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5I come to my garden, my sister, my bride;
   I gather my myrrh with my spice,
   I eat my honeycomb with my honey,
   I drink my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends, drink,
   and be drunk with love.

Another Dream

² I slept, but my heart was awake.
Listen! my beloved is knocking.
‘Open to me, my sister, my love,
   my dove, my perfect one;
for my head is wet with dew,
   my locks with the drops of the night.’
³ I had put off my garment;
   how could I put it on again?
I had bathed my feet;
   how could I soil them?
⁴ My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
   and my inmost being yearned for him.
⁵ I arose to open to my beloved,
   and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
   upon the handles of the bolt.
⁶ I opened to my beloved,
   but my beloved had turned and was gone.
My soul failed me when he spoke.
I sought him, but did not find him;
   I called him, but he gave no answer.
⁷ Making their rounds in the city
   the sentinels found me;
they beat me, they wounded me,
   they took away my mantle,
   those sentinels of the walls.
⁸ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
   if you find my beloved,
tell him this:
   I am faint with love.

Colloquy of Friends and Bride

⁹ What is your beloved more than another beloved,
   O fairest among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
   that you thus adjure us?

¹⁰ My beloved is all radiant and ruddy,
   distinguished among ten thousand.
¹¹ His head is the finest gold;
   his locks are wavy,
   black as a raven.
¹² His eyes are like doves
   beside springs of water,
bathed in milk,
   fitly set.^*
13 His cheeks are like beds of spices,
   yielding fragrance.
His lips are lilies,
   distilling liquid myrrh.
¹⁴ His arms are rounded gold,
   set with jewels.
His body is ivory work,^*
   encrusted with sapphires.^*
15 His legs are alabaster columns,
   set upon bases of gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
   choice as the cedars.
¹⁶ His speech is most sweet,
   and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved and this is my friend,
   O daughters of Jerusalem.

6Where has your beloved gone,
   O fairest among women?
Which way has your beloved turned,
   that we may seek him with you?

² My beloved has gone down to his garden,
   to the beds of spices,
to pasture his flock in the gardens,
   and to gather lilies.
³ I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
   he pastures his flock among the lilies.

The Bride’s Matchless Beauty

⁴ You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
   comely as Jerusalem,
   terrible as an army with banners.
⁵ Turn away your eyes from me,
   for they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
   moving down the slopes of Gilead.
⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of ewes,
   that have come up from the washing;
all of them bear twins,
   and not one among them is bereaved.
⁷ Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
   behind your veil.
⁸ There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
   and maidens without number.
⁹ My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
   the darling of her mother,
   flawless to her that bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her happy;
   the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
¹⁰ ‘Who is this that looks forth like the dawn,
   fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
   terrible as an army with banners?’

¹¹ I went down to the nut orchard,
   to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to see whether the vines had budded,
   whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
¹² Before I was aware, my fancy set me
   in a chariot beside my prince.^*

^{13 *}Return, return, O Shulammite!
   Return, return, that we may look upon you.

Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
   as upon a dance before two armies?^*