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In its original form the Bhagavad Gita is in unrhymed Sanskrit verse. Most individual verses have thirty-two syllables, a metre known as shloka. Occasionally (notably in Chapter 11) another metre, the trishtubh is used, consisting of verses of forty-four syllables each. Within these basic forms there are various prescribed patterns of long and short syllables. No attempt has been made to reproduce or mirror these metres in the translation, which is in prose. The verses in trishtubh have, however, been printed in smaller type to indicate where a change in metre takes place. The type size is purely conventional and should not be taken in itself to imply anything about the importance or otherwise of the verses so printed. If anything, the trishtubh metre gives an impression of greater weight in the original.