Editing Ruba'i

{{Short description|Perso-Arabic quatrain form of poetry}}
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[[File:Chayyam guyand kasan behescht ba hur chosch ast small.png|thumb|Calligraphic rendition of a ''ruba'i'' attributed to [[Omar Khayyam]] from 
Bodleian MS. Ouseley 140 (one of the sources of FitzGerald's ''[[Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam]]'').]]

A '''''rubāʿī''''' ({{langx|fa|label=[[Classical Persian]]|رباعی|translit=robāʿī}}, from [[Arabic language|Arabic]] {{langx|ar|رباعيّ|label=none|translit=rubāʿiyy|lit=consisting of four, quadripartite, fourfold}};{{efn|From the root {{lang|ar|ر ب ع}} ({{Transliteration|ar|r b ʿ}}) also occurring in the numeral {{lang|ar|أربعة}} ({{Transliteration|ar|ʾarbaʿa}}, 'four').<ref>Cowan, J. M., ed. 1994. ''The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th edition). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.</ref>}} plural: {{langx|ar|رباعيّات|label=none|translit=rubāʿiyyāt}}) or '''''chahārgāna(e)''''' ({{langx|fa|label=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 [[hemistich]]s).

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.<ref>''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'', Princeton University Press, 1974, p.611</ref><ref>Introduction to ''The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,'' translated by Peter Avery and [[John Heath-Stubbs]], Penguin Classics, 1981, {{ISBN|0-14-044384-3}}, p. 9 [https://books.google.com/books?id=sUN5XLzv8lMC&dq=ruba%27i&pg=PA9]</ref><ref>''The Cambridge History of Iran, v. 4,'' edited by R. N. Frye, Cambridge University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-521-20093-8}}, pgs. 633–634 [https://books.google.com/books?id=hvx9jq_2L3EC&dq=ruba%27i&pg=PA633]</ref><ref>Elwell-Sutton, L. P. "The Foundations of Persian Prosody and Metrics," ''Iran,'' v. 13 (1975), p. 92.</ref>

This is an example of a ''ruba'i'' from [[Rumi]]'s ''[[Divan-e Shams]]'':

:{{lang|fa-Latn|Anwār-i Ṣalāḥ-i Dīn bar angēkhta bād}}
:{{lang|fa-Latn|Dar dīda (w)u jān-i ʿāshiqān rēkhta bād}}
:{{lang|fa-Latn|Har jān ki laṭīf gasht u az luṭf guzasht}}
:{{lang|fa-Latn|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!<ref>{{cite web|title=The Splendors of Salahuddin|url=http://www.dar-al-masnavi.org/rub-0437.html}}</ref>

==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 –

==In English==
The verse form AABA as used in English verse is known as the Rubaiyat Quatrain due to its use by [[Edward FitzGerald (poet)|Edward FitzGerald]] in his famous 1859 translation, ''[[Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam]]''. [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]], one of the first admirers of FitzGerald's translation of [[Omar Khayyam|Khayyam's]] medieval [[Persian literature#Poetry|Persian verses]], was the first to imitate the stanza form, which subsequently became popular and was used widely, as in the case of [[Robert Frost]]'s 1922 poem "[[Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening]]".{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

{{Quote box
| title = Quatrain VII from the fourth edition of FitzGerald's ''Rubaiyat''
| quote = <poem>
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring 
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling: 
The Bird of Time has but a little way 
To flutter—and the Bird is on the Wing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Khayyam/rubaiyat.html|title=The Internet Classics Archive &#124; the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam}}</ref></poem>
| fontsize = 85%
}}

FitzGerald's translation became so popular by the turn of the century that hundreds of American humorists wrote parodies using the form and, to varying degrees, the content of his stanzas, including ''The Rubaiyat of Ohow Dryyam'', ''The Rubáiyát of a Persian Kitten'', ''The Rubaiyat of Omar Cayenne'' and ''The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Jr.''{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

In extended sequences of ''ruba'i'' stanzas, the convention is sometimes extended so that the unrhymed line of the current stanza becomes the rhyme for the following stanza.<ref>{{cite book|last=Skelton|first=Robin|title=The Shapes of Our Singing: A Comprehensive Guide to Verse Forms and Metres from Around the World|year=2002|publisher=Eastern Washington University Press|location=Spokane, WA|isbn=0-910055-76-9|pages=106}}</ref> The structure can be made cyclical by linking the unrhymed line of the final stanza back to the first stanza: ZZAZ.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turco|first=Lewis|title=The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics|year=2000|publisher=University Press of New England|location=Lebanon, NH|isbn=1-58465-022-2|pages=245}}</ref> These more stringent systems were not, however, used by FitzGerald in his ''Rubaiyat''.

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite news|url=http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/infotainment/25-Mar-2013/a-splendid-poetry-collection|title=A splendid poetry collection|author=[[Amjad Parvez]]|newspaper=[[Daily Times (Pakistan)|Daily Times]]|date=25 March 2013|access-date=11 April 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140118015641/http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/infotainment/25-Mar-2013/a-splendid-poetry-collection|archive-date=18 January 2014}}
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqDALyQPI1g Tajik girls reciting ruba'i quatrains]

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[[Category:Stanzaic form]]
[[Category:Persian literature]]
[[Category:Persian poetic forms]]
[[Category:Medieval poetry]]
[[Category:Iranian inventions]]
[[Category:Literary genres]]