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Young Woman

One night as I lay in bed, I yearned for my lover.
    I yearned for him, but he did not come.
So I said to myself, “I will get up and roam the city,
    searching in all its streets and squares.
I will search for the one I love.”
    So I searched everywhere but did not find him.
The watchmen stopped me as they made their rounds,
    and I asked, “Have you seen the one I love?”
Then scarcely had I left them
    when I found my love!
I caught and held him tightly,
    then I brought him to my mother’s house,
    into my mother’s bed, where I had been conceived.

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The search

[Woman]

Upon my bed, night after night,
        I looked for the one whom I love with all my heart.
    I looked for him but couldn’t find him.[a]
“I will rise now and go all around the city,
        through the streets and the squares.
I will look for the one whom I love with all my heart.”
    I looked for him but couldn’t find him.
The guards found me,
        those who make their rounds in the city.
“The one whom I love with all my heart—
        have you seen him?”
No sooner did I depart from them
        than I found the one whom I love with all my heart.
I held on to him and now I won’t let him go,
        until I’ve brought him to my mother’s house,
        to the chamber of the one who conceived me.

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Footnotes

  1. Song of Solomon 3:1 LXX adds I called him, but he didn't answer me; cf 5:6.