The following is my translation of a verse from chapter 2 (“On Beneficence”) of the Bústán of Saʻdí. The translation follows an ABAB rhyme scheme (with a near-rhyme in line 4) and is set to iambic tetrameter.
Harm not the ant however slight
Carrying its tiny seed
For it’s alive, and what delight
There is in watching life so sweet
A typescript of the original Persian text of this verse appears below.
Adib Masumian 