If you don't know, most beautiful of women, go out after the flock and graze your young goats beside the shepherd's tents.

I'll get up and go all around the city, throughout the streets, and in the squares. I'll seek the one I love. I sought him, but didn't find him.

The watchmen who go all around the city found me. I asked, "Have you seen the one I love?"

I had just passed them when I found the one I love. I held him and wouldn't let him go until I brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I'll go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.

Where did your beloved go, most beautiful of women? Where did your beloved turn, so we may look for him with you?

I told myself, "I'll go up the palm tree, and take hold of its fruit. May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the smell of your breath like apples.

May your mouth be like good wine. May it go down smoothly to my beloved, gliding gently over the lips of the sleeping ones.

Come, my beloved. Let us go out to the country, let us spend the night in the villages.

Let us go early to the vineyards, let us see whether the vine has budded, whether the blossom has opened, whether the pomegranates have bloomed. There I'll give you my love.