Song of Solomon, 5

1. LOVER: I come into my garden, my sister, my promised bride, I pick my myrrh and balsam, I eat my honey and my honeycomb, I drink my wine and my milk. POET: Eat, friends, and drink, drink deep, my dearest friends.

1. I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse: 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, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

2. BELOVED: I sleep, but my heart is awake. I hear my love knocking. 'Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my hair with the drops of night.'

2. I sleep, but my heart waketh: [it is] the voice of my beloved that knocketh, [saying], Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, [and] my locks with the drops of the night.

3. -'I have taken off my tunic, am I to put it on again? I have washed my feet, am I to dirty them again?'

3. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

4. My love thrust his hand through the hole in the door; I trembled to the core of my being.

4. My beloved put in his hand by the hole [of the door], and my bowels were moved for him.

5. Then I got up to open to my love, myrrh ran off my hands, pure myrrh off my fingers, on to the handle of the bolt.

5. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped [with] myrrh, and my fingers [with] sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

6. I opened to my love, but he had turned and gone. My soul failed at his flight, I sought but could not find him, I called, but he did not answer.

6. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, [and] was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

7. The watchmen met me, those who go on their rounds in the city. They beat me, they wounded me, they took my cloak away from me: those guardians of the ramparts!

7. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

8. I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you should find my love, what are you to tell him? -That I am sick with love!

8. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I [am] sick of love.

9. CHORUS: What makes your lover better than other lovers, O loveliest of women? What makes your lover better than other lovers, to put us under such an oath?

9. What [is] thy beloved more than [another] beloved, O thou fairest among women? what [is] thy beloved more than [another] beloved, that thou dost so charge us?

10. BELOVED: My love is fresh and ruddy, to be known among ten thousand.

10. My beloved [is] white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.

11. His head is golden, purest gold, his locks are palm fronds and black as the raven.

11. His head [is as] the most fine gold, his locks [are] bushy, [and] black as a raven.

12. His eyes are like doves beside the water-courses, bathing themselves in milk, perching on a fountain-rim.

12. His eyes [are] as [the eyes] of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, [and] fitly set.

13. His cheeks are beds of spices, banks sweetly scented. His lips are lilies, distilling pure myrrh.

13. His cheeks [are] as a bed of spices, [as] sweet flowers: his lips [like] lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.

14. His hands are golden, rounded, set with jewels of Tarshish. His belly a block of ivory covered with sapphires.

14. His hands [are as] gold rings set with the beryl: his belly [is as] bright ivory overlaid [with] sapphires.

15. His legs are alabaster columns set in sockets of pure gold. His appearance is that of Lebanon, unrivalled as the cedars.

15. His legs [are as] pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance [is] as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

16. His conversation is sweetness itself, he is altogether lovable. Such is my love, such is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

16. His mouth [is] most sweet: yea, he [is] altogether lovely. This [is] my beloved, and this [is] my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.