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A Dream of Love

3Upon my bed at night
   I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not;
   I called him, but he gave no answer.^*
2 ‘I will rise now and go about the city,
   in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.’
   I sought him, but found him not.
³ The sentinels found me,
   as they went about in the city.
‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’
⁴ Scarcely had I passed them,
   when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
   until I brought him into my mother’s house,
   and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
⁵ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
   by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
   until it is ready!

The Groom and His Party Approach

⁶ What is that coming up from the wilderness,
   like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
   with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?
⁷ Look, it is the litter of Solomon!
Around it are sixty mighty men
   of the mighty men of Israel,
⁸ all equipped with swords
   and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh
   because of alarms by night.
⁹ King Solomon made himself a palanquin
   from the wood of Lebanon.
¹⁰ He made its posts of silver,
   its back of gold, its seat of purple;
its interior was inlaid with love.^*
   Daughters of Jerusalem,
¹¹   come out.
Look, O daughters of Zion,
   at King Solomon,
at the crown with which his mother crowned him
   on the day of his wedding,
   on the day of the gladness of his heart.