Sol 5.6

  1. O falcon, how I envy your good fortune: you have wings to fly.

    Whenever the urge strikes you, you break loose and fly toward the open sky.

  2.  

    Between my heart and you, by God, the difference is vast.

    Whenever you beat your wings, you soar free; and whenever my heart beats, it twists into knots.

  3. You wheel aloft, while I, down on the ground, can barely walk.

    In the deserts of my days, the wolf of my night has howled.

  4. Above your sky are clouds; beneath mine is the blaze of noon.

    My foot stands on burning sand, and my throbbing heart is wrung.

  5.  

    Beware, O falcon, lest they snare you and hold you captive.

    Woe to a falcon whose tether jerks him back whenever he means to fly away.

  6.  

     

    The nights have hooded him upon a low perch,

    after his wing beat through the open air whenever he pleased.

  7.  

    Whenever a noble falcon feels confined, he rises to take flight;

    an hour of wheeling in the sky is medicine for his heart.

  8.  

    Oh, the agony of the wing a broken bird must drag—

    each time the broken-pinioned bird springs up, it falls.

Sol 5.6