The Bride’s Troubled Dream

¹“On my bed night after night I sought him[#3:1 BRIDE]

Whom my soul loves;

I sought him but did not find him.

²‘I must arise now and go about the city;[#3:2 Or Let me arise; #3:2 Or Let me go about]

In the streets and in the squares

I must seek him whom my soul loves.’

I sought him but did not find him.

³“The watchmen who go about the city found me,

And I said , ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’

⁴“Scarcely had I passed them by

When I found him whom my soul loves;

I seized him and would not let him go

Until I had brought him to my mother’s house,

And into the chamber of her who conceived me.”

⁵¶“I call you to solemnly swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,[#3:5 BRIDEGROOM]

By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,

That you do not arouse or awaken my love

Until she pleases.”

Solomon Arrives on His Wedding Day

⁶¶“Who is this coming up from the wilderness[#3:6 CHORUS]

Like columns of smoke,

As rising incense of myrrh and frankincense,

With all scented powders of the merchant?

⁷“Behold, it is the traveling couch of Solomon;

Sixty mighty men around it,

Of the mighty men of Israel.

⁸“All of them are those who seize the sword,

Learned in war;

Each man has his sword at his side,

Guarding against the dreadful things of the night.

⁹“King Solomon has made for himself a sedan chair

From the timber of Lebanon.

¹⁰“He made its posts of silver,

Its back of gold

And its seat of purple fabric,

With its interior inlaid with love

By the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹“Go forth and see, O daughters of Zion,

King Solomon with the crown

With which his mother has crowned him

On the day of his wedding,

And on the day of his gladness of heart.”