The Lover

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

I gathered my myrrh with my spice.

I ate my honeycomb with my honey,

and I drank my wine with my milk.

The Narrator

Eat, my friends!

Drink, and be drunk, O lovers!

The Beloved

²I am sleeping, but my heart is awake.

A sound! My lover is knocking.

The Lover

Open the door for me, my sister, my beloved,

my dove and pure one;

for my head is wet with dew,

my hair with the drops of the night.

The Beloved

³I have taken off my linen garment.

How can I now put it back on?

I have already washed my feet.

How can I dirty them again?

⁴My lover put his hand to the latch,

and my heart yearned for him.

⁵I arose to open the door for my lover,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

on the handles of the bolt.

⁶I opened to my lover,[#SS 5:2]

but my beloved had turned away and was gone.

My soul failed me when he spoke.

I searched for him, but I did not find him;

I called out to him, but he did not answer me.

⁷The watchmen found me

as they went about the city;

They struck me, they wounded me.

They took my shawl away from me,

those guardsmen of the walls.

⁸I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,[#SS 2:7]

if you find my lover,

that you tell him I am sick with love.

Friends of the Beloved

⁹How is your beloved more desirable than others,

O most beautiful among women?

How is your beloved more desirable than others,

that you thus adjure us?

The Beloved

¹⁰My lover is radiant and ruddy,

outstanding among ten thousand men.

¹¹His head is like the finest of gold;

his hair is full of curly locks,

black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves,

resting beside streams of water,

bathed in milk,

set like jewels.

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spices,[#SS 1:10]

mounds of scented herbs.

His lips are lilies,

dripping liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His arms are rods of gold,

set with jewels.

His body is carved ivory,

inlaid with sapphires.

¹⁵His legs are pillars of alabaster,

set on pedestals of pure gold.

His countenance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

¹⁶His mouth is most sweet,

and he is altogether lovely.

He is my lover and he is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.