Rubaʿi

A rubāʿī (Persian: رباعی, romanized: rubāʿiy; plural: رباعيات, rubāʿiyāt), or chahārgāna (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 Rūmī's Dīwān-i 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!