Shairi,
or Rustavelian Quatrain
Shota Rustaveli wroteThe Knight in the Panther's Skin, Georgia's national epic, towards the end of the twelfth
century. It tells of a young prince helping to find a friend's beloved, who has
been captured by devils. Rustaveli used a particularly difficult form for it,
known by the Georgian word shairi.
The recommended rules for English-language shairi are:
4-line stanzas, with all four lines
rhyming with one another. The lines are
unusually long, having 15 or 16 syllables, and all the rhymes are of either two
or three syllables.
Note
for purists
In Georgia, each line of a shairi has exactly 16
syllables, and they recognise two varieties of the form. In a magali (high) shairi stanza
the syllables divide 4/4//4/4 (in each of the four lines), whereas in a dabali (low) shairi they
divide 5/3//5/3. InThe
Knight in the Panther's Skin (or Vepkhis Tqaosani, if you prefer), Rustaveli alternated magali and dabali
stanzas for the entire length of the poem - no fewer than 1576 stanzas.
©
Bob Newman 2004, 2005. All rights reserved.
Pasted
from <http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/rustaveli.htm>
Example Poem
Redirected Feelings (Rustavelian Quatrain)
She faced each day with deep desires- that seemed to her distressing.
Her husband's morally correct, and counts his wife a blessing
and's careful to avoid an act that might call for confessing,
and sadly that means he won't watch his pretty wife undressing.
His attitude left her in doubt that her looks were appealing.
So secretly she bought some clothes- the kind that are revealing,
then once each week would flash to men the charms she'd been concealing.
To watch men stare at cleavage bare, aroused in her warm feelings.
She soon could not deny the rush- the moist and warm sensation-
so weekly outings multiplied; then there was escalation.
Her exhibition soon became a road to fun flirtation,
a road she knew was but a path, a path to her damnation.
She told herself, "This path is wrong! I'll stop, what I'm inviting.
I'll find a hobby stay at home although that's less exciting."
She switched her gears, and it appears, more people she's delighting,
She's famous now, and satisfied with her erotic writing.
©Lawrencealot - February 28, 2014
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