Song of Solomon

3 On my bed of nights

I looked for the one that my soul loves,

looked for him and did not find him.

2 Let me stand up and go round in the city

in the streets and the squares

Looking for the one that my soul loves;

I looked for him and did not find him.

3 The watchmen that go round in the city found me:

“Have you seen the one that my soul loves?”

4 I had got a little past them

when I found the one that my soul loves.

I caught hold of him,

did not let go of him

Till I brought him to my mother’s house,

to my parent’s chamber.

5 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the wild does,

Not to wake love or rouse it up

till it so please.

6* Who is this coming up out of the wilderness

like columns of smoke,

Perfumed with burnings of myrrh and frankincense,

with every powder money can buy?

7 Here comes Solomon’s bed,

Sixty champions round it,

champions of Israel,

8 All of them sword-wielders,

men trained to war,

Each with sword on thigh

against night alarms.

9 King Solomon has made himself a palanquin

of wood from the Lebanon,

10* Made its legs of silver,

its back of gold,

Its seat of purple,

its body inlaid with ebony.

11 Daughters of Jerusalem, go out

and gaze at King Solomon

In the wreath his mother put on him

on his wedding-day,

the day of his heart’s gladness.