Not an original post - on charolis and rubaiyats!

4-liners or short poems are a personal favorites with me. I recently got to know of charoli ( 4-line poems in marathi) and Rubaiyats ( 4-line or short poems by Ommar Khayyam. There are some beautiful verses all over the net. "Copy-Pasting" a few here:

Charoli by Chandrashekhar Gokhale:

Marathi

Aata me hi tharavlay

Agdi shahanyasarkh vaagayach

Kunaala kahi dile tar

Tyachya badlyaat kahi maagayach

English

Now I've also decided

To act like a clever person

If I've given something to someone

Then better ask for something in return!

Hindi

Ab maine bhi soch liya hai

Ekdum hoshiyaari se bartaav karna

Kisi ko kuch diya hai to

Uske badle mai kuch zaroor maangna!

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Marathi

Gacch lavoon ghetlele daar

Baher lavlel 'Welcome' ch toran

He kasl daar bandh thevun

Swagat karnyach dhoran

English

The door is firmly locked

A 'Welcome' garland is put outside

What is this, keeping the door closed

And 'Welcoming' custom?

Hindi

Darwaaza kas kar band kiya hua

Bahar laga hua 'Welcome' ka Guldasta

Yeh kaisa darwaza bandh karke

Swagat karne ka tarika?

Rubaiyat by Ommar Khayyam:

Life is nothing

but a dull game with two

sure rewards: sorrow and death.

Is this a game

worth playing?

------------------------------------------------------------------

I feel young today.

Wine, wine! Its fire fills me.

Any wine will do - I am not choosy.

For even the best wine is as bitter

as life itself.

------------------------------------------------------------------

How sad, a heart that

does not know how to love, that

does not know what it is to be drunk with love.

If you are not in love, how can you enjoy

the blinding light of the sun,

the soft light of the moon?

English kills the beauty of the original - but thats the only language I understand! :)