“Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, Where do you pasture your flock, Where do you make it lie down at noon? For why should I be like one who is veiled Beside the flocks of your companions?”

The Bride’s Troubled Dream

(The Shulammite Bride)

“On my bed night after night [I dreamed that] I sought the one Whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him.

“I said ‘So I must arise now and go out into the city; Into the streets and into the squares [places I do not know] I must seek him whom my soul loves.’ I sought him but I did not find him.

“The watchmen who go around the city found me, And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’

“Scarcely had I passed them When I found him whom my soul loves. I held on to him and would not let him go Until I had brought him to my mother’s house, And into the chamber of her who conceived me.”

(The Shulammite Bride)

“Awake, O north wind, And come, south wind [blow softly upon my garden]; Make my garden breathe out fragrance, [for the one in whom my soul delights], Let its spices flow forth. Let my beloved come into his garden And eat its choicest fruits.”