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?”

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

5I 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.

6I opened to my beloved; But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone.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.

7The 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.

8I 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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