⁵ Sustain me with raisin cakes,
        strengthen me with apples,
        for I’m weak with love!

⁶ His left arm is beneath my head,
        his right embraces me.

⁷ Make a solemn pledge, daughters of Jerusalem,
        by the gazelles or the wild deer:
Don’t rouse, don’t arouse love
        until it desires.

⁸ Listen! It’s my lover: here he comes now,
        leaping upon the mountains,
        bounding over the hills.
⁹ My lover is like a gazelle
        or a young stag.
Here he stands now,
        outside our wall,
        peering through the windows,
        peeking through the lattices.

¹⁰ My lover spoke and said to me,
“Rise up, my dearest,
        my fairest, and go.
¹¹ Here, the winter is past;
        the rains have come and gone.
¹² Blossoms have appeared in the land;
        the season of singing^[a] has arrived,
        and the sound of the turtledove is heard in our land.
¹³ The green fruit is on the fig tree,
        and the grapevines in bloom are fragrant.
Rise up,^[b] my dearest,
        my fairest, and go.
¹⁴ My dove—in the rock crevices,
        hidden in the cliff face—
        let me catch sight of you;
        let me hear your voice!
The sound of your voice is sweet,
        and the sight of you is lovely.”

¹⁵ Catch foxes for us—
        those little foxes
        that spoil vineyards,
        now that our vineyards are in bloom!

¹⁶ I belong to my lover and he belongs to me—
        the one grazing among the lilies.
¹⁷         Before the day breeze blows
        and the shadows flee,
    turn about, my love; be like a gazelle
        or a young stag
        upon the jagged mountains.^[c]