¹“I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride;

I have gathered my myrrh with my perfume,

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey,

I have drunk my wine with my milk.”

“Eat, friends,

Drink, and imbibe strong drink,

You lovers.”

²“I was asleep,

But my heart was awake;

The voice of my lover was knocking,

‘Open to me, my sister,

My beloved, my dove, my undefiled,

For my head is full of dew,

As are my locks of hair

With dewdrops of the night.

³I have taken my tunic off;

How can I put it on again?

I have washed my feet;

How can I soil them again?’

⁴My lover stretched out his hand by the lock hole,

And I was moved inwardly because of him.

⁵I arose to open to my lover,

And my hands exuded drops of myrrh,

And my fingers liquid myrrh

On the handles of the lock.

⁶I opened to my lover,

But my lover withdrew and vanished.

My heart went out to him when he spoke.

I sought him,

But I did not find him;

I called to him,

But he did not answer me.

⁷The watchmen who patrol in the city found me.

They struck me, they wounded me;

The guardians of the walls lifted my veil off me.

⁸I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

If you find my lover,

That you tell him

That I am lovesick.”

⁹“In what way is your lover different

From any other lover,

O beautiful one among women?

In what way is your lover different

From any other lover,

That you should adjure us like this?”

¹⁰“My lover is bright and red,

Conspicuous among ten thousand.

¹¹His head is pure gold;

His locks of hair are swaying palm fronds,

And they are black like a raven.

¹²His eyes are like a dove's

By the torrents of water

– Eyes washed in milk,

Set like a gemstone in a bezel.

¹³His cheeks are like a raised garden of balsam plants

– Raised beds of aromatic herbs;

His lips are like lilies,

Exuding liquid myrrh.

¹⁴His forearms are cylinders of gold

Set with Tarshish gemstones;

His midriff is polished ivory,

Covered with sapphires.

¹⁵His legs are pillars of marble,

Founded on socles of pure gold.

His appearance is as Lebanon;

He is a young man like the cedars.

¹⁶His mouth is most sweet.

And all of him is most desirable.

This is my lover

And this is my beloved,

O daughters of Jerusalem.”