8-10. Look! Listen! There’s my lover!Do you see him coming?Vaulting the mountains,leaping the hills.My lover is like a gazelle, graceful;like a young stag, virile.Look at him there, on tiptoe at the gate,all ears, all eyes—ready!My lover has arrivedand he’s speaking to me!
10-14. Get up, my dear friend,fair and beautiful lover—come to me!Look around you: Winter is over;the winter rains are over, gone!Spring flowers are in blossom all over.The whole world’s a choir—and singing!Spring warblers are filling the forestwith sweet arpeggios.Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed,and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms.Oh, get up, dear friend,my fair and beautiful lover—come to me!Come, my shy and modest dove—leave your seclusion, come out in the open.Let me see your face,let me hear your voice.For your voice is soothingand your face is ravishing.
15. Then you must protect me from the foxes,foxes on the prowl,Foxes who would like nothing betterthan to get into our flowering garden.
16-17. My lover is mine, and I am his.Nightly he strolls in our garden,Delighting in the flowersuntil dawn breathes its light and night slips away.Turn to me, dear lover.Come like a gazelle.Leap like a wild stagon delectable mountains!