Canticum Canticorum 3
1 In lectulo meo per noctes quæsivi quem diligit anima mea: quæsivi illum, et non inveni.
By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves: I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he hearkened not to me.
2 Surgam, et circuibo civitatem: per vicos et plateas quæram quem diligit anima mea: quæsivi illum, et non inveni.
I will rise now, and go about in the city, in the market-places, and in the streets, and I will seek him whom my soul loves: I sought him, but I found him not.
3 Invenerunt me vigiles, qui custodiunt civitatem: Num quem diligit anima mea, vidistis?
The watchmen who go their rounds in the city found me. [I said], Have ye seen him whom my soul loves?
4 Paululum cum pertransissem eos, inveni quem diligit anima mea: tenui eum, nec dimittam donec introducam illum in domum matris meæ, et in cubiculum genetricis meæ.
[It was] as a little [while] after I parted from them, that I found him whom my soul loves: I held him, and did not let him go, until I brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
5 Adiuro vos filiæ Ierusalem per capreas, cervosque camporum, ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam donec ipsa velit.
I have charged you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the virtues of the field, that ye rouse not nor awake [my] love, until he please.
6 Quæ est ista, quæ ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhæ, et thuris, et universi pulveris pigmentarii?
Who is this that comes up from the wilderness as pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the perfumer?
7 En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt ex fortissimis Israel:
Behold Solomon's bed; sixty mighty men of the mighty ones of Israel are round about it.
8 omnes tenentes gladios, et ad bella doctissimi: uniuscuiusque ensis super femur suum propter timores nocturnos.
They all hold a sword, being expert in war: every man [has] his sword upon his thigh because of fear by night.
9 Ferculum fecit sibi rex Salomon de lignis Libani:
King Solomon made himself a litter of woods of Lebanon.
10 columnas eius fecit argenteas, reclinatorium aureum, ascensum purpureum: media charitate constravit propter filias Ierusalem:
He made the pillars of it silver, the bottom of it gold, the covering of it scarlet, in the midst of it a pavement of love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Egredimini et videte filiæ Sion regem Salomonem in diademate, quo coronavit illum mater sua in die desponsationis illius, et in die lætitiæ cordis eius.
Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and behold king Solomon, with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him, in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.
