Ode XLV: Ye two comrades of mine, stay

Ye two comrades of mine, stay awhile, hurry not on so fast : in sooth the departure [which is at hand] is a guarantee that ye will not be blamed.

And perchance your delaying may send on ahead some evil thing [so that it will not affect us] : or it may be that, if ye hurry away, ye may miss some good that is coming to you.

O camel-rider, whoever thou mayst be, bear this message, if thou lightest on them, to Anas son of Sa'd, and Harmalah :

' Great will be the virtue of you twain and your father, if the man of Ghufailah escapes being slain ! '

Who shall tell my people how that Muraqqish has become to his companions a troublesome burden ?

The beasts of prey have bitten off his nose, and have left him in the moun-tains with the thick-maned [male hyaena] and his mate waiting for him to die,

As though in his mangled limbs the beasts had come down to a water-spring — since the whole of the kin of Dubai'ah are far away.