መኃልየ መኃልይ 5

I have come into my garden

¹I have entered my garden, my sister, my bride; \q I have gathered my myrrh and my spice; \q I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; \q I have drunk my wine and my milk. \q Eat, friends; \q drink, and drink deeply, you lovers!^ab

A knock at the door

²I was asleep, but my heart was awake. \q Listen! My beloved knocks: “Open the door for me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one, \q for my head is wet with dew, \q my hair with the drops of the night.” ³“I have taken off my robe; \q how can I put it on again? \q I have washed my feet; how can I get them dirty?” ⁴My beloved reached his hand in through the opening, \q and my heart was stirred for him.^{c 5}I got up to open the door to my beloved, \q and my hands were dripping with myrrh, my fingers running with myrrh, \q onto the handles of the bolt. ⁶I opened to my beloved, \q but my beloved had turned away and was gone. \q My heart sank when he spoke. \q I looked for him but did not find him; \q I called him, but he did not answer.^{d 7}The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city; they beat me and bruised me. \q They took my shawl away from me, \q those watchmen of the walls. ⁸Swear to me, women of Jerusalem: \q if you find my beloved, \q what will you tell him? \q Tell him I am faint with love. ⁹How is your beloved better than any other, \q most beautiful of women? \q How is your beloved better than any other, \q that you make us swear like this?^{e 10}My beloved is radiant and ruddy, \q marked out among ten thousand. ¹¹His head is the finest gold; \q his hair is wavy, \q black as a raven. ¹²His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, \q washed in milk, \q resting beside a full pool.^{f 13}His cheeks are like beds of spices, \q mounds of sweet herbs; \q his lips are lilies \q dripping with liquid myrrh.^{g 14}His arms are rods of gold \q set with gems of Tarshish; \q his body is polished ivory \q covered with lapis lazuli. ¹⁵His legs are marble pillars \q set on bases of pure gold. \q He looks like Lebanon, \q as splendid as its cedars. ¹⁶His mouth is sweetness itself, \q and everything about him is delightful. \q This is my beloved, this is my friend, \q women of Jerusalem.