He

¹I came to my garden, my sister, my bride,

I gathered my myrrh with my spice,

I ate my honeycomb with my honey,

I drank my wine with my milk.

Others

Eat, friends, drink,

and be drunk with love!

The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

She

²I slept, but my heart was awake.

A sound! My beloved is knocking.

“Open to me, my sister, my love,

my dove, my perfect one,

for my head is wet with dew,

my locks with the drops of the night.”

³I had put off my garment;

how could I put it on?

I had bathed my feet;

how could I soil them?

⁴My beloved put his hand to the latch,

and my heart was thrilled within me.

⁵I arose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

on the handles of the bolt.

⁶I opened to my beloved,

but my beloved had turned and gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I sought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

⁷The watchmen found me

as they went about in the city;

they beat me, they bruised me,

they took away my veil,

those watchmen of the walls.

⁸I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

if you find my beloved,

that you tell him

I am sick with love.

Others

⁹What is your beloved more than another beloved,

O most beautiful among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus adjure us?

The Bride Praises Her Beloved

She

¹⁰My beloved is radiant and ruddy,

distinguished among ten thousand.

¹¹His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,

black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves

beside streams of water,

bathed in milk,

sitting beside a full pool.1

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spices,

mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.

His lips are lilies,

dripping liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His arms are rods of gold,

set with jewels.

His body is polished ivory,2

bedecked with sapphires.3

¹⁵His legs are alabaster columns,

set on bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

¹⁶His mouth4 is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.