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¹ Where is your loved one gone, O most fair among women? Where is your loved one turned away, that we may go looking for him with you?² My loved one is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to take food in the gardens, and to get lilies.³ I am for my loved one, and my loved one is for me; he takes food among the lilies.

⁴ You are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, as fair as Jerusalem; you are to be feared like an army with flags.⁵ Let your eyes be turned away from me; see, they have overcome me; your hair is as a flock of goats which take their rest on the side of Gilead.⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young.⁷ Like pomegranate fruit are the sides of your head under your veil.⁸ There are sixty queens, and eighty servant-wives, and young girls without number.⁹ My dove, my very beautiful one, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the dearest one of her who gave her birth. The daughters saw her, and gave her a blessing; yes, the queens and the servant-wives, and they gave her praises.¹⁰ Who is she, looking down as the morning light, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, who is to be feared like an army with flags?

¹¹ I went down into the garden of nuts to see the green plants of the valley, and to see if the vine was in bud, and the pomegranate-trees were in flower.¹² Before I was conscious of it, ••• Three dots are used where it is no longer possible to be certain of the true sense of the Hebrew words, and for this reason no attempt has been made to put them into Basic English.¹³ Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, so that our eyes may see you. What will you see in the Shulammite? A sword-dance.