The bride

2 Let him kiss me on the lips,

because your caresses are better than wine.

3 As for the fragrance of your perfumes—they’re good.

Your reputation is like fragant oil

so the eligible young women love you.

4 Take me with you—let’s run.

May the king has brought me to his bedroom.

The bride

It’s right that they love you.

5 I am black but lovely, daughters of Yerushalem,

like the tents in Kedar.

Like Shelomoh’s palace curtains.

6 Don’t look at me, that I’m black.

That the sun scorched me.

My brothers were angry with me.

They forced me to look after our vineyards—

but I haven’t maintained my own vineyard.

7 Declare to me, you who my heart loves.

Where do you graze?

Where do you make your flocks lie down at noontime?

Why should I be like a woman who covers herself beside your companions’ flocks?

The bride

12 While the king was on his couch,

my perfume gave off its fragrance.

13 My dearest is like a perfume sachet

that stays between my breasts.

14 My dearest is like a cluster of henna blossoms to me,

in the Engedi vineyards.

The bride

16 Look at you. You’re handsome, my dearest, truly pleasant.

Indeed, our couch is comfortable.

17 The beams of our house are cedar.

≈Our rafters are pine.

2 I’m a wildflower of Sharon.

≈A lily of the valleys.

The bride

3 Like an apple tree among the trees in the forest,

so is my dearest among the young men.

In his shadow I greatly delighted, and I sat,

and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

4 He brought me to the house of food and wine

and his desire for me is to show love.

5 Sustain me with raisin cakes.

≈Refresh me with apples,

because I’m weak with love.

6 His left hand is under my head,

^and his right arm embraces me.

7 Promise me, you young women from Yerushalem

by the female gazelles or the does in the countryside,

don’t awaken or stir love until it’s the right time.