Canticle of Canticles 1

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Solomon's Song of Songs:	1 Bride: "May he kiss me with the kiss of his mouth."
2 BELOVED: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love-making is sweeter than wine;	2 Groom to Bride: "So much better than wine are your breasts, fragranced with the finest perfumes."
3 delicate is the fragrance of your perfume, your name is an oil poured out, and that is why girls love you.	3 Bride to Groom: "Your name is oil that has been poured out; therefore, the maidens have loved you. Draw me forward."
4 Draw me in your footsteps, let us run. The king has brought me into his rooms; you wil be our joy andour gladness. We shal praise your love more than wine; how right it is to love you.	4 Chorus to Bride: "We will run after you in the odor of your perfumes."
5 BELOVED: I am black but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the pavilions of Salmah.	5 Bride to Chorus: "The king has led me into his storerooms."
6 Take no notice of my dark colouring, it is the sun that has burnt me. My mother's sons turned their angeron me, they made me look after the vineyards. My own vineyard I had not looked after!	6 Chorus to Bride: "We will exult and rejoice in you, remembering your breasts above wine."
7 Tel me then, sweetheart, where wil you lead your flock to graze, where will you rest it at noon? That Imay no more wander like a vagabond beside the flocks of your companions.	7 Groom to Bride: "The righteous love you."
8 CHORUS: If you do not know this, O loveliest of women, fol ow the tracks of the flock, and take your kidsto graze close by the shepherds' tents.	8 Bride to Chorus: "O daughters of Jerusalem: I am black, but shapely, like the tabernacles of Kedar, like the tents of Solomon."
9 LOVER: I compare you, my love, to my mare harnessed to Pharaoh's chariot.	9 "Do not be concerned that I am dark, for the sun has changed my color."
10 Your cheeks show fair between their pendants and your neck within its necklaces.	10 "The sons of my mother have fought against me. They have made me the keeper of the vineyards. My own vineyard I have not kept."
11 We shall make you golden earrings and beads of silver.	11 Bride to Groom: "Reveal to me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you recline at midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions."
12 DUO: -While the king rests in his own room my nard yields its perfume.	12 Groom to Bride: "If you yourself do not know, O most beautiful among women, then go out and follow after the steps of the flocks, and pasture your young goats beside the tabernacles of the shepherds."
13 My love is a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts.	13 "O my love, I have compared you to my company of horsemen against the chariots of Pharaoh."
14 My love is a cluster of henna flowers among the vines of En-Gedi.	14 "Your cheeks are beautiful, like those of a turtledove. Your neck is like a bejeweled collar."
15 -How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves.	15 Chorus to Bride: "We will fashion for you chains of gold, accented with reddened silver."
16 -How beautiful you are, my love, and how you delight me! Our bed is the greensward.	16 Groom to Bride: "The timbers of our houses are of cedar; our ceilings are of cypress."
17 -The beams of our house are cedar trees, its panel ing the cypress.