Study Desk

W I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My love is knocking!^(b) M Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is drenched with dew, my hair with droplets of the night.

W I have taken off my clothing.^(c) How can I put it back on? I have washed my feet. How can I get them dirty?

My love thrust his hand through the opening, and my feelings were stirred for him.

I rose to open for my love. My hands dripped with myrrh,^(d) my fingers with flowing myrrh on the handles of the bolt.

I opened to my love, but my love had turned and gone away. I was crushed^[c] that he had left.^[d] I sought him, but did not find him.^(e) I called him, but he did not answer.

The guards who go about the city found me.^(f) They beat and wounded me; they took my cloak^[e] from me— the guardians of the walls.^(g)

Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you:^(h) if you find my love, tell him that I am lovesick.⁽ⁱ⁾

Y What makes the one you love better than another, most beautiful of women?^(j) What makes him better than another, that you would give us this charge?

W My love is fit and strong,^[f](k) notable among ten thousand.^(l)

His head is purest gold. His hair is wavy^[g](m) and black as a raven.

His eyes are like doves⁽ⁿ⁾ beside streams of water, washed in milk and set like jewels.^[h]

His cheeks^(o) are like beds of spice, towers of^[i] perfume. His lips are lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.^(p)

His arms^[j] are rods of gold set^[k] with topaz.^[l](q) His body^[m] is an ivory panel covered with sapphires.^(r)

His legs are alabaster pillars set on pedestals of pure gold. His presence is like Lebanon,^(s) as majestic as the cedars.^(t)

His mouth is sweetness. He is absolutely desirable.^(u) This is my love, and this is my friend, young women of Jerusalem.

Y Where has your love gone, most beautiful of women? Which way has he^[a] turned? We will seek him with you.

W My love has gone down to his garden,^(a) to beds of spice,^(b) to feed in the gardens^(c) and gather lilies.^(d)

I am my love's and my love is mine;^(e) he feeds among the lilies.