Carry the tidings to the folk, the saddest news can be; But man from God His ordinance no whither hath to flee. Now art thou slaughtered, brother mine, laid prostrate on the earth, Thou whose bright face was as the round of the full moon to see. Indeed, an evil day it was, the day thou mettest them, And after many a fight, thy spear is shivered, woe is me! No rider, now that thou art dead, in horses shall delight Nor evermore shall woman bear a male to match with thee. Hemmad this day hath played thee false and foully done to death; Unto his oath and plighted faith a traitor base is he. He deemeth thus to have his will and compass his desire; But Satan lieth to his dupes in all he doth decree.
When she had ended, she turned to me and said, 'O man of accursed lineage, wherefore didst thou play my brother false and slay him, whenas he purposed to send thee back to thy country with gifts and victual and it was his intent also to marry thee to me at the first of the month?' Then she drew a sword she had with her, and planting it in the ground, with the point set to her breast, threw herself thereon and pressed upon it, till the blade issued from her back and she fell to the ground, dead. I mourned for her and wept and repented when repentance availed me nothing. Then I went in haste to the tent and taking whatever was light of carriage and great of worth, went my way: but in my haste and fear, I took no heed of my (dead) comrades, nor did I bury the maiden and the youth. This, then, is my story, and it is still more extraordinary than that of the serving-maid I kidnapped in Jerusalem."