"Oh! not my brother!—yet unsay—

God! am I left alone on earth

To mourn—I dare not curse—the day[gi]

That saw my solitary birth?650

Oh! thou wilt love me now no more!

My sinking heart foreboded ill;

But know me all I was before,

Thy sister—friend—Zuleika still.

Thou led'st me here perchance to kill;

If thou hast cause for vengeance, see!

My breast is offered—take thy fill!

Far better with the dead to be

Than live thus nothing now to thee:

Perhaps far worse, for now I know660

Why Giaffir always seemed thy foe;

And I, alas! am Giaffir's child,

For whom thou wert contemned, reviled.

If not thy sister—would'st thou save

My life—Oh! bid me be thy slave!"