The Bride Adores Her Beloved

8  The voice of my beloved!

Behold, he comes,

leaping yover the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

9  My beloved is like za gazelle

or a young stag.

Behold, there he stands

behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

looking through the lattice.

10  My beloved speaks and says to me:

a“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away,

11  for behold, the winter is past;

bthe rain is over and gone.

12  cThe flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing4 has come,

and the voice of dthe turtledove

is heard in our land.

13  eThe fig tree ripens its figs,

and fthe vines are in blossom;

they give forth fragrance.

gArise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away.

14  O my hdove, in the iclefts of the rock,

in the crannies of the cliff,

let me see your face,

let me jhear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is klovely.

15  Catch lthe foxes5 for us,

the little foxes

that spoil the vineyards,

ffor our vineyards are in blossom.”

16  mMy beloved is mine, and I am his;

he ngrazes6 among the lilies.

17  Until othe day breathes

and pthe shadows flee,

turn, my beloved, be like qa gazelle

or a young stag on cleft mountains.7

The Bride’s Dream

3 On my bed rby night

I sought shim whom my soul loves;

tI sought him, but found him not.

2  I will rise now and go about the city,

in uthe streets and in the squares;

I will seek shim whom my soul loves.

I sought him, but found him not.

3  vThe watchmen found me

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

4  Scarcely had I passed them

when I found shim whom my soul loves.

I wheld him, and would not let him go

until I had xbrought him into my mother’s house,

and into the chamber of yher who conceived me.

5  zI adjure you, aO daughters of Jerusalem,

bby the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.