¹“I am a lily of Sharon

And a lily of the valley.”

²“Like a lily among the brambles,

So is my beloved among the daughters.”

³“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,

So is my lover among the sons.

In his shadow I delight and sit,

And his fruit is sweet to my taste.

⁴He brought me to the house of wine,

And the ensign over me was love.

⁵Sustain me with raisin cake,

Refresh me with apples,

For I am lovesick.

⁶His left hand will be under my head,

And his right hand will embrace me.

⁷I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By the wild gazelles and deer hinds,

Do not by any means awaken or arouse love,

Until it is willing.

⁸The voice of my lover

– Behold, he is coming –

Leaping over the mountains

And bounding over the hills.

⁹My lover is like a gazelle or a deer fawn.

See how he is standing behind our wall,

Gazing from the windows,

Glancing from the grille.

¹⁰My lover answered and said to me,

‘Get yourself up, my beloved, my beauty,

And get going.

¹¹For behold, the winter has passed,

The rain has passed on

And gone its way.

¹²The blossoms have appeared in the land,

The time of pruning has arrived,

And the sound of the turtle-dove

Is heard in our land.

¹³The fig tree has ripened its unripe figs,

And the vines with vine blossom have produced a fragrance.

Arise, come my beloved, my beauty,

And get moving.

¹⁴O dove of mine in the clefts of the rock,

In the shelter of the precipice,

Show me what you look like,

And let me hear your voice,

For your voice is mellow

And your appearance is becoming.’

¹⁵‘Catch the foxes for us,

The little foxes which spoil the vineyards,

For our vineyards are in blossom.’

¹⁶My lover is mine,

And I am his

– The shepherd among the lilies.

¹⁷Before the day grows cool,

And the shadows flee,

Return, my beloved;

Be like a gazelle or a deer fawn

On the mountains of Bether.