TEHRAN – The Bustan of Sadi has been awarded Best Translated Work in World Literature into Bosnian at the 36th Sarajevo International Book Fair, which concluded this week in the Bosnian capital.
The announcement coincided with events marking Sadi ’s literary legacy on the fair’s closing day.
The Sarajevo International Book Fair, one of the region’s largest cultural gatherings, annually attracts more than 50,000 visitors and features over 200 exhibitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.
The fair’s awards recognize outstanding achievements in various literary categories, including translations between Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, and other languages.
This year, the Bosnian edition of Bustan —translated by Muammar Kudrich—received the top honor for translated works. The translation was produced through a collaboration between Iran’s Cultural Center in Bosnia and Herzegovina and local publisher Dubrovkinja, with support from the Center for Organizing the Translation and Publication of Islamic Knowledge and Humanities, part of Iran’s Cultural and Relations Organization.
The project is part of the ‘Translation of Persia (TOP)’ initiative, which aims to promote Persian literature in new languages.
Kudrich’s translation is the first complete Bosnian rendition of Bustan, based on the critical edition by Muhammad-Ali Foroughi. The translator sought to preserve the poem’s original structure and style as faithfully as possible.
In his introduction, Kudrich highlights Sadi’s enduring influence across the Islamic world, noting that Bustan and Golestan are among the most celebrated and widely published works of classical Persian literature.