Selection from Gratitude’s Nail

By Saadi Shirazi

Understanding and good judgment can’t be taught. 
God instills these qualities in you; 
and if He denies you a heart that knows the truth, 
the truth will sound in your ears like the heart
of falsehood. Look how many joints He used
to craft the miracle of a single finger;
how foolish, then, and misguided, to point
one’s finger at even the smallest part 
of what He’s made. Consider the many bones
He’s linked in such a way that we can walk.
If our ankles could not bend, or our knees
and feet, none of us could take a step; 
and we can prostrate ourselves so easily
because our vertebrae are not one bone. 
Instead, he’s made two hundred of them lie
one within the other, He, Who’s fashioned
a ball of clay like you with such a well-
balanced temperament. The veins in your flesh
are like three hundred sixty rivers flowing 
on a planet’s surface, bringing to your head
vision and discretion, judgment and intellect.
Your heart pumps precious life into your limbs
and precious wisdom into your heart. 
The beasts have fallen low to walk on all fours, 
while you ride high on two legs, like aleph.

By Saadi Shirazi, translated by Richard Jeffrey Newman in Selections from Saadi’s Bustan

(Global Scholarly Publications, 2006)