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

Do not look on me, that I am black, that the sun has looked on me. My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but my vineyard I have not kept.

Behold, you are beautiful, my Beloved, yea, pleasant. Also our bed is green.

By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loved; I sought Him, but I did not find Him.

I will rise now and go about 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.

But a little while after I passed from them, 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 room of her who conceived me.

Behold his bed, Solomon's! Sixty mighty men are around it, of Israel's mighty men.

King Solomon made himself a litter-bed of Lebanon's trees.

I sleep, but my heart is awake. It is the sound of my Beloved that knocks, saying, Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled; for My head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.

I have put off My coat; How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

My Beloved put in His hand by the hole of the door, and my heart was moved for Him.

I opened to my Beloved, but my Beloved had left. He passed on. My soul went out when He spoke; I sought Him, but I could not find Him. I called Him, but He did not answer me.

His cheeks are like a bed of spices, a raised bed of aromatic herbs. His lips are as lilies dropping flowing myrrh.

But My dove, My undefiled is one alone. She is the only one of her mother. She is the choice of her who bore her. The daughters saw her and blessed her; the queens and the concubines saw her, and they praised her.

I did not know, but my soul set me on the chariots of my princely people.

Let us rise up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flowers, whether the tender grape appears, and the pomegranates bud forth; there I will give You my loves.