1. I passed by flocks of your birds standing still,
So I sent my falcons to hunt them down.

2. But their ranks did not avail them at the encounter,
Nor did their fleeing help them get away.

3. I resented their escaping as if I resented
Knights of war whom I drove away.

4. Then I recalled what a lover of Khillah said
When he saw her body shun him and avoid him:

5. "If what is left of me were hung
On a tamarisk's twigs, they would not bend under it."