Entertainment / Literature / Rubaiyat: An Arabic term meaning a quatrain, or four-line stanza. The term is nearly always included in the title of any Arabic poem that is built upon such quatrains. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Edward Fitzgerald's loose translation of the eleventh-century Persian poet and astronomer Omar Khayyam's work) is probably the best known example for English-speakers. Two of its most famous quatrains appear below: A book of verses underneath the bough, A jug of wine, a loaf of bread--and thou Beside me singing in the wilderness-- Oh, wilderness were Paradise enow! The Moving Finger writes, and having writ, Moves on, nor all your piety nor wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.
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