1. We set out at dawn, when night's hem was fading,
As dawn broke and night took its leave.

2. With a smooth-gaited steed, chestnut as a hawk,
The finest I've tried of racers.

3. Bold to slaughter gazelles, yet I delight
To see the wild beast take wing.

4. Short-tailed, compact, as though his forelegs
Were an eagle's talons or Indian blades.

5. His flanks are dappled as if the scrolls
Of calligraphy lent him their patterned pages.

6. He kept to the valley-beds until I shaped him,
None can outstrip him but the full-moon racer.

7. He bears me onward, held in honored hands,
As pulpit platforms are graced by the preacher.

8. From a hillside a small flock sprang up
On paths well-trodden where sheep gather.

9. He pulled clear and loosened the knot of his pace—
The lead ones, when he got among them, scattered.

10. His wings churning the air by his cheeks
As turbans' crepelike folds flutter free.

11. Scarcely had my gaze flickered back when I saw
The flock studded with blades plunging among them.

12. Even so is my delight as I close to pursue,
Like a hunter exulting, sure of his quarry!