1 IN THE night I dreamed that I sought the one whom I love. [She said] I looked for him but could not find him. 2 So I decided to go out into the city, into the streets and broad ways [which are so confusing to a country girl], and seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I could not find him. 3 The watchmen who go about the city found me, to whom I said, Have you seen him whom my soul loves? 4 I had gone but a little way past them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me. 5 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field that you stir not up nor awaken love until it pleases.
6 Who or what is this [she asked] that comes gliding out of the wilderness like stately pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh, frankincense, and all the fragrant powders of the merchant? 7 [Someone answered] Behold, it is the traveling litter (the bridal car) of Solomon. Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel. 8 They all handle the sword and are expert in war; every man has his sword upon his thigh, that fear be not excited in the night. 9 King Solomon made himself a car or a palanquin from the [cedar] wood of Lebanon. 10 He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple, the inside of it lovingly and intricately wrought in needlework by the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 Go forth, O you daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon wearing the crown with which his mother [Bathsheba] crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of his gladness of heart.