Roshangar Undergraduate Persian Studies Journal
Amin Mashhoon
Amin Mashhoon is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. Majoring in Geography, Amins studies tend to focus on Human and Political Geography. Amin is also working to receive an interdisciplinary certificate in Ethics and Leadership in Law, Politics, and Government. Outside school, Amin enjoys time volunteering with the local American Red Cross, Disaster Action Response Team.
Abstract
The following poems are my attempt at Roba’i, a Persian classical style of poetry. A typical example of a Roba’i poem follows a quatrain pattern, with an AABA rhyme scheme (Britannica 2021). The style is known for its simplicity, and became popular as Persian poets began to shift away from the long and heavily formalized poetry of the 1000 – 1200s CE. The Roba’i style was perhaps made most popular, by the works of legendary poets Rumi and Omar Khayyam. Roba’i poems became an approachable means for the nobility and commonfolk alike to engage in literary pursuits (Peter, Heath-Stubbs 1981). Short, memorable, and simple, Roba’i often focuses on themes of love, existentialism and moral lessons. In English, 19th century author and translator Edward Fitzgerald, is widely recognized for having introduced Roba’i to British readers. His personal works, based on his free renderings of Omar Khayyam’s Roba’i, remain popular today. In related English literature, often credited as having introduced the style to the English-speaking world. Fitzgerald followed many traditional Persian Roba’i conventions, while introducing a few of his own. Notably, in the English variant, Fitzgerald would write longer stanzas and combine poems to break the traditional quatrain pattern (Britannica 2024).
1.
So long did I ramble, pleading to the world in desperate persistence.
Drowning in silence, tripping over ghosts, and illusory resistance.
Defeated, I returned to the meadow and lay in the valley.
No bird, tree, or bit of Earth had ever asked me to justify my existence.
2.
In everything it has followed, a looming shadow, this deep solemnity.
Afraid of its meaning, and how it might fit into my own identity.
Until I learned to sit with it, sit in it, and held its hand.
A shadow still follows, reflecting every move, though now with more clarity.
3.
Father of my father, forever now since our last embrace.
I could not see you buried, and you will not see from me, the man that awaits.
Born of different tongues, more is unsaid than I can ever know.
Though this story's end is not in heartache, for the gift of love is bound not by time or space.
4.
Tears and sorrow are all I can give, though it’s more you are owed.
Kind and gentle you did stand, too soon to see you go.
Greif alone cannot end the hopelessness that stole you.
But I would weep, to water the field that a future still, might grow.
5.
There is a shrapnel that pierces generations, and it has torn deep into my heart.
Coated in compassion, the pain becomes a pearl, my most integral part.
I carry it with me in all things, hoping to give back this treasure I have found.
Through honest kindness, a lasting love we can impart.
6.
Buried are my guns, buried deep upon the hill.
Where flowers sprout from muzzles, and rust renders firing pins forever still.
Where there is no old and terrible lie, or righteous retribution.
Buried, as we are all meant for so much more than to die, or to kill.
7.
I went out walking, stirred by a restless spirit deep within.
Sweet smiling strangers, and blood in the gutters, I saw a veil so thin.
A truth, wherever the lines between “you” and “I” began to blur.
A restlessness not to be laid down easy, for behind each eye is my kin.
8.
Compassion sustains us, through that we do live.
For all that I have, is all I can give.
All that I give, is all that I have.
The only thing left now, would be to forgive.
References
Avery, Peter, and John Heath-Stubbs. “The Ruba’i.” The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam, Penguin Books, 1981, pp. 9–11, https://books.google.com/books?id=sUN5XLzv8lMC&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Edward FitzGerald". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Jun. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-FitzGerald.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Omar Khayyam". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Oct. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Omar-Khayyam-Persian-poet-and-astronomer.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "robāʿī". Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Jun. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/robai. Accessed 22 October 2024.
Schimmel, Annemarie. "Rūmī". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Sep. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rumi.
Mehdi Mohabbati; Ghorban Valie; Hamed Shekufegi. "Rumi's Innovations in Three Poetic Forms: Ghazal, Ruba'i, and Stanza". Literary Text Research, 27, 97, 2023, 171-202. doi: 10.22054/ltr.2021.56982.3233