Gulistan of Saadi
The Morals of Dervishes
Story 17
A bareheaded and barefooted pedestrian who had arrived from Kufah with the Hejaz-caravan of
pilgrims joined us, strutted about and recited:
‘I am neither riding a camel nor under a load like a camel.
I am neither a lord of subjects nor the slave of a potentate.
Grief for the present, or distress for the past, does not
trouble me.
I draw my breath in comfort and thus spend my life.’
A camel-rider shouted to him: ‘O dervish, where art thou going? Return, for thou wilt expire from
hardships.’ He paid no attention but entered the desert and marched. When we reached the station at
the palm-grove of Mahmud, the rich man was on the point of death and the dervish, approaching his
pillow, said: ‘We have not expired from hardship but thou hast died on a dromedary.’
A man wept all night near the head of a patient.
When the day dawned he died and the patient revived.
Many a fleet charger had fallen dead
While a lame ass reached the station alive.
Often healthy persons were in the soil
Buried and the wounded did not die.
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Gulistan of Saadi | The Morals of Dervishes | Story 16
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