Cantar, 3

1. En mi lecho, por las noches, he buscado al amor de mi alma. Busquéle y no le hallé.

1. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

2. Me levantaré, pues, y recorreré la ciudad. Por las calles y las plazas buscaré al amor de mi alma. Busquéle y no le hallé.

2. I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

3. Los centinelas me encontraron, los que hacen la ronda en la ciudad: «¿Habéis visto al amor de mi alma?»

3. The watchmen that go about the city found me: [to whom I said], Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

4. Apenas habíalos pasado, cuando encontré al amor de mi alma. Le aprehendí y no le soltaré hasta que le haya introducido en la casa de mi madre, en la alcoba de la que me concibió.

4. [It was] but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

5. Yo os conjuro, hijas de Jerusalén, por las gacelas, por las ciervas del campo, no despertéis, no desveléis al amor, hasta que le plazca.

5. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.

6. ¿Qué es eso que sube del desierto, cual columna de humo sahumado de mirra y de incienso, de todo polvo de aromas exóticos?

6. Who [is] this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

7. Ved la litera de Salomón. Sesenta valientes en torno a ella, la flor de los valientes de Israel:

7. Behold his bed, which [is] Solomon's; threescore valiant men [are] about it, of the valiant of Israel.

8. todos diestros en la espada, veteranos en la guerra. Cada uno lleva su espada al cinto, por las alarmas de la noche.

8. They all hold swords, [being] expert in war: every man [hath] his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

9. El rey Salomón se ha hecho un palanquín de madera del Líbano.

9. King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.

10. Ha hecho de plata sus columnas, de oro su respaldo, de púrpura su asiento; su interior, tapizado de amor por las hijas de Jerusalén.

10. He made the pillars thereof [of] silver, the bottom thereof [of] gold, the covering of it [of] purple, the midst thereof being paved [with] love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

11. Salid a contemplar, hijas de Sión, a Salomón el rey, con la diadema con que le coronó su madre el día de sus bodas, el día del gozo de su corazón.

11. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.