1   The Song of Songs, which is for Solomon.

 

2   May you kiss me passionately with your lips,

    for your love is better than wine.

3   As fragrance, your perfumes are delightful;

    your name is poured out perfume;

      therefore young women love you.

4   Draw me after you, let us run!

    May the king bring me into his chambers!

  Let us be joyful and let us rejoice in you;

    let us extol your love more than wine.

      Rightly do they love you!

 

5   I am black but beautiful, O maidens of Jerusalem,

    like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

6   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.

 

7   Tell me, you whom my heart loves,

    where do you pasture your flock,

      where do your sheep lie down at the noon?

  For why should I be like one who is veiled

    beside the flocks of your companions?

8   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.

 

9   To a mare among the chariots of Pharaoh,

    I compare you, my beloved.

10   Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments,

    your neck with strings of jewels.

11   We will make ornaments of gold for you

    with studs of silver.

 

12   While the king was on his couch,

    my nard gave its fragrance.

13   My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh,

    he spends the night between my breasts.

14   My beloved is to me a cluster of blossoms of henna

    in the vineyards of En Gedi.

 

15   Look! You are beautiful, my beloved.

    Look! You are beautiful;

      your eyes are doves.

16   Look! You are beautiful, my beloved,

    truly pleasant.

  Truly our couch is verdant;

17     the beams of our house are cedar;

      our rafter is cypress.