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Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

Saadi, Gulistan (1258); Rousseau, Julie (1761)

PhilosophyProverbs

The story behind the card

The Geneva-born philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau puts the line in Julie, or the New Heloise (1761), a best-selling novel in letters. In Part One, Letter 46, Julie writes it to Saint-Preux, the tutor she loves but may not marry, because her father will not accept a commoner: “la patience est amère, mais son fruit est doux.” The saying is much older. The Persian poet Saadi wrote in his Gulistan (The Rose Garden) in 1258 that patience, though bitter, bears sweet fruit, and Turkish keeps it as a proverb.

Türkçe oku
Sabır acıdır, meyvesi tatlıdır.
Sadi, Gülistan (1258); Rousseau, Julie (1761)

Cenevre doğumlu filozof Jean-Jacques Rousseau bu cümleyi, mektuplardan oluşan ve çok okunan romanı Julie ya da Yeni Heloise'de (1761) kullanır. Birinci bölümün 46. mektubunda Julie, bu sözü sevdiği adama, öğretmeni Saint-Preux'ye yazar: “La patience est amère, mais son fruit est doux.” Soylu olmayan Saint-Preux'yle evlenmesine babası izin vermez. Söz aslında Rousseau'dan çok daha eskidir. İranlı şair Sadi, 1258'de yazdığı Gülistan'da sabrın acı olduğunu ama tatlı meyve verdiğini söyler. Türkçede de bir atasözü olarak yaşar.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Patience
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