اَز  رُباعياتِ  مَهْسَتیِ   گَنْجَوي 

1 قاضی  چُو  زنَش  حامِلَه  شُد  زار  گِريسْت

 qā   zi  cho  |  za  nash  hā   me  |  le  shod  zār  ge |  rist

 L     L    S    |   S     L      L    S   |   S     L      L    S  |   EL

  when the qazi's (Islamic judge) wife became pregnant, he cried mournfully
 
2  گُفْتا  زِ  سَرِ  کينَه  کِه  اِين  واقِعَه  چيسْت

  gof  tā  ze  |  sa  re  ki  ne  |  in  vā   qe  `e   |  chist

   L     L   S  |   S   L   L   L  |   L   L    S   |  S   EL

 he said out of rancor, what is this happening
 
3  مَن  پيرَم  و  کيرِ  مَن  نِمی‌ خيزَد  هيچ

  man  pi  ra  |  mo  ki  re  man  |  ne  mi  khi  zad  |  hich

     L    L   S   |  S     L    S    L    |   S    L    L      L   | L

  I'm old and my dick doesn't go up at all
 
4  وين  قَحْبَه  نَه  مَريَم  اَسْت  اِين   بَچَّه  زِ  کيسْت 

  vin  qah  be  |  na   mar   ya    mas   |   TO   in   bach  che   |  ze   kist

 L       L     S   |    S    L       S       L     |     S     L     L       S     |   S    EL

  and this whore is not the Virgin Mary, this child is from whom

                                                                            

Listen to this poem:

Listen

                                                                                                                         

 

Pattern of meter :

The robā`i meter acts a little differently than other forms of Persian poetry.  The first foot may be of two kinds:

L L L  or  L L S

as you can see, ours always has L L S in the first foot.  After that, there is some latitude in the remaining three feet and unlike other forms of poetry, the exact same pattern is not maintained through out the robā`i.

L(ong) is a long syllable, S(hort) is a short syllable and E(xtra)L(ong) is a syllable, usually restricted to the last foot, containing a consonant cluster. A long syllable may contain a consonant + short vowel + consonant OR consonant + long vowel. A short syllable contains a consonant + short vowel.  In the older stages of the Persian language, long vowels really were pronounced with a longer duration and short vowels a little shorter, however, this distinction has been lost in the modern language. Today, only a master poetry reader can produce this effect.
Meter (وَزْن ): It is essential to first figure out the meter of a poem before attempting to understand the meaning.  This is how you can tell, among other things,  where the ezāfe's go and how you can distinguish  words whose meaning depends on a tashdid  (for example serr ("secret") and sar ("head").
  Procedure:  
    First, mark off the long vowels: ā, i, u, and  long diphthongs: ay, aw (but careful if they are followed by a suffix)
    Then, mark off the short vowels: a, e, o
     
    When you see the pattern, deal with vowels which can be either long or short:
      final "he" unpronounced "he"
      word-final u/o (including the "vāv"  meaning "and" in poetry always pronounced (v)o)
      ezāfe's
      any other word-final short vowels
      /i/ + vowel (especially /iyā/)
     tashdid's and hamze's are sometimes made use of  and sometimes ignored.
    two Short syllables may be counted as one Long syllable
    The first syllable of a foot may (in certain meters) be short, even if the meter calls for it to be long.
    It takes some juggling  to figure out where one syllable ends and the next begins. Learn to ignore spelling--syllabic units transcend word boundaries.
    If you find you have 2 consonants, one-after-another (except "nun"  + consonant), you need to break them up by adding a short vowel.  However,  in the last "foot" or section of the verse, it is ok to have a consonant cluster and that syllable is called "ExtraLong"
Hacking up the words of a poem to bits and pieces like this is called تَقْطيع   /taqti`/ "cutting" in Persian. In English it is called scanning. MORE!

References:

Meier(pages 174-75)

 

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