Literati to celebrate National Sadi Day

TEHRAN,April 21(MNA) -- Poet Sadi, the author of the classical Persian masterpieces Gulistan and Bustan, will be commemorated in Iran today, which is National Sadi Day. The Iranian people and literati attend a program arranged for this day at the Fars National Library and Archives in Shiraz, Sadi’s birthplace, which is also home to his tomb. The Center for the Study of Sadi is the organizer of the program entitled “Sadi in Our Times”, center Director Kurosh Kamali Sarvestani said in a press release on Saturday. “The program will focus on Sadi’s influence on our modern literature, culture and ethics,” he added. Scholars and academic figures are scheduled to deliver speeches on various subjects during the program. Asghar Dadbeh will give a speech on the “Need for Sadi in Our Times” and Amir-Ali Nojumian will present a lecture on “Dialogue Functions of Sadi in Modern Iran”. Some Turkish scholars including Hicabi Kirlangic of Ankara University and Mustafa Cicekler of Istanbul University have been invited to the program. Kirlangic is scheduled to lecture on “Turkish Intellectuals and Sadi” and Cicekler will speak on “The Heirs and Narrators of Sadi’s Knowledge in Turkey”. Kamali Sarvestani said that 287,100 copies of books, which include 167 titles, have been published about Sadi and his works in Iran over the last year. National Sadi Day will also be celebrated in some other Iranian cities. The National Orchestra is planning to perform a concert at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall this evening. Homayun Rahimian will conduct the orchestra and vocalist Mohammad Motamedi will perform some of Sadi’s poems on Prophet Muhammad (S). Sadi (c. 1213-1291) is known for his works the Bustan (The Orchard) and the Gulistan (The Rose Garden), which have been translated into almost every major language. Andre du Ryer was the first European to present Sadi to the West by means of a partial French translation of the Gulistan in 1634. Adam Olearius followed soon with a complete translation of the Bustan and the Gulistan into German in 1654. British orientalists Edward Backhouse Eastwick (1814–1883) Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) and several other Western translators rendered the Gulistan and the Bustan into English.