Short Persian Poems With English: 15 Couplets to Read Aloud

Short answer: The short Persian poems Iranians know by heart are couplets, called beyt: two half-lines that rhyme or echo. Below are 15 of them by Sa'di, Hafez, Khayyam, Rumi and Ferdowsi, each in Persian script with a transliteration and an English translation. Start with Sa'di's Bani Adam, the easiest and most famous.

Every couplet here comes from one of our full word-by-word guides, with the same translation, so if one grabs you there's a whole post behind it. I picked short ones on purpose. Two lines is something you can learn on a walk, and Iranians quote poetry two lines at a time anyway.

New to Persian poetry altogether? Read Persian poetry for language learners first: it covers who these five poets are and the 20 words that come up in nearly every poem.

The 15 couplets at a glance

How to read a couplet aloud

• Each line of the couplet (a mesrâ') has a small pause in the middle and a longer one at the end. Breathe at the end of line one, never in the middle of a word group.
• Classical poems are read in a slightly formal voice. Keep the full written forms: mikonad, not the spoken mikone.
• Persian is read right to left. Line one is the top line, and it starts on the right.
• Read the transliteration once, then cover it and read the script. Short poems are the cheapest reading practice there is.

The couplets

1. Sa'di, Bani Adam, lines 1-2

بنی آدم اعضای یکدیگرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند

Bani âdam a'zâ-ye yekdigarand
Ke dar âfarinesh ze yek goharand

The children of Adam are limbs of one body,
For in creation they are of one essence.

2. Sa'di, Bani Adam, lines 3-4

چو عضوی به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضوها را نماند قرار

Cho ozvi be dard âvarad ruzegâr
Degar ozv-hâ râ namânad qarâr

When fate brings pain to one limb,
The other limbs cannot remain at rest.

3. Sa'di, Bani Adam, lines 5-6

تو کز محنت دیگران بی‌غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

To k-az mehnat-e digarân bi-ghami
Nashâyad ke nâmat nahand âdami

You who feel no sorrow for the suffering of others,
It is not fitting that they should call you human.

4. Hafez, the opening of his first ghazal

الا یا ایها الساقی ادر کأساً و ناولها
که عشق آسان نمود اول ولی افتاد مشکل‌ها

Alâ yâ ayyohâ s-sâqi, ader ka'san va nâvelhâ
Ke eshq âsân namud avval, vali oftâd moshkel-hâ

O cupbearer! Pass the cup around and offer it,
For love seemed easy at first, but then difficulties arose.

5. Hafez, the Salâh-e Kâr ghazal

صلاحِ کار کجا و من خراب کجا
ببین تفاوت ره از کجاست تا به کجا

Salâh-e kâr kojâ va man-e kharâb kojâ
Bebin tafâvot-e rah az kojâst tâ be kojâ

Where is propriety, and where am I, the ruined one?
See how far the distance is from there to here

6. Khayyam, the jug quatrain, lines 1-2

این کوزه چو من عاشق زاری بوده‌ست
در بند سر زلف نگاری بوده‌ست

In kuze cho man âsheq-e zâri budast
Dar band-e sar-e zolf-e negâri budast

This jug, like me, was once a wretched lover
Caught in the snare of a beauty's curls

7. Khayyam, the jug quatrain, lines 3-4

این دسته که بر گردن او می‌بینی
دستی‌ست که بر گردن یاری بوده‌ست

In daste ke bar gardan-e u mibini
Dasti-st ke bar gardan-e yâri budast

This handle that you see on its neck
It's a hand that once rested on a beloved's neck

8. Khayyam, coming and going

از آمدن و رفتنِ ما سودی کو
وز تار و پودِ عمرِ ما پودی کو

Az âmadan o raftan-e mâ sudi ku
V-az târ o pud-e omr-e mâ pudi ku

From our coming and going, where is the profit?
And from the warp and weft of our life, where is the thread?

9. Rumi, Morde Budam, Zende Shodam

مرده بودم زنده شدم، گریه بودم خنده شدم
دولتِ عشق آمد و من دولتِ پاینده شدم

Morde budam zende shodam, gerye budam khande shodam
Dowlat-e eshq âmad o man dowlat-e pâyande shodam

I was dead, I came alive. I was tears, I became laughter.
The fortune of love arrived, and I became an everlasting fortune.

10. Rumi, the Song of the Reed, line 1

بشنو از نی چون حکایت می‌کند
از جدایی‌ها شکایت می‌کند

Beshno az ney chon hekâyat mikonad
Az jodâyi-hâ shekâyat mikonad

Listen to the reed, how it tells a story:
Of separations, it is complaining.

11. Rumi, the Song of the Reed, line 4

هر کسی کاو دور ماند از اصل خویش
باز جوید روزگار وصل خویش

Har kasi k-u dur mând az asl-e khish
Bâz juyad ruzegâr-e vasl-e khish

Everyone who is kept far from their origin
Seeks again the time of their union.

12. attributed to Rumi, Bâz  ("Come, Come"), lines 1-2

باز آ باز آ هر آنچه هستی باز آ
گر کافر و گبر و بت‌پرستی باز آ

Bâz â, bâz â, har ânche hasti bâz â
Gar kâfer o gabr o bot-parasti bâz â

Come back, come back, whatever you are, come back
Even if you're an infidel, a fire-worshipper, or an idol-worshipper, come back

13. attributed to Rumi, Bâz Â, lines 3-4

این درگه ما درگه نومیدی نیست
صد بار اگر توبه شکستی باز آ

In dargah-e mâ dargah-e nowmidi nist
Sad bâr agar towbe shekasti bâz â

This threshold of ours is not the threshold of despair
Even if you've broken your repentance a hundred times, come back

14. Ferdowsi, the close of the Shahnameh

بسی رنج بردم در این سالِ سی
عجم زنده کردم بدین پارسی

Basi ranj bordam dar in sâl-e si
Ajam zende kardam bedin pârsi

I suffered much in these thirty years
I revived the Persians with this Farsi

15. Ferdowsi, the close of the Shahnameh

نمیرم از این پس که من زنده‌ام
که تخمِ سخن را پراکنده‌ام

Namiram az in pas ke man zende-am
Ke tokhm-e sokhan râ parâkande-am

I shall not die from this point on, for I am alive
For I have scattered the seeds of speech

A note on who wrote what

Two of these come with a footnote. The "Come, come" quatrain (12 and 13 here) is attributed to Rumi, but scholars debate whether he wrote it; the Bâz  guide goes into that. Quatrains credited to Khayyam have the same problem on a larger scale, since many poems circulated under his name. I've kept the attributions Iranians use.

Where to go next

If you want one full poem rather than fifteen fragments, take Sa'di's Bani Adam. It's six lines, the vocabulary is still everyday Persian, and it's the poem most Iranians can finish if you start it. After that, five modern poems line by line gives you Forough Farrokhzad and Sohrab Sepehri, whose language is much closer to how people talk today.

Get it wrong and the worst that happens is a warm laugh and a story they’ll tell for years. Get it right — refuse the tea twice, accept on the third — and you’ll watch a face open up. You didn’t just speak Persian. You played the game.