Love songs

‘Open to me, my sister, my dearest,
    my dove, my perfect one;
  for my head is drenched with dew,
    my locks with the moisture of the night.’


3   ‘I have stripped off my dress; must I put it on again?
I have washed my feet; must I soil them again?’


4   When my beloved slipped his hand through the latch-hole,
  my bowels stirred ^note within me.
5   When I arose to open for my beloved,
  my hands dripped with myrrh;
the liquid myrrh from my fingers
  ran over the knobs of the bolt.
   6   With my own hands I opened to my love,
  but my love had turned away and gone by;
  my heart sank when he turned his back.
  I sought him but I did not find him,
  I called him but he did not answer.
7   The watchmen, going the rounds of the city, met me;
    they struck me and wounded me;
the watchmen on the walls took away my cloak.
   8   I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved, will you not tell him ^note
  that I am faint with love?
Companions

   9   What is your beloved more than any other,
    O fairest of women?
  What is your beloved more than any other,
    that you give us this charge?
Bride

   10   My beloved is fair and ruddy,
    a paragon among ten thousand.
   11   His head is gold, finest gold;
    his locks are like palm-fronds. ^note
12   His eyes are like doves beside brooks of water,
    splashed by the milky water
    as they sit where it is drawn.
13   His cheeks are like beds of spices or chests full of perfumes;
his lips are lilies, and drop liquid myrrh;
14   his hands are golden rods set in topaz;

Love songs
his belly a plaque of ivory overlaid with lapis lazuli.
15   His legs are pillars of marble in sockets of finest gold;
his aspect is like Lebanon, noble as cedars.
16   His whispers are ^note sweetness itself, wholly desirable.
Such is my beloved, such is my darling,
    daughters of Jerusalem.

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