¹“Where has your lover gone,

O most beautiful among women?

Which way has your lover turned?

Then let us look for him with you.”

²“My lover went down to his garden,

To the raised beds of balsam

To graze in the gardens

And to gather lilies.

³I belong to my lover,

And my lover belongs to me,

The one grazing among the lilies.”

⁴“You are beautiful, my beloved, like Tirzah,

As delightful as Jerusalem,

As awe-inspiring as a display of banners.

⁵Turn your eyes away from me,

For they have excited me.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

Which shine from Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of ewes

Which have come up from the washing-place,

Which are all paired,

And among which none is bereft of young.

⁷Your cheek is like the segment of a pomegranate

Through your veil.

⁸There are sixty queens and eighty mistresses,

And virgins without number.

⁹But there is just one of my dove,

My undefiled.

She is the only one of her mother's;

She is the favourite of her who bore her.

The daughters saw her and blessed her,

And the queens and mistresses praised her

And said,

¹⁰‘Who is this peeping out like the dawn,

As beautiful as the moon,

As clear as the sun,

As awesome as a display of banners?’ ”

¹¹“I went down to the nut garden

To see the plant life of the valley,

To see if the vine was blossoming

– If the pomegranates were blooming.

¹²I don't know how I landed myself

In the chariots of my noble people.”

¹³“Come back, come back, O Shulamite, come back.

Come back, and let us look at you.”

“What do you see in the Shulamite?”

“You are like the dance of Mahanaim.