Chapter 6

  Where is your loved one gone, O most fair among women? Where is your loved one turned away, that we may go looking for him with you?  

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  My loved one is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to take food in the gardens, and to get lilies.  

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  I am for my loved one, and my loved one is for me; he takes food among the lilies.  

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  You are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, as fair as Jerusalem; you are to be feared like an army with flags.  

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  Let your eyes be turned away from me; see, they have overcome me; your hair is as a flock of goats which take their rest on the side of Gilead.  

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  Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young.  

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  Like pomegranate fruit are the sides of your head under your veil.  

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  There are sixty queens, and eighty servant-wives, and young girls without number.  

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  My dove, my very beautiful one, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the dearest one of her who gave her birth. The daughters saw her, and gave her a blessing; yes, the queens and the servant-wives, and they gave her praises.  

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  Who is she, looking down as the morning light, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, who is to be feared like an army with flags?  

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  I went down into the garden of nuts to see the green plants of the valley, and to see if the vine was in bud, and the pomegranate-trees were in flower.  

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  Before I was conscious of it, ...  

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  Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, so that our eyes may see you. What will you see in the Shulammite? A sword-dance.  

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