The Bride's Dream

¹On my bed by night

I sought him whom my soul loves;

I sought him, but found him not.

²I will rise now and go about the city,

in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.

I sought him, but found him not.

³The watchmen found me

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

⁴Scarcely had I passed them

when I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him, and would not let him go

until I had brought him into my mother's house,

and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

⁵I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

Solomon Arrives for the Wedding

⁶What is that coming up from the wilderness

like columns of smoke,

perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?

⁷Behold, it is the litter1 of Solomon!

Around it are sixty mighty men,

some of the mighty men of Israel,

⁸all of them wearing swords

and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh,

against terror by night.

⁹King Solomon made himself a carriage2

from the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its posts of silver,

its back of gold, its seat of purple;

its interior was inlaid with love

by the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹Go out, O daughters of Zion,

and look upon King Solomon,

with the crown with which his mother crowned him

on the day of his wedding,

on the day of the gladness of his heart.