(<a. maʿnā ), a form of Turkish popular poetry.

The mani is, most usually, a piece of poetry made up of heptasyllabic verses rhymed on the pattern a a b a; each quatrain may be sufficient to fulfil a certain function or to transmit a certain message. This norm of a self-sufficient unity, as well as those in regard to the ordering of the rhymes, the number of verses and the metre, does not impose an absolutely watertight rule. The use of the māni , in certain circumstances, to form a song in dialogue shape (see below) can give it a polystrophic nature. Moreover, a considerable …