THE Daughters of Jerusalem

¹ Where has your beloved gone,
O fairest among women?
Where has your beloved turned aside,
That we may seek him with you?

THE Shulamite

² My beloved has gone to his garden,
To the beds of spices,
To feed his flock in the gardens,
And to gather lilies.
³ I am my beloved’s,
And my beloved is mine.
He feeds his flock among the lilies.

THE Beloved

⁴ O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah,
Lovely as Jerusalem,
Awesome as an army with banners!
⁵ Turn your eyes away from me,
For they have overcome me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
Going down from Gilead.
⁶ Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
Which have come up from the washing;
Every one bears twins,
And none is barren among them.
⁷ Like a piece of pomegranate
Are your temples behind your veil.
⁸ There are sixty queens
And eighty concubines,
And virgins without number.
⁹ My dove, my perfect one,
Is the only one,
The only one of her mother,
The favorite of the one who bore her.
The daughters saw her
And called her blessed,
The queens and the concubines,
And they praised her.
¹⁰ Who is she who looks forth as the morning,
Fair as the moon,
Clear as the sun,
Awesome as an army with banners?

THE Shulamite

¹¹ I went down to the garden of nuts
To see the verdure of the valley,
To see whether the vine had budded
And the pomegranates had bloomed.
¹² Before I was even aware,
My soul had made me
As the chariots of my noble people.^[a]

THE Beloved and His Friends

¹³ Return, return, O Shulamite;
Return, return, that we may look upon you!