1 Let my kinsman come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his choice berries. I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spices; I have eaten my bread with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink; yea, brethren, drink abundandtly.
2 I sleep, but my heart is awake: the voice of my kinsman knocks at the door, saying, Open, open to me, my companion, my sister, my dove, my perfect one: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. 3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? 4 My kinsman put forth his hand by the hole of the door, and my belly was moved for him. 5 I rose up to open to my kinsman; my hands dropped myrrh, my fingers choice myrrh, on the handles of the lock. 6 I opened to my kinsman; my kinsman was gone: my soul failed at his speech: I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he answered me not. 7 The watchmen that go their rounds in the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. 8 I have charged you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and the virtues of the field: if ye should find my kinsman, what are ye to say to him? That I am wounded with love.
9 What is thy kinsman more than another kinsman, O thou beautiful among women? what is thy kinsman more than another kinsman, that thou hast so charged us?
10 My kinsman is white and ruddy, chosen out from myriads.