporal چون means “when,” not “because.” The subject “breath” is omitted but remains active from the previous sentence. مفرح ذات parallels ممد حیات, and the copula است is recoverable from the preceding clause. This is elegant gapping: repeated structure is understood rather than recited.
دم که فرو میرود زندگی را نگه میدارد و وقتی بیرون میآید آدم را سرحال میکند.
dam ke foru mi-ravad zendegi râ negah mi-dârad va vaqti birun mi-âyad âdam râ sar-hâl mi-konad.
A breath going in sustains life, and when it comes out it refreshes a person. (original modern explanatory paraphrase)
From prose calculation to aphorism
پس در هر نفسی دو نعمت موجود است و بر هر نعمتی شکری واجب.
pas dar har nafasi do ne'mat mowjud ast va bar har ne'mati shokri vâjeb.
Thus in every breath there are two blessings, and for every blessing a thanksgiving is due. (Saadi; aphoristic prose)
پس marks an inference: inhalation and exhalation have each been counted as a benefit, therefore one breath entails two debts of gratitude. The second half omits است after واجب, again under parallelism. Indefinite شکری means “an act of thanks,” not necessarily one specific prayer.
The move into verse turns that arithmetic into an impossible standard:
از دست و زبان که برآید
az dast va zabân-e ke bar-âyad
Whose hand and tongue could manage it? (Saadi; first verse line, rhetorical and literary)
In source spelling, the invisible ezafe after زبان links the pair to interrogative که: “the hand and tongue of whom?” از دست کسی برآمدن is an idiom meaning “to be within someone’s power.” The addition of زبان makes the idiom concrete while maintaining the question.
کز عهدهی شکرش به درآید؟
k-az ohde-ye shokr-ash be dar-âyad?
Who could discharge the obligation of thanking him? (Saadi; second verse line)
کز contracts که از. از عهده چیزی به در آمدن means to cope with or fulfill something. Attached ـش in شکرش again means thanks directed to him. The verb’s subject remains interrogative که from the preceding line. English typically repeats “who”; Persian lets meter and parallelism leave it understood.
چه کسی میتواند حق این همه نعمت را ادا کند؟
che kasi mi-tavânad haqq-e in hame ne'mat râ adâ konad?
Who can adequately repay all these blessings? (original modern paraphrase of the rhetorical question)
The modern question expresses the pragmatic answer—no one fully can—without preserving the hand/tongue wordplay.
Register shift and sound
The prose is already highly patterned: قربت / نعمت rhyme, as do حیات / ذات. The line break nevertheless signals a change to metrical verse, tighter ellipsis, and a direct rhetorical address to the reader. Prose and verse advance one argument; they do not merely decorate one another.
Common Mistakes
1. Reading را as an ordinary direct-object marker
⚠️ منت، خدای را دید.
mennat, khodây râ did.
Grammatical but irrelevant to the source: the opening را belongs to a classical praise construction; it does not make خدا the object of دید.
✅ آغاز دیباچه سپاس را شایستهی خدا میداند.
âghâz-e dibâche sepâs râ shâyaste-ye Khodâ mi-dânad.
The opening of the preface presents gratitude as due to God. (modern analytical paraphrase)
2. Taking چون as causal here
⚠️ چون برمیآید یعنی چون نفس بیرون میآید، علت جملهی بعدی است.
chun bar-mi-âyad ya'ni chun nafas birun mi-âyad, ellat-e jomle-ye ba'di ast.
Chun bar-mi-âyad means ‘because the breath comes out’ and gives a cause. (grammatical explanation, but the connector is temporal here)
✅ در این جمله باید چون را «وقتی که» ترجمه کرد.
dar in jomle bâyad chun râ «vaqti ke» tarjome kard.
In this sentence, chun should be translated ‘when.’
3. Repeating every omitted word inside the quotation
⚠️ سعدی نوشته است چون نفس برمیآید، نفس مفرح ذات است.
Sa'di neveshte ast chun nafas bar-mi-âyad, nafas mofarreh-e zât ast.
Saadi wrote, ‘when the breath comes out, the breath refreshes the being.’ (valid paraphrase falsely presented as exact quotation)
✅ در بازنویسی میتوان فاعل و فعل ربطی حذفشده را آشکار کرد.
dar bâz-nevisi mi-tavân fâ'el va fe'l-e rabti-ye hazf-shode râ âshkâr kard.
In a paraphrase, one may make the omitted subject and copula explicit.
4. Translating از دست برآمدن word for word
⚠️ چیزی از داخل دست و زبان بیرون آمد.
chizi az dâkhel-e dast va zabân birun âmad.
Grammatical but irrelevant literal transfer: the idiom concerns ability, not physical movement out of a hand.
✅ از دستم برمیآید که امروز این کار را تمام کنم.
az dast-am bar-mi-âyad ke emruz in kâr râ tamâm konam.
I am capable of finishing this work today. (modern use of the idiom)
Key Takeaways
- Read منت خدای را as a classical praise formula, not ordinary object marking.
- Recover omitted subjects and copulas from the parallel frames ممد حیات / مفرح ذات.
- Temporal چون, literary اندرش, and contracted کز are reading signals of the older register.
- The shift from rhymed prose to verse intensifies the argument through rhetorical ellipsis.
- Keep source quotation separate from any modern paraphrase that expands Saadi’s compact syntax.
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