1. My companions must not think that my absence from them today
Justifies any slackening.

2. Rather, I refused to stay after my elders left.
How can the noble hawk remain when the quails have flown?

3. Wherever I went, I had a quarter and a brother
From the children of time to befriend.

4. And when they stirred up strife, they saw me
Following in the footsteps of my elders.

5. Many a lofty deed transcends the towering mountain peak,
And many a word transcends mere chatter.

6. The enemies have tried to confront me,
But to me they are no more than gnats in a bottle.

7. They have seen how I was once ensnared by love
And how I fled the traps of the hunters.

8. If the wrongdoers among us are treacherously destroyed,
Woe to them from the fully-fledged eaglets!

9. The enmity they have sown will smolder on—
It was cast without a thrashing sledge.