1I am a rose of Sharon,

A lily of the valleys.

2As a lily among thorns,

So is my love among the daughters.

3As an apple-tree among the trees of the wood,

So is my beloved among the sons.

Under its shadow I delighted to sit,

And its fruit was sweet to my taste.

4He hath brought me to the banqueting-house,

And his banner over me is love.

5‘Stay ye me with dainties, refresh me with apples;

For I am love-sick.’

6Let his left hand be under my head,

And his right hand embrace me.

7‘I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field,

That ye awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please.’

8Hark! my beloved! behold, he cometh,

Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

9My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart;

Behold, he standeth behind our wall,

He looketh in through the windows,

He peereth through the lattice.

10My beloved spoke, and said unto me:

‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11For, lo, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone;

12The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of singing is come,

And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

13The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs,

And the vines in blossom give forth their fragrance.

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

14O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff,

Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice;

For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.’

15‘Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards;

For our vineyards are in blossom.’

16My beloved is mine, and I am his,

That feedeth among the lilies.

17Until the day breathe, and the shadows flee away,

Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a gazelle or a young hart

Upon the mountains of spices.