He.

⁸If you do not know, O fairest among women,
follow in the tracks of the flock,
and pasture your kids beside the shepherds' tents.
⁹I compare you, my love, to a mare of Pharaoh's chariots.
¹⁰Your cheeks are comely with ornaments,
your neck with strings of jewels.
¹¹We will make you ornaments of gold,
studded with silver.

She.

¹²While the king was on his couch,
my nard gave forth its fragrance.
¹³My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh,
that lies between my breasts.
¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.

He.

¹⁵Behold, you are beautiful, my love;
behold, you are beautiful;
your eyes are doves.

She.

He.

²As a lily among brambles,
so is my love among maidens.

She.

³As an apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
⁴He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love.
⁵Sustain me with raisins,
refresh me with apples;
for I am sick with love.
⁶O that his left hand were under my head,
and that his right hand embraced me!
⁷I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the hinds of the field,
that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please.

The second song. She.

⁸The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
⁹My beloved is like a gazelle, or a young stag.
Behold, there he stands behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.

He.

She.

¹⁶My beloved is mine and I am his,
he pastures his flock among the lilies.
¹⁷Until the day breathes and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle,
or a young stag upon rugged mountains.

The third song. She.

⁶What 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?
⁷Behold, it is the litter of Solomon!
About it are sixty mighty men of the mighty men of Israel,
⁸all girt with swords and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh,
against alarms by night.
⁹King Solomon made himself a palanquin from the wood of Lebanon.
¹⁰He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple;
it was lovingly wrought within by the daughters of Jerusalem.
¹¹Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding,
on the day of the gladness of his heart.

⁹You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride,
you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
¹⁰How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride!
how much better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
¹¹Your lips distil nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.
¹²A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a garden locked, a fountain sealed.
¹³Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,
¹⁴nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes,
with all chief spices -
¹⁵a garden fountain, a well of living water,
and flowing streams from Lebanon.

She.

¹⁶Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden, let its fragrance be wafted abroad.
Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.

The fourth song. She (a). He (b).

²I slept, but my heart was awake.
Hark! 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."

She.

The women.

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

She.

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

She.

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

The fifth song. He.

⁴You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
comely as Jerusalem,
terrible as an army with banners.
⁵Turn away your eyes from me, for they disturb me -
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
moving down the slopes of Gilead.
⁶Your teeth are like a flock of ewes,
that have come up from the washing,
all of them bear twins,
not one among them is bereaved.
⁷Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.
⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.
⁹My dove, my perfect one, is 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?"

¹¹I 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.
¹²Before I was aware, my fancy set me in a chariot beside my prince.

The women (a). She (b).

¹³Return, 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?

⁶How fair and pleasant you are,
O loved one, delectable maiden!
⁷You are stately as a palm tree,
and your breasts are like its clusters.
⁸I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its branches.
Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
and the scent of your breath like apples,
⁹and your kisses like the best wine
that goes down smoothly,
gliding over lips and teeth.

She.

¹⁰I am my beloved's,
and his desire is for me.
¹¹Come, my beloved,
let us go forth into the fields,
and lodge in the villages;
¹²let us go out early to the vineyards,
and see whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape blossoms have opened
and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
¹³The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
and over our doors are all choice fruits,
new as well as old,
which I have laid up for you,
O my beloved.

The sixth song. The women (a). She (b)

⁵Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
leaning upon her beloved?
Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in travail with you,
there she who bore you was in travail.

She.

⁶Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is cruel as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a most vehement flame.
⁷Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house,
it would be utterly scorned.

⁸We have a little sister,
and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister,
on the day when she is spoken for?
⁹If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver;
but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She.

¹⁰I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes as one who brings peace.

He.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he let out the vineyard to keepers;
each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
¹²My vineyard, my very own, is for myself;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

¹³O you who dwell in the gardens,
my companions are listening for your voice;
let me hear it.

She.

¹⁴Make haste my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
upon the mountain of spices.