1 Title/SuperscriptionSolomon’s Most Excellent Love Song.2 The Desire for LoveThe Beloved to Her Lover: Oh, how I wish you would kiss me passionately! For your lovemaking is more delightful than wine.3 The fragrance of your colognes is delightful; your name is like the finest perfume. No wonder the young women adore you!4 Draw me after you; let us hurry! May the king bring me into his bedroom chambers! The Maidens to the Lover:We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine.The Beloved to Her Lover:How rightly the young women adore you!5 The Country Maiden and the Daughters of JerusalemThe Beloved to the Maidens: I am dark but lovely, O maidens of Jerusalem,dark like the tents of Qedar, lovely like the tent curtains of Salmah.6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,for the sun has burned my skin. My brothers were angry with me;they made me the keeper of the vineyards.Alas, my own vineyard I could not keep!7 The Shepherd and the ShepherdessThe Beloved to Her Lover: Tell me, O you whom my heart loves,where do you pasture your sheep?Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat?Tell me lest I wander around beside the flocks of your companions!The Lover to His Beloved:8 If you do not know, O most beautiful of women,simply follow the tracks of my flock,and pasture your little lambsbeside the tents of the shepherds.9 The Beautiful Mare and the Fragrant MyrrhThe Lover to His Beloved: O my beloved, you are like a mare among Pharaoh’s stallions.10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments;your neck is lovely with strings of jewels.11 We will make for you gold ornamentsstudded with silver. The Beloved about Her Lover:12 While the king was at his banqueting table, my nard gave forth its fragrance.13 My beloved is like a fragrant pouch of myrrh spending the night between my breasts.14 My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En Gedi.15 Mutual Praise and AdmirationThe Lover to His Beloved: Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved! Oh, how beautiful you are!Your eyes are like doves! The Beloved to Her Lover:16 Oh, how handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how delightful you are!The lush foliage is our canopied bed;17 the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber;the pines are the rafters of our bedroom.