Editing Ruba'i (section)

==Metre==
{{further|Persian metres}}
The usual metre of a Persian ''ruba'i'', which is used for all four lines of the above quatrain by Rumi, is, as follows:<ref>L. P. Elwell-Sutton (1986), [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aruz-the-metrical-system  "ʿArūż,"] ''Encyclopaedia Iranica'', II/6-7, pp. 670–679.</ref>
: – – u u – u – u – – u u –

In the above scheme, quantitatively, "–" represents a long syllable, and "u" a short one. As variations of this scheme, any sequence of – u, except the final syllable of each line, can be replaced by a single "overlong" syllable, such as ''gēkh'', ''tīf'', ''luṭf'' in the poem above, containing either a long vowel followed by a consonant other than "n", or a short vowel followed by two consonants. An overlong syllable, as mentioned, can freely be substituted for the final syllable of the line, as with ''bād'' above.

Another variation, as a [[poetic licence]] rule, is that occasionally a sequence of two short syllables (u u) can be replaced by a single long one (–).

A third variation is to use the same metre as above, but with the sixth and seventh syllables reversed:
: – – u u – – u u – – u u –