Cantique des cantiques 5

¹ I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride : I have gathered my myrrh with my spice ; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey ; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends ; Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

² I was asleep, but my heart waked : It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled ; For my head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.

³ I have put off my garment ; how shall I put it on ? I have washed my feet ; how shall I defile them ?

⁴ My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, And my heart was moved for him.

⁵ I rose up to open to my beloved ; And my hands dropped with myrrh, And my fingers with liquid myrrh, Upon the handles of the bolt.

⁶ I opened to my beloved ; But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone. My soul had failed me when he spake : I sought him, but I could not find him ; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

⁷ The watchmen that go about the city found me, They smote me, they wounded me ; The keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me.

⁸ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved, That ye tell him, that I am sick from love.

⁹ What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women ? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, That thou dost so adjure us ?

¹⁰ My beloved is white and ruddy, The chiefest among ten thousand.

¹¹ His head is as the most fine gold ; His locks are bushy, and black as a raven.

¹² His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks, Washed with milk, and fitly set.

¹³ His cheeks are as a bed of spices, As banks of sweet herbs : His lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

¹⁴ His hands are as rings of gold set with beryl : His body is as ivory work overlaid with sapphires.

¹⁵ His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold : His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

¹⁶ His mouth is most sweet ; Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.