Chapter 5

  I have come in to my garden, my sister-spouse, I have plucked my myrrh with my spice, I have eaten my comb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, drink, Yea, drink abundantly, O beloved ones!  

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  I am sleeping, but my heart waketh: The sound of my beloved knocking! 'Open to me, my sister, my friend, My dove, my perfect one, For my head is filled [with] dew, My locks [with] drops of the night.'  

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  I have put off my coat, how do I put it on? I have washed my feet, how do I defile them?  

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  My beloved sent his hand from the net-work, And my bowels were moved for him.  

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  I rose to open to my beloved, And my hands dropped myrrh, Yea, my fingers flowing myrrh, On the handles of the lock.  

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  I opened to my beloved, But my beloved withdrew -- he passed on, My soul went forth when he spake, I sought him, and found him not. I called him, and he answered me not.  

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  The watchmen who go round about the city, Found me, smote me, wounded me, Keepers of the walls lifted up my veil from off me.  

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  I have adjured you, daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved -- What do ye tell him? that I [am] sick with love!  

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  What [is] thy beloved above [any] beloved, O fair among women? What [is] thy beloved above [any] beloved, That thus thou hast adjured us?  

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  My beloved [is] clear and ruddy, Conspicuous above a myriad!  

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  His head [is] pure gold -- fine gold, His locks flowing, dark as a raven,  

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  His eyes as doves by streams of water, Washing in milk, sitting in fulness.  

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  His cheeks as a bed of the spice, towers of perfumes, His lips [are] lilies, dropping flowing myrrh,  

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  His hands rings of gold, set with beryl, His heart bright ivory, covered with sapphires,  

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  His limbs pillars of marble, Founded on sockets of fine gold, His appearance as Lebanon, choice as the cedars.  

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  His mouth is sweetness -- and all of him desirable, This [is] my beloved, and this my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!  

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