Do-baytī

Do-bayti (Persian: دوبیتی) (literally "two-couplet"), also known as fahlaviyat, is an ancient form of Persian poetry. It is used to describe a Persian quatrain (a stanza or poem of four lines), similar to Ruba'i but different in meter.[1]

A do-bayti has four half-lines of 11 syllables each, and usually uses the hazaj meter:

| u – – – | u – – – | u – – |

The first two syllables may sometimes be replaced by – u or – –.[2]

The rhyme scheme is a a a a or a a b a.

When sung to a traditional melody, the first two lines are sung continuously in one 22-syllable phrase, and the 3rd and 4th lines in another, a little lower in pitch.[3] (See External links below.)

An example from Baba Taher

A well-known writer of do-bayti poems is the 11th-century Baba Taher-e Oryan of Hamadan, who wrote in the Hamadani dialect (which, however, is very close to standard Persian).[4] An example of one of his poems (converted to standard Persian) is the following:[5]

درازی دو زلفانت مرا کشت * سیاهی دو چشمانت مرا کشت
خم ابرو و مژگانت مرا کشت * به قتلم حاجت تیر و کمان نیست
siyāhī-yē do čašmān-at ma-rā košt
derāzī-yē do zolfān-at ma-rā košt
be qatl-am hājat-ē tīr ō kamān nīst
xam-ē 'abrū vo možgān-at ma-rā košt
"The blackness of your two eyes has killed me!
The longness of your two locks has killed me!
You have no need of arrows and a bow to despatch me
The curve of your eyebrow and eyelashes has killed me!"[6]

For another example, see the article Persian metres#Do-bayti.

References

  1. ^ Blum (1995).
  2. ^ Maling, J.M. (1973). The Theory of Classical Arabic Metrics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. PhD Thesis, p. 128.
  3. ^ Blum (1995).
  4. ^ Browne, E.G. (1902). A Literary History of Persia, vol. 1, p. 83.
  5. ^ Ganjoor, Baba Taher, dobeyti no. 18. (See External links).
  6. ^ For the homoerotic military imagery cf. "Homosexuality iii. in Persian Literature" (Encyclopaedia Iranica)

Further reading

  • Blum, Stephen (1995, updated 2011). Do-bayti. Encyclopaedia Iranica online.
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