I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

Look not upon me, because I am swarthy, because the sun has scorched me. My mother's sons were incensed against me. They made me keeper of the vineyards, [but] my own vineyard I have not kept.

By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

[I said], I will rise now, and go around the city. In the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

It was but a little that I passed from them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

My dove, my undefiled, is [but] one. She is the only one of her mother. She is the choice one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed, [yea], the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.