1. Alas! Would that I knew if Khalid ever
Inquired after me in my absence, or if he despaired,

2. For had I been hale, you would have returned me
Swiftly, and snares would not have kept you from me,

3. And the slanderers had multiplied between us
As ghosts haunt not the valiant lion Dahis,

4. Yet I shall keep my vow between us,
And my religion, though you be a faithless rover,

5. To his detractor, long is his pleading with them,
A malady that wearied even the ablest healers.