Artist Gerda Roosval-Kallstenius (Swedish painter) 1864 – 1939

I would like to thank my friend Lynn Marks Bowden for introducing me to this gorgeous painting by Gerda Roosval-Kallstenius paired with a poem attributed to the 13th century Persian poet, Muslih-ud-Din Abdullah Saadi Shirazi.

If, of thy mortal goods, thou art bereft,

And from thy slender store two loaves

alone to thee are left,

Sell one & from the dole,

Buy Hyacinths to feed the soul

This poem does not actually exist in his published work, but was probably inspired by a verse by verse from his work, Gulistan, Rose Garden.

اگر نان داری و دل خرم، چه غم؟
گل بخر، که جان را خوشی است دم به دم

This can be translated as:

“If you have bread and a cheerful heart, what sorrow?
Buy flowers, for they bring joy to the soul at every moment.”

This idea, that bread cannot alone fully feed us is also expressed by the Apostle MatthewIn the Christian Bible. In English translation, he wrote, “Not by bread alone shall man live, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

“Οὐκ ἐπ’ ἄρτῳ μόνῳ ζήσεται ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ παντὶ ῥήματι ἐκπορευομένῳ διὰ στόματος Θεοῦ.”

Mathew’s text derives from Deuteronomy 8:3 which, like Mathew’s text looks to a monotheistic focus on finding wholeness, on finding the food beyond the

The Hebrew text and the King James Version (KJV) translation of Deuteronomy 8:3 are as follows:

וַיְעַנְּךָ֮ וַיַּרְעִבֶךָ֒ וַיַּאֲכִֽלְךָ֤ אֶת־הַמָּן֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹא־יָדַ֔עְתָּ וְלֹ֥א יָדְע֖וּן אֲבֹתֶ֑יךָ לְמַ֨עַן הוֹדִיעֲךָ֗ כִּי לֹ֤א עַל־הַלֶּ֙חֶם֙ לְבַדּ֔וֹ יִחְיֶ֖ה הָאָדָ֑ם כִּי עַל־כָּל־מוֹצָא־פִ֥י יְהוָ֖ה יִחְיֶ֥ה הָאָדָֽם׃

“And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”

This idea that we cannot actually be sated, that we cannot actually be fulfilled by food alone, was clearly an ancient idea that must have been current amongst many if not all of the civilizations of Western Eurasia. The monotheistic desert tribes came to understand that the soul required a specific religious orientation. For myself, I prefer the more humanistic poetic approach of Saadi Shiraz, an approach heavily influenced by Sufi philosophy.