1. Once I had a companion, Hamdan, a man of valor,
Seized by yearning and unease.

2. If he was near, or far away on a day when
None ventured out but the lovelorn,

3. I said, when his absence saddened me,
For I was bound by oath:

4. I must inquire about him, though
My passions pulled me into ruin.

5. The well-informed man told me after
I had calmed my anxious soul:

6. “Can you not see him in a tattered robe
With his sleeves rolled up above his legs?

7. His inflamed face attracts
As if he were adorned with scarlet patches.

8. You see blackness dominating redness
Like the inky scribbles of a quack.

9. If his condition troubles him, he conceals it,
Having no confidant.

10. Until he saw it flourishing aloft
After it had withered.

11. “After the mantle of a learned man
You don robes of a charlatan.

12. After rising to seek distinction
You spend your day in rags and ashes.

13. Chafing your palms on a mortar
To pound garlic or lye.

14. When people finish eating their fill,
You glean from what is left.

15. Every fresh-hued loaf of bread
From the hands of bakers, you covet.”