Misra'
A misra' (from Arabic مصراع miṣrāʿ, plural: مصاريع maṣārīʿ; Persian: مصراع;[1] Azerbaijani: misra;[2] Urdu: مصرع; Uzbek: misra) is a term used in Arabic, Persian, Turkic and Urdu poetry, which means 'half of a bayt'.[3]
In Arabic poetry, a misra' therefore means half of one line of poetry, a hemistich. The two halves of the line are separated by a space.
In Persian, Turkic and Urdu poetry, a misra' means one whole line of poetry. A ruba'i is a poem of four misra's, i.e. two bayts.
References
- ^ Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892). "مصراع". A Comprehensive Persian–English Dictionary. p. 1252.
- ^ "misra". Azərbaycan dilinin izahlı lüğəti (in Azerbaijani).
- ^ miṣrāʿ in Encyclopædia Britannica
