1 The most beautiful of songs, by Solomon.
The First Song
The Woman
2 Your lips cover me with kisses;
your love is better than wine.
3 There is a fragrance about you;
the sound of your name recalls it.
No woman could keep from loving you.
4 Take me with you, and we'll run away;
be my king and take me to your room.
We will be happy together,
drink deep, and lose ourselves in love.
No wonder all women love you!
5 Women of Jerusalem, I am dark but beautiful,
dark as the desert tents of Kedar,
but beautiful as the draperies in Solomon's palace.
6 Don't look down on me because of my color,
because the sun has tanned me.
My brothers were angry with me
and made me work in the vineyard.
I had no time to care for myself.
7 Tell me, my love,
Where will you lead your flock to graze?
Where will they rest from the noonday sun?
Why should I need to look for you
among the flocks of the other shepherds?
The Man
8 Don't you know the place, loveliest of women?
Go and follow the flock;
find pasture for your goats
near the tents of the shepherds.
9 You, my love, excite men
as a mare excites the stallions of Pharaoh's chariots.
10 Your hair is beautiful upon your cheeks
and falls along your neck like jewels.
11 But we will make for you a chain of gold
with ornaments of silver.
The Woman
12 My king was lying on his couch,
and my perfume filled the air with fragrance.
13 My lover has the scent of myrrh
as he lies upon my breasts.
14 My lover is like the wild flowers
that bloom in the vineyards at Engedi.
The Man
15 How beautiful you are, my love;
how your eyes shine with love!
The Woman
16 How handsome you are, my dearest;
how you delight me!
The green grass will be our bed;
17 the cedars will be the beams of our house,
and the cypress trees the ceiling.
1 Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy loue is better then wine. 2 Because of the sauour of thy good ointments thy name is as an ointment powred out: therefore the virgins loue thee. 3 Drawe me: we will runne after thee: the King hath brought me into his chabers: we will reioyce and be glad in thee: we will remember thy loue more then wine: the righteous do loue thee. 4 I am blacke, O daughters of Ierusalem, but comely, as the tentes of Kedar, and as the curtaines of Salomon. 5 Regard ye me not because I am blacke: for the sunne hath looked vpon mee. The sonnes of my mother were angry against mee: they made me the keeper of ye vines: but I kept not mine owne vine. 6 Shewe me, O thou, whome my soule loueth, where thou feedest, where thou liest at noone: for why should I be as she that turneth aside to the flockes of thy companions? 7 If thou knowe not, O thou the fairest among women, get thee foorth by the steps of the flocke, and feede thy kiddes by the tents of the shepheards. 8 I haue compared thee, O my loue, to the troupe of horses in the charets of Pharaoh. 9 Thy cheekes are comely with rowes of stones, and thy necke with chaines. 10 We will make thee borders of golde with studdes of siluer. 11 Whiles the King was at his repast, my spikenard gaue the smelll thereof. 12 My welbeloued is as a bundle of myrrhe vnto me: he shall lie betweene my breasts. 13 My welbeloued is as a cluster of camphire vnto me in the vines of Engedi. 14 My loue, beholde, thou art faire: beholde, thou art faire: thine eyes are like the doues. 15 My welbeloued, beholde, thou art faire and pleasant: also our bed is greene: 16 The beames of our house are cedars, our rafters are of firre.