Colloquy of the Young Woman and Friends

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine;

your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is perfume poured out; therefore the maidens love you.

Draw me after you; let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.

Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon, for why should I be like one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

Colloquy of the Young Man, Friends, and the Young Woman

I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

Ah, you are beautiful, my love; ah, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.

Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green;

As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention toward me was love.

Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!

My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away,

The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face; let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

Love’s Dream

Upon my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.

“I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves.” I sought him but found him not.

The sentinels found me, as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

Scarcely had I passed them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go until I brought him into my mother’s house and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!

The Young Woman’s Beauty Extolled

How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead.

Your lips are like a crimson thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.

How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!

I come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I gather my myrrh with my spice; I eat my honeycomb with my honey; I drink my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love.

Another Dream

I was sleeping, but my heart was awake. The sound of my beloved knocking! “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”