1 The Bride’s Troubled Dream “On my bed night after night [I dreamed that] I sought the oneWhom my soul loves;I sought him but did not find him.
2 I said‘So I must arise now and go out into the city;Into the streets and into the squares [places I do not know]I must seek him whom my soul loves.’I sought him but I did not find him.
3 The watchmen who go around the city found me,And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’
4 Scarcely had I passed themWhen I found him whom my soul loves.I held on to him and would not let him goUntil I had brought him to my mother’s house,And into the chamber of her who conceived me.”
5 “I command that you take an oath, O daughters of Jerusalem,By the gazelles or by the does of the field,That you do not rouse nor awaken my loveUntil she pleases.”
6 Solomon’s Wedding Day “What is this coming up from the wildernessLike [stately] pillars of smokePerfumed with myrrh and frankincense,With all the fragrant powders of the merchant?”
7 “Behold, it is the couch (A conveyance that was used in ancient times especially for the transport of one person, that consisted of an enclosed sedan chair usually in the form of a box with wooden shutters, and that is carried on the shoulders of men by means of projecting poles.palanquin) of Solomon;Sixty mighty men around it,Of the mighty men of Israel.
8 All of them handle the sword,All expert in war;Each man has his sword at his thigh,Guardingagainst the terrors of the night.
9 King Solomon has made for himself a palanquinFrom the [cedar] wood of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,Its back of gold,Its seat of purple cloth,The interior lovinglyandintricately wroughtBy the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Go forth, O daughters of Zion,And gaze on King Solomon wearing the crownWith which his mother [Bathsheba] has crowned himOn the day of his wedding,On the day of his gladness of heart.”