Canticle of Canticles 5

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 LOVER: I come into my garden, my sister, my promised bride, I pick my myrrh and balsam, I eat myhoney and my honeycomb, I drink my wine and my milk. POET: Eat, friends, and drink, drink deep, my dearestfriends.	1 Bride: "May my beloved enter into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees."
2 BELOVED: I sleep, but my heart is awake. I hear my love knocking. 'Open to me, my sister, my beloved,my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my hair with the drops of night.'	2 Groom to Bride: "I have arrived in my garden, O my sister, my spouse. I have harvested my myrrh, with my aromatic oils. I have eaten the honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, O most beloved."
3 -'I have taken off my tunic, am I to put it on again? I have washed my feet, am I to dirty them again?'	3 Bride: "I sleep, yet my heart watches. The voice of my beloved knocking:"
4 My love thrust his hand through the hole in the door; I trembled to the core of my being.	4 Groom to Bride: "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my immaculate one. For my head is full of dew, and the locks of my hair are full of the drops of the night."
5 Then I got up to open to my love, myrrh ran off my hands, pure myrrh off my fingers, on to the handle ofthe bolt.	5 Bride: "I have taken off my tunic; how shall I be clothed in it? I have washed my feet; how shall I spoil them?"
6 I opened to my love, but he had turned and gone. My soul failed at his flight, I sought but could not findhim, I cal ed, but he did not answer.	6 "My beloved put his hand through the window, and my inner self was moved by his touch."
7 The watchmen met me, those who go on their rounds in the city. They beat me, they wounded me, theytook my cloak away from me: those guardians of the ramparts!	7 "I rose up in order to open to my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the finest myrrh."
8 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you should find my love, what are you to tel him? -That I amsick with love!	8 "I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved. But he had turned aside and had gone away. My soul melted when he spoke. I sought him, and did not find him. I called, and he did not answer me."
9 CHORUS: What makes your lover better than other lovers, O loveliest of women? What makes yourlover better than other lovers, to put us under such an oath?	9 "The keepers who circulate through the city found me. They struck me, and wounded me. The keepers of the walls took my veil away from me."
10 BELOVED: My love is fresh and ruddy, to be known among ten thousand.	10 "I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, announce to him that I languish through love."
11 His head is golden, purest gold, his locks are palm fronds and black as the raven.	11 Chorus to Bride: "What kind of beloved is your beloved, O most beautiful among women? What kind of beloved is your beloved, so that you would bind us by oath?"
12 His eyes are like doves beside the water-courses, bathing themselves in milk, perching on a fountain-rim.	12 Bride: "My beloved is white and ruddy, elect among thousands."
13 His cheeks are beds of spices, banks sweetly scented. His lips are lilies, distil ing pure myrrh.	13 "His head is like the finest gold. His locks are like the heights of palm trees, and as black as a raven."
14 His hands are golden, rounded, set with jewels of Tarshish. His bel y a block of ivory covered withsapphires.	14 "His eyes are like doves, which have been washed with milk over rivulets of waters, and which reside near plentiful streams."
15 His legs are alabaster columns set in sockets of pure gold. His appearance is that of Lebanon,unrival ed as the cedars.	15 "His cheeks are like a courtyard of aromatic plants, sown by perfumers. His lips are like lilies, dripping with the best myrrh."
16 His conversation is sweetness itself, he is altogether lovable. Such is my love, such is my friend, Odaughters of Jerusalem.	16 "His hands are smoothed gold, full of hyacinths. His abdomen is ivory, accented with sapphires."
	17 Chorus to Bride: "Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? To where has your beloved turned aside, so that we may seek him with you?"