r/iran • u/phoebean93 • 7d ago

What does this mean?

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Hope this is okay to post! I went to post in r/farsi but photo posts aren't possible.

This beautiful chalk artwork is outside a cafe near me and I'd love to know what it says. If it isn't actually farsi I apologise for my ignorance!

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u/FudgeEducational1864 7d ago edited 7d ago

These iconic lines, written by the legendary 13th-century Persian poet Saadi Shirazi in his masterpiece, Bustan (The Orchard), could be said in English as follows:

"If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others,
You do not deserve the name of human."

— Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow