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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!^[a]

² I was asleep but^[b] my heart was awake.
    A sound! My beloved knocking!^[c]
"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."^[d]
3 I have taken off my tunic, must I put it on?^[e]
    I have bathed my feet, must I soil them?^[f]
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;^[g]
my heart sank^[h] when he turned away.^[i]
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^[j] away from me—
    those sentinels on the walls!^[k]

⁸ I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem,^[l]
    if you find my beloved, what will you tell him?
Tell him that I am lovesick!^[m]

⁹ How is your beloved better than another lover,^[n]
    O most beautiful among women?
How is your beloved better than another lover, ^[o]
    that you adjure us thus?
¹⁰ My beloved is radiant and ruddy,^[p]
    distinguished among^[q] 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^[r] of water,
    bathed in milk, set like mounted jewels.^[s][t]
13 His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances;
    his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.
¹⁴ His arms are rods^[u][v] of gold engraved with^[w] jewels;
    his belly^[x] is polished ivory covered with sapphires.^[y]
15 His legs are columns of alabaster,^[z] set on bases of gold;
    his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.^[aa]
16 His mouth^[ab] is sweet,
    and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved;
    this is my friend, O young women of Jerusalem.^[ac]