1:1 | Solomon’s* Most Excellent* Love Song.* |
1:2 | The Beloved to Her Lover:* Oh, how I wish you* would kiss me passionately!* For your lovemaking* is more delightful* than wine.* |
1:3 | The fragrance* of your colognes* is delightful;* your name* is like the finest* perfume.* No wonder the young women* adore* you! |
1:4 | Draw me* after you; let us hurry!* May the king* bring* me into his* bedroom chambers!* The Maidens* to the Lover: We will* rejoice and delight in you;* we will praise* your love more than wine. The Beloved to Her Lover: How rightly* the young women* adore you! |
1:5 | The Beloved to the Maidens: I am dark but lovely, O maidens* of Jerusalem, dark* like the tents of Qedar,* lovely* like the tent curtains* of Salmah.* |
1:6 | Do not stare at me because* I am dark, for* the sun has burned my skin.* My brothers* were angry* with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards. Alas, my own vineyard* I could not keep!* |
1:7 | The Beloved to Her Lover: Tell me, O you whom my heart* loves, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat? Tell me lest* I wander around* beside the flocks of your companions! |
1:8 | The Lover to His Beloved: If you do not know, O most beautiful of women, simply follow the tracks of my flock, and pasture your little lambs beside the tents of the shepherds. |
1:9 | The Lover to His Beloved: O my beloved, you are like* a* mare* among Pharaoh’s stallions.* |
1:10 | Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments; your neck is lovely* with strings of jewels. |
1:11 | We* will make for you gold ornaments studded with silver.* |
1:12 | The Beloved about Her Lover: While the king was at his banqueting table,* my nard* gave forth its fragrance.* |
1:13 | My beloved is like a fragrant pouch of myrrh* spending the night* between my breasts. |
1:14 | My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms* in the vineyards of En-Gedi.* |
1:15 | The Lover to His Beloved: Oh,* how beautiful you are, my beloved!* Oh, how beautiful you are! Your eyes* are like doves!* |
1:16 | The Beloved to Her Lover: Oh, how handsome you are, my lover!* Oh,* how delightful* you are! The lush foliage* is our canopied bed;* |
1:17 | the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber; the pines are the rafters of our bedroom. |