Ruba'i
A rubāʿī (Classical Persian: رباعی, romanized: robāʿī, from Arabic رباعيّ, rubāʿiyy, 'consisting of four, quadripartite, fourfold'; plural: رباعيّات, rubāʿiyyāt) or chahārgāna(e) (Classical Persian: چهارگانه) is a poem or a verse of a poem in Persian poetry (or its derivative in English and other languages) in the form of a quatrain, consisting of four lines (four hemistichs).
In classical Persian poetry, the ruba'i is written as a four-line (or two-couplet / two-distich) poem, with a rhyme-scheme AABA or AAAA.
This is an example of a ruba'i from Rumi's Divan-e Shams:
- Anwār-i Ṣalāḥ-i Dīn bar angēkhta bād
- Dar dīda (w)u jān-i ʿāshiqān rēkhta bād
- Har jān ki laṭīf gasht u az luṭf guzasht
- Bā khāk-i Ṣalāḥ-i Dīn dar-āmēkhta bād
- May the splendors of Salahuddin be roused,
- And poured into the eyes and souls of the lovers.
- May every soul that has become refined and has surpassed refinement
- Be mingled with the dust of Salahuddin!