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.

If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow {the tracks} of the flock, and pasture your little lambs beside the tents of the shepherds.

My beloved [is] to me {a pouch} of myrrh, he spends the night between my breasts.

I adjure you, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

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.

{Scarcely had I passed} by them when I found him whom my {heart} loves. I held him and I would not let him go until I brought him to the house of my mother, into the bedroom chamber of she who conceived me.

I adjure you, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

All of them {wield swords}; [they are] {trained in warfare}, each with his sword at his thigh [to guard] {against terror} in the night.

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.

I did not know my {heart} set me [in] a chariot of my princely people.

Your navel [is] {a round wine-mixing bowl} that does not lack mixed wine! Your belly [is] a heap of wheat encircled with lilies.

Come, my beloved, let us {go out to the countryside}; let us spend the night in the villages.

I adjure you, {O maidens of Jerusalem}, do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!

{We have a little sister}, {and she does not yet have any breasts}. What should we do for our sister {on the day when she is betrothed}?