1. I HAVE come into my garden, my sister, my [promised] bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam and spice [from your sweet words I have gathered the richest perfumes and spices]. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends [feast on, O revelers of the palace; you can never make my lover disloyal to me]! Drink, yes, drink abundantly of love, O precious one [for now I know you are mine, irrevocably mine! With his confident words still thrilling her heart, through the lattice she saw her shepherd turn away and disappear into the night]. [John 16:33.]
2. I went to sleep, but my heart stayed awake. [I dreamed that I heard] the voice of my beloved as he knocked [at the door of my mother's cottage]. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my spotless one [he said], for I am wet with the [heavy] night dew; my hair is covered with it. [Job 11:13-15.]
3. [But weary from a day in the vineyards, I had already sought my rest] I had put off my garment–how could I [again] put it on? I had washed my feet–how could I [again] soil them? [Isa. 32:9; Heb. 3:15.]
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 for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid [sweet-scented] myrrh, [which he had left] upon the handles of the bolt.
6. I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and withdrawn himself, and was gone! My soul went forth [to him] when he spoke, but it failed me [and now he was gone]! I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
7. The watchmen who go about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took my veil and my mantle from me.
8. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick from love [simply sick to be with him]. [Ps. 63:1.]
9. What is your beloved more than another beloved, O you fairest among women [taunted the ladies]? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you should give us such a charge? [John 10:26.]
10. [She said] My beloved is fair and ruddy, the chief among ten thousand! [Ps. 45:2; John 1:14.]