1. I passed by a falcon when the evening breeze blew,
And the icy cold pained me.

2. Yet my honor was not protected by his coat,
Nor by lineage or faith.

3. If the milk of noble nurses did not change him
From the nature of his rough Bedouin ancestors,

4. A husband may sometimes be absent from his wife,
Yet she is loyal, unlike some sly foxes.

5. No stallion ever stirred, filled with desire,
Except the stirring of instinct in a falcon.