Canticum Canticorum 5
1 Veni in hortum meum soror mea sponsa, messui myrrham meam cum aromatibus meis: comedi favum cum melle meo, bibi vinum meum cum lacte meo: comedite amici, et bibite, et inebriamini charissimi.
I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] bride; I have plucked my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my sugar-cane with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, ye companions; drink, yea, drink abundantly, ye friends.—
2 Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat: vox dilecti mei pulsantis: Aperi mihi soror mea, amica mea, columba mea, immaculata mea: quia caput meum plenum est rore, et cincinni mei guttis noctium.
I slept, but my heart was awake: [there was] the voice of my beloved that knocked, “Open for me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my guiltless one; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.”
3 Expoliavi me tunica mea, quomodo induar illa? lavi pedes meos, quomodo inquinabo illos?
I have put off my coat: how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet: how shall I defile them?
4 Dilectus meus misit manum suam per foramen, et venter meus intremuit ad tactum eius.
My friend stretched forth his hand through the opening, and my inmost parts were moved for him.
5 Surrexi, ut aperirem dilecto meo: manus meae stillaverunt myrrham, et digiti mei pleni myrrha probatissima.
I rose up myself to open for my friend; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with fluid myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.
6 Pessulum ostii mei aperui dilecto meo: at ille declinaverat, atque transierat. Anima mea liquefacta est, ut locutus est: quaesivi, et non inveni illum: vocavi, et non respondit mihi.
I indeed opened for my beloved; but my beloved had vanished, and was gone: my soul had failed me while he was speaking; I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he answered me not.
7 Invenerunt me custodes qui circumeunt civitatem: percusserunt me, et vulneraverunt me: tulerunt pallium meum mihi custodes murorum.
Then found me the watchmen that walked about the city; they smote me, they wounded me: they took away my vail from me, they that watched the walls.
8 Adiuro vos filiae Ierusalem, si inveneritis dilectum meum, ut nuncietis ei quia amore langueo.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, what will ye tell him? that I am sick of love.—
9 Qualis est dilectus tuus ex dilecto, o pulcherrima mulierum? qualis est dilectus tuus ex dilecto, quia sic adiurasti nos?
What is thy friend more than another's friend, O thou fairest of women? what is thy friend more than another's friend, that thus thou adjurest us?—
10 Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus, electus ex millibus.
My friend is white and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.
11 Caput eius aurum optimum: Comae eius sicut elatae palmarum, nigrae quasi corvus.
His head is bright as the finest gold, his locks are like waving foliage, and black as a raven.
12 Oculi eius sicut columbae super rivulos aquarum, quae lacte sunt lotae, et resident iuxta fluenta plenissima.
His eyes are like [those of] doves by streamlets of waters, bathed in milk, well fitted in their setting.
13 Genae illius sicut areolae aromatum consitae a pigmentariis. Labia eius lilia distillantia myrrham primam.
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as turrets of sweet perfumes: his lips, like lilies, dropping with fluid myrrh.
14 Manus illius tornatiles aureae, plenae hyacinthis. Venter eius eburneus, distinctus sapphiris.
His hands are like wheels of gold beset with the chrysolite: his body, an image made of ivory overlaid with sapphires.
15 Crura illius columnae marmoreae, quae fundatae sunt super bases aureas. Species eius ut Libani, electus ut cedri.
His legs are like pillars of marble, resting upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent like the cedars.
16 Guttur illius suavissimum, et totus desiderabilis: talis est dilectus meus, et ipse est amicus meus, filiae Ierusalem.
His palate is full of sweets, and every thing in him is agreeable. This is my friend, and this is my beloved, O daughters of Jerusalem.—
