Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul,
If one member is afflicted with pain
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.

In Iran and many countries around the world, the famous Iranian poet Shaikh Mosslehedin Saadi Shirazi (1184-1283) is annually commemorated on April 20, known as Saadi Day.
Saadi was born in Shiraz, the capital city of Fars province. When Saadi was about twelve years old, his father passed away and the family came under the protection of Saadi”s uncle who had a small shop in Shiraz. With the help of his uncle, Saadi completed his early education in Shiraz. The end of his elementary education coincides roughly with the invasion of Central Asia by Mogolian Chingiz Khan.
At a young age, he left Shiraz for Baghdad to study literature and sciences at the Academy of Nezaameyyeh. It is recorded that he was in the Academy between 1195 and 1226. Saadi liked to travel, and lived much of his life as a wandering dervish. After Baghdad he traveled the region for nearly thirty years. He went to Shaam (Syria), Palestine, Hejaz (Arabia), Yemen, (Egypt) and Rum (Roman Anatolia or Turkey), which was in Byzantine control at the time.
Saadi died in his hometown of Shiraz. Even from the very early days after the poet”s death, the tomb of Saadi in Shiraz became a place of pilgrimage to lovers of poetry and literature. The tomb was firstly renovated during Karim Khan Zand (1750-1779), and it was then greatly elaborated in 1952 during Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1941-1979). “The tomb of Saadi of Shiraz will scent of love, even a thousand years after his death”. That line of poetry composed by Saadi, inscribed on the gate leading into the garden surrounding the tomb, welcomes all those who enter to pay homage to this master of the Persian Poetry and Literature.

His works
His best known works are “Bustan” (“The Orchard”) completed in 1257 and “Gulistan” (“The Rose Garden”) in 1258. “Bustan” is entirely in verse (epic meter) and consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice, liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behavior of dervishes and their ecstatic practices. “Gulistan” is mainly in prose and contains stories and personal anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a variety of short poems, containing aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections. Saadi demonstrates a profound awareness of the absurdity of human existence. The fate of those who depend on the changeable moods of kings is contrasted with the freedom of the dervishes.
For Western students, “Bustan” and “Gulistan” have a special attraction; but Saadi is also remembered as a great panegyrist and lyricist, the author of a number of masterly general odes portraying human experience, and also of particular odes such as the lament on the fall of Baghdad after the Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics are to be found in “Ghazaliyat” (“Lyrics”) and his odes in “Qasa’id” (“Odes”). He is also known for a number of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human kindness and cynicism, humor, and resignation displayed in Saadi’s works, together with a tendency to avoid the hard dilemma, make him, to many, the most typical and loveable writer in the world of Iranian culture.
Saadi distinguished between the spiritual and the practical or mundane aspects of life. In his “Bustan,” for example, spiritual Saadi uses the mundane world as a spring board to propel himself beyond the earthly realms. The images in “Bustan” are delicate in nature and soothing. In the “Gulistan,” on the other hand, mundane Saadi lowers the spiritual to touch the heart of his fellow wayfarers. Here the images are graphic and, thanks to Saadi’s dexterity, remain concrete in the reader’s mind. Realistically, too, there is a ring of truth in the division. The Sheikh preaching in the Khanqah experiences a totally different world than the merchant passing through a town. The unique thing about Saadi is that he embodies both the Sufi Sheikh and the travelling merchant. They are, as he himself puts it, two almond kernels in the same shell.
Saadi’s prose style, described as “simple but impossible to imitate” flows quite naturally and effortlessly. Its simplicity, however, is grounded in a semantic web consisting of synonymy, homophony, and oxymoron buttressed by internal rhythm and external rhyme.
Chief among these works is Goethe’s “West-Oestlicher Divan.” Andre du Ryer was the first European to present Saadi to the West, by means of a partial French translation of “Gulistan” in 1634. Adam Olearius followed soon with a complete translation of the “Bustan” and the “Gulistan” into German in 1654.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was also an avid fan of Saadi’s writings, contributing to some translated editions himself. Emerson, who read Saadi only in translation, compared his writing to the Bible in terms of its wisdom and the beauty of its narrative.
One of his more famous quotes is, “Whatever is produced in haste goes easily to waste.” Another famous poem focuses on the oneness of mankind.
The same poem is used to grace the entrance to the “Hall of Nations” of the UN building in New York with this call for breaking all barriers:
“Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul,
If one member is afflicted with pain
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.”

Dr. Iraj Bashiri of the University of Minnesota, in his translation of the opening words of Sa’adi’s ‎Gulestan, offers the following translation: ‎
“Of One Essence is the Human Race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base.
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace.
The Unconcern’d with Others’ Plight,
Are but Brutes with Human Face.

here you can download Saadi’s two masterpieces:

Bustan

Golestan

dic.academic.ru
tebyan.net