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 the translations on which the following poem is based. In making my version I have, of course, employed the form of quatrain naturalised by FitzGerald—naturalised, it must be remember­ed, and not invented; the unrhymed third line being a feature of the original rubá'iy, and the melody of the whole quatrain being accounted by those able to judge a beautiful echo of the old Persian music. There appears to be this difference, however, that the rhymes in the Persian are tri-syllabic, a metrical effect not dignified in English. One slight variation of the accepted form I have occa­sionally attempted, following what appears to be a trick of emphasis not infrequently employed in the original—the repetition of one em­phatic word three times in lieu of rhymes, as in this quatrain:—

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