² I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My love is knocking:

“Open for me, my sister, my dearest,
        my dove, my perfect one!
        My head is soaked with dew,
        my hair, with the night mists.”

³ “I have taken off my tunic—
        why should I put it on again?
I have bathed my feet—
        why should I get them dirty?”
⁴ My love put his hand in through the latch hole,
        and my body ached for him.
⁵ I rose; I went to open for my love,
        and my hands dripped myrrh,
        my fingers, liquid myrrh,
        over the handles of the lock.
⁶ I went and opened for my love,
    but my love had turned, gone away.
I nearly died when he turned away.
I looked for him but couldn’t find him.
        I called out to him, but he didn’t answer me.
⁷ They found me—the guards
        who make their rounds in the city.
They struck me, bruised me.
They took my shawl away from me,
        those guards of the city walls!
⁸ I place you under oath, daughters of Jerusalem:
If you find my love, what should you tell him?
        That I’m weak with love!

⁹ How is your lover different from any other lover,
        you who are the most beautiful of women?
How is your lover different from any other lover,
        that you make us swear a solemn pledge?

⁵ Who is this coming up from the wilderness
        leaning against her lover?

Under the apple tree I aroused you—
        there, where your mother labored with you,
        there where, laboring, she bore you.
⁶ Set me as a seal over your heart,
        as a seal upon your arm,
for love is as strong as death,
        passionate love unrelenting as the grave.^[a]
Its darts are darts of fire—
        divine flame!
⁷ Rushing waters can’t quench love;
        rivers can’t wash it away.
If someone gave
        all his estate in exchange for love,
        he would be laughed to utter shame.

⁸ Our sister is small;
        she has no breasts.
What will we do for our sister
        on the day that she is spoken for?
⁹ If she is a city wall,
        then we will build a turret of silver on her.^[b]
And if she is a door,
        then we will barricade her^[c] with a panel of cedar.

¹⁰ I’m a city wall,
        and my breasts are the towers.
So now I’m in his eyes
        as one who brings peace.