3
The Young Woman Dreams about Searching for Her Beloved
[ BRIDE ]
1 Night after night on my bed
I looked for the one I love.
I looked for him but did not find him.
2 I will get up now and roam around the city,
in the streets, and in the squares.
I will look for the one I love.
I looked for him but did not find him.
3 The watchmen making their rounds in the city found me.
⌞I asked,⌟ “Have you seen the one I love?”
4 I had just left them when I found the one I love.
I held on to him and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
into the bedroom of the one who conceived me.
5 Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me
by the gazelles
or by the does in the field,
that you will not awaken love
or arouse love before its proper time.
A Description of the Royal Procession
[ THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN ]
6 Who is this young woman coming up from the wilderness
like clouds of smoke?
She is perfumed with myrrh and incense
made from the merchants’ scented powders.
7 Look! Solomon’s sedan chair!*
Sixty soldiers from the army of Israel surround it.
8 All of them are skilled in using swords,
experienced in combat.
Each one has his sword at his side
and guards against the terrors of the night.
9 King Solomon had a carriage made for himself
from the wood of Lebanon.
10 He had its posts made out of silver,
its top out of gold,
its seat out of purple fabric.
Its inside—with inlaid scenes of love—
was made by the young women of Jerusalem.
11 Young women of Zion, come out and look at King Solomon!
Look at his crown,
the crown his mother placed on him on his wedding day,
his day of joyful delight.
* 3:7 A sedan chair is a portable chair for carrying a person of high position.