The Beloved about Her Lover: Like ¹  an apple tree ²  among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. I delight ³  to sit ⁴  in his shade, ⁵  and his fruit ⁶  is sweet ⁷  to my taste. ⁸ 

The Lover to His Beloved: Your stature ¹  is like a palm tree, ²  and your breasts are like clusters of grapes. ³ 

The fig tree has budded, the vines have blossomed and give off their fragrance. Arise, come away my darling; my beautiful one, come away with me!”

I want ¹  to climb the palm tree, ²  and take hold of its fruit stalks. May your breasts be like the clusters of grapes, ³  and may the fragrance of your breath be like apricots! ⁴ 

The Maidens about His Beloved: Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? The Beloved to Her Lover: Under the apple tree I aroused you; ¹  there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth. ² 

The Lover to His Beloved: ¹  I went down to the orchard of walnut trees, ²  to look for the blossoms of the valley, ³  to see if the vines had budded or if the pomegranates were in bloom.

His cheeks are like garden beds full of balsam trees ¹  yielding ²  perfume. His lips are like lilies dripping with drops of myrrh.

nard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon with every kind of spice, myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices. ¹ 

the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber; the pines are the rafters of our bedroom.

My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms ¹  in the vineyards of En-Gedi. ² 

His legs are like pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.

The Beloved to Her Lover: Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside; let us spend the night in the villages.