Rubaiyat
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Ruba'iyat or rubaiyat (Arabic: رباعیات) (a plural word derived from the root meaning 'four') means "quatrains" in the Persian language. Singular: ruba'i (rubai, ruba'ee, rubayi, rubayee). The rhyme scheme is AABA, i.e., lines 1, 2 and 4 rhyme.
This verse form was popularized in Edward FitzGerald's translation of the collection of Persian verses known as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In fact, Rubaiyat is a common shorthand name for this collection.
- VII
- 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.
In longer poems built in rubaiyat rhyme scheme, the convention is sometimes extended so that the unrhymed line of the current stanza becomes the rhyme for the following stanza. I.e., the scheme is extended to AABA BBCB CCDC, etc.. This is sometimes called, naturally, "interlocking rubaiyat". The structure can be made cyclical by linking the unrhymed line of the final stanza back to the first stanza: ZZAZ. These more stringent systems were not, however, used by FitzGerald in his Rubaiyat; it would have been particularly difficult for him to achieve this effect since the order and number of stanzas in his translation were not stable.
A prime use of the interlocking Rubaiyat in modern English poetry is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.
The Rubaiyat plays an important role in the game "Titanic: Adventure Out of Time". One of the game objectives is to retrieve the book from a hidden place on the Titanic.
The Rubaiyat was quoted in the 1946 King Vidor Western film "Duel in the Sun," which starred Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones: "Oh threats of hell and hopes of paradise! One thing at least is certain: This life flies. One thing is certain and the rest is Lies; The Flower that once is blown for ever dies."
