¹ [Lov.] I am come to my garden, my sister, my spouse! I gather my myrrh with my balsam, I eat my honeycomb with my honey, I drink my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends! Drink, yea, drink abundantly, my loved companions!

² [M.] I slept, but my heart was awake; It was the voice of my beloved, who was knocking: "Open to me, my sister, my love, My dove, my perfect one! For my head is filled with dew, And my locks with the drops of the night."

³ "I have taken off my vest [said I]; How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; How shall I soil them?"

⁴ My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, And my heart was moved for him.

⁵ I rose up to open to my beloved, And my hands dropped with myrrh, And my fingers with self-flowing myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.

⁶ I opened to my beloved; But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone. I was not in my senses while he spake with me! I sought him, but could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

⁷ The watchmen that go about the city found me; They smote me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls took away from me my veil.

⁸ I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem! If ye should find my beloved,—What will ye tell him? That I am sick with love.

⁹ [Lad.] What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women! What is thy beloved more than another beloved, That thus thou dost charge us?

¹⁰ [M.] My beloved is white and ruddy, The chief among ten thousand.

¹¹ His head is as the most fine gold; His locks waving palm-branches, Black as a raven;

¹² His eyes are doves by streams of water, Washed with milk, dwelling in fulness;

¹³ His cheeks are like a bed of balsam, Like beds of spices; His lips are lilies Dropping self-flowing myrrh;

¹⁴ His hands are gold rings set with chrysolite; His body is wrought-work of ivory, overlaid with sapphires;

¹⁵ His legs are marble pillars, resting on pedestals of fine gold; His aspect is like Lebanon, Majestic like the cedars;

¹⁶ His mouth is sweetness; His whole being, loveliness. This is my beloved, This my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem!