The Second Poem

8 Listen! My lover!

See, he comes,

leaping the mountains,

skipping the hills,

9 a gazelle,

a young stag.

See, there he stands

in front of our wall,

looking through the window,

peering though the latice,

10 my love calls to me:

"Come my love,

my love, come away.

11 For see! The winter is past,

the rain is over and gone,

12 the flowers appear in the land,

the time for pruning is come,

and the turtledove’s cooing is heard,

13 the figs on the fig trees are ripening,

the vines are all blossom and fragrance.

Arise, my beloved,

my fair, come away."

14 O my dove, from your craggy retreat,

from your hiding-place steep,

show me your face,

let me hear your voice,

for your voice is so sweet

and your face is so lovely.

15 Catch the jackals,

those little jackals,

out to ruin my vineyard,

my vineyard in bloom.

16 My beloved is mine, I am his:

he grazes his flock among the lilies.

17 Till cool grows the day,

and the shadows depart,

turn, my beloved,

swift like the roe

or the playful gazelle

on the mountains of Bether.

3 Night after night on my bed

I longed for my lover.

I longed for him

but he was nowhere to be found.

2 I will rise and go over the city,

its streets and its squares -

I will seek my beloved!

But I could not find him.

3 I was found by the watchmen who passed

on their round of the city.

"Tell me," I said, "Have you seen

my beloved?"

4 Scarce had I parted from them

when I found my beloved.

I held him and would not let go,

until I brought him to my mother’s home,

to the room of my conceiving.

5 Swear, O girls of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles and wild does,

don’t disturb our love

before we are satisfied!