Springtime Rhapsody

⁸The voice of my beloved!
   Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
   bounding over the hills.
⁹My beloved is like a gazelle
   or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
   behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
   looking through the lattice.
¹⁰My beloved speaks and says to me:
‘Arise, my love, my fair one,
   and come away;
¹¹for now the winter is past,
   the rain is over and gone.
¹²The flowers appear on the earth;
   the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle-dove
   is heard in our land.
¹³The fig tree puts forth its figs,
   and the vines are in blossom;
   they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
   and come away.