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v1
I have come to my garden, my sister 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 and become drunk with love! ^[Or “Drink and become drunk, O lovers!“]
v2
I was asleep but ^[Or “and”] my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved knocking! ^[Or “The sound of my beloved knocking!“] “Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is full of dew, my hair drenched from the moist night air.” ^[Literally “my locks with drops of night”]
v3
I have taken off my tunic, must I put it on? ^[Literally “How will I put it on?“] I have bathed my feet, must I soil them? ^[Literally “How will I soil them?“]
v4
My beloved thrust his hand into the opening, and my inmost yearned for him.
v5
I myself arose to open to my beloved; my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh upon the handles of the bolt.
v6
I opened myself to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone; ^[Or “my beloved had left; he was gone”] my heart sank ^[Or “my soul left”] when he turned away. ^[Or “when he was speaking.” Translations equivocate on how to translate this verb, since there are two terms in Hebrew spelled identically: “to speak” and “to turn aside” (HALOT 1:210). The context suggests the latter] I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.
v7
The sentinels making rounds in the city found me; they beat me, they wounded me; they took my cloak ^[Or “mantle”] away from me— those sentinels on the walls! ^[Literally “the sentinels of the walls”]
v8
I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem, ^[Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”] if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him that I am lovesick! ^[Literally “sick with love”]
v9
How is your beloved better than another lover, ^[Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?“] O most beautiful among women? How is your beloved better than another lover, ^[Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”] that you adjure us thus?
v10
My beloved is radiant and ruddy, ^[Literally “red”] distinguished among ^[Literally “more than”] ten thousand.
v11
His head is gold, refined gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
v12
His eyes are like doves beside springs ^[Or “streams”] of water, bathed in milk, set like mounted jewels. ^[Literally “dwelling in a setting”] ^[Or “seated at a suitable mounting”]
v13
His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances; his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.
v14
His arms are rods ^[Literally “cylinders”] ^[Or “rings”] of gold engraved with ^[Literally “filled with”] jewels; his belly ^[Or “body”] is polished ivory covered with sapphires. ^[Or “works of ivory set with sapphire”]
v15
His legs are columns of alabaster, ^[Or “marble”] set on bases of gold; his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars. ^[Literally “the cedars”]
v16
His mouth ^[Or “his palate”] is sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved; this is my friend, O young women of Jerusalem. ^[Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”]