1 I have come to my garden, my sister bride, I have gathered my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk! Eat, O friends! ⌞Drink and become drunk with love⌟!
2 I was asleep but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved knocking! “Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is full of dew, ⌞my hair drenched from the moist night air⌟.”
3 I have taken off my tunic, ⌞must I put it on⌟? I have bathed my feet, ⌞must I soil them⌟?
4 My beloved thrust his hand into the opening, and my inmost yearned for him.
5 I myself arose to open to my beloved; my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened myself to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone; my heart sank when he turned away. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.
7 The sentinels making rounds in the city found me; they beat me, they wounded me; they took my cloak away from me— ⌞those sentinels on the walls⌟!
8 I adjure you, ⌞O maidens of Jerusalem⌟, if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him that I am ⌞lovesick⌟!
9 ⌞How is your beloved better than another lover⌟, O most beautiful among women? ⌞How is your beloved better than another lover⌟, that you adjure us thus?
10 My beloved is radiant and ⌞ruddy⌟, distinguished ⌞among⌟ ten thousand.
11 His head is gold, refined gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves beside springs of water, bathed in milk, ⌞set like mounted jewels⌟.
13 His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances; his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.
14 His arms are ⌞rods⌟ of gold ⌞engraved with⌟ jewels; his belly is polished ivory covered with sapphires.
15 His legs are columns of alabaster, set on bases of gold; his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as ⌞its cedars⌟.
16 ⌞His mouth⌟ is sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved; this is my friend, ⌞O young women of Jerusalem⌟.