I [am] black but beautiful, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

Do not gaze at me because I am black, because the sun has stared [at] me. The sons of my mother were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, [but] my own "vineyard" I did not keep.

On my bed in the night, I sought him whom my {heart} loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

Now I will arise, and I will go about in the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my {heart} loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.

I [was] asleep but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved knocking! "Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is full of dew, {my hair drenched from the moist night air}."

I opened myself to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone; my heart sank when he turned away. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.

If she [is] a wall, {we will adorn her with a turret of silver}; but if she [is] a door, we will barricade her with boards of cedar.