¹How beautiful you are, my love!

How beautiful you are!

Your eyes are doves behind your veil.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

streaming down Mount Gil‘ad.

²Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep

that have just come up from being washed;

each of them is matched,

and none of them is missing.

³Your lips are like a scarlet thread,

and your mouth is lovely.

Your cheeks are like a pomegranate

split open behind your veil.

⁴Your neck is like the tower of David,

built magnificently,

on which hang a thousand bucklers,

each one a brave warrior’s shield.

⁵Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle grazing among lilies.

⁶When the day’s cool breeze comes up

and the shadows lengthen,

I will get myself to the mountain of myrrh

to the hill of frankincense.

⁷Everything about you is beautiful, my love;

you are without a flaw.

⁸Come with me from the L’vanon, my bride,

come with me from the L’vanon.

Come down from the heights of Amanah,

from the heights of S’nir and Hermon,

down from the lions’ lairs

and the leopard-haunted hills.

⁹My sister, my bride,

you have carried my heart away!

With just one glance, with one bead of your necklace

you have carried my heart away.

¹⁰My sister, my bride,

how sweet is your love!

How much better your love than wine,

more fragrant your perfumes than any spice!

¹¹Your lips, my bride, drip honey;

honey and milk are under your tongue;

and the scent of your garments is like

the scent of the L’vanon.

¹²My sister, my bride, is a garden locked up,

a pool covered over, a spring sealed shut.

¹³You are an orchard that puts forth pomegranates

and other precious fruits, henna and nard —

¹⁴nard, saffron and aromatic cane,

cinnamon and all kinds of frankincense trees,

myrrh, aloes, all the best spices.

¹⁵You are a garden fountain,

a spring of running water,

flowing down from the L’vanon.

¹⁶Awake, north wind! Come, south wind!

Blow on my garden to spread its fragrance.

Let my darling enter his garden

and eat its finest fruit.