Recently a rug collector purchased an antique Persian rug. On the underside was an inscription in Farsi in what appears to be the sonnet form, composed with a quatrain, a cdecde scheme and followed by another quatrain, which ties the story together with the end lesson, which the speaker relates to the reader:

Sweet hand knotted area rugs for sale:

A technique passed down over a thousand years

Which other countries have tried, and yet failed

These rugs styles contain oriental tears.

An ancient lover chose one for a girl

She had another who gave her the world

So though she loved this fine area rug

Her cruel husband wouldn’t let it unfurl

He held her in the palm of his hand curled

Until she jumped from a window, lost love.

The moral of this sad and strange true tale

Is to give freedom to the things you love.

If you squeeze too hard, love is sure to fail –

Don’t hang your Persian rugs too high above.

The jealous husband must have prevented her from seeing her paramour and thus the girl, encapsulated in the hand of her lover, felt trapped and committed suicide.Rather gruesome, really. Thankfully today we don’t have such problems.