1
You are beautiful, my darling,
beautiful beyond words.
Your eyes are like doves
behind your veil.
Your hair falls in waves,
like a flock of goats winding down the
slopes of Gilead.
2 Your teeth are as white
as sheep,
recently shorn and freshly washed.
Your smile is flawless,
each tooth matched with its twin.
3 Your lips are like
scarlet ribbon;
your mouth is inviting.
Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates
behind your veil.
4 Your neck is as beautiful
as the tower of David,
jeweled with the shields of a thousand
heroes.
5 Your breasts are like two
fawns,
twin fawns of a gazelle grazing among
the lilies.
6 Before the dawn breezes
blow
and the night shadows flee,
I will hurry to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of frankincense.
7 You are altogether
beautiful, my darling,
beautiful in every way.
8
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
come with me from Lebanon.
Come down from Mount Amana,
from the peaks of Senir and Hermon,
where the lions have their dens
and leopards live among the hills.
9
You have captured my heart,
my treasure, my bride.
You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes,
with a single jewel of your necklace.
10 Your love delights me,
my treasure, my bride.
Your love is better than wine,
your perfume more fragrant than spices.
11 Your lips are as sweet
as nectar, my bride.
Honey and milk are under your tongue.
Your clothes are scented
like the cedars of Lebanon.
12
You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride,
a secluded spring, a hidden fountain.
13 Your thighs shelter a
paradise of pomegranates
with rare spices—
henna with nard,
14 nard
and saffron,
fragrant calamus and cinnamon,
with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes,
and every other lovely spice.
15 You are a garden
fountain,
a well of fresh water
streaming down from Lebanon’s
mountains.
