[1] I AM come into my garden, my sister, my 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, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
[2] I was asleep, but my heart waked: 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, my locks with the drops of the night.
[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 beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my heart was moved for him.
[5] I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.
[6] I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone. My soul had failed me when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
[7] The watchmen that go about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.
[8] I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.
[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 adjure us?
[10] My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
[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 brooks; washed with milk, and fitly set.
[13] His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs: his lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
[14] His hands are as rings of gold set with beryl: his body is as ivory work overlaid with sapphires.
[15] His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
[16] His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.