Canticum Canticorum 3
1 In lectulo meo, per noctes, quæsivi quem diligit anima mea: quæsivi illum, et non inveni.
Bride: On my bed, throughout the night, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, and did not find him.
2 Surgam, et circuibo civitatem: per vicos et plateas quæram quem diligit anima mea: quæsivi illum, et non inveni.
I will rise up, and I will circle through the city. Through the side streets and thoroughfares, I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, and did not find him.
3 Invenerunt me vigiles qui custodiunt civitatem: Num quem diligit anima mea vidistis?
The watchers who guard the city found me: “Have you 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.
When I had passed by them a little, I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not release him, until I would bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who bore me.
5 Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem, per capreas cervosque camporum, ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, donec ipsa velit.
Groom to Chorus: I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the does and the stags of the open field, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills.
6 Quæ est ista quæ ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhæ, et thuris, et universi pulveris pigmentarii?
Chorus to Groom: Who is she, who ascends through the desert, like a staff of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh, and frankincense, and every powder of the perfumer?
7 En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt ex fortissimis Israël,
Chorus to Bride: Lo, sixty strong ones, out of all the strongest in Israel, stand watch at the bed of Solomon,
8 omnes tenentes gladios, et ad bella doctissimi: uniuscujusque ensis super femur suum propter timores nocturnos.
all holding swords and well-trained in warfare, each one’s weapon upon his thigh, because of fears in the night.
9 Ferculum fecit sibi rex Salomon de lignis Libani;
Bride to Chorus: King Solomon made himself a portable throne from the wood of Lebanon.
10 columnas ejus fecit argenteas, reclinatorium aureum, ascensum purpureum; media caritate constravit, propter filias Jerusalem.
He made its columns of silver, the reclining place of gold, the ascent of purple; the middle he covered well, out of charity 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 ejus.
O daughters of Zion, go forth and see king Solomon with the diadem with which his mother crowned him, on the day of his espousal, on the day of the rejoicing of his heart.
