1One night as I lay in bed, I yearned deeply for my lover, but he did not come.
2So I said to myself, `I will get up now and roam the city, searching for him in all its streets and squares. But my search was in vain.
3The watchmen stopped me as they made their rounds, and I said to them, `Have you seen him anywhere, this one I love so much?
4A little while later I found him and held him. I didnt let him go until I had brought him to my childhood home, into my mothers bedroom, where I had been conceived.
5"Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the swift gazelles and the deer of the wild, not to awaken love until the time is right. "
6Who is this sweeping in from the deserts like a cloud of smoke along the ground? Who is it that smells of myrrh and frankincense and every other spice?
7Look, it is Solomons carriage, with sixty of Israels mightiest men surrounding it.
8They are all skilled swordsmen and experienced warriors. Each one wears a sword on his thigh, ready to defend the king against an attack during the night.
9"King Solomon has built a carriage for himself from wood imported from Lebanon's forests.
10Its posts are of silver, its canopy is gold, and its seat is upholstered in purple cloth. Its interior was a gift of love from the young women of Jerusalem."
11Go out to look upon King Solomon, O young women of Jerusalem. See the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, the day of his gladness.