The Beloved about Her Lover: While the king was at his banqueting table, ¹  my nard ²  gave forth its fragrance. ³ 

The Beloved to the Maidens: I admonish you, O maidens ¹  of Jerusalem: “Do not ²  arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”

Scarcely ¹  had I passed them by when I found my beloved! I held onto him ²  tightly and would not let him go ³  until I brought him to my mother’s house, ⁴  to the bedroom chamber ⁵  of the one who conceived me.

The Beloved to the Maidens: I adjure you, ¹  O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does ²  of the open fields: ³  Do not awaken or arouse ⁴  love ⁵  until it pleases! ⁶ 

The Beloved to Her Lover: Until the dawn arrives ¹  and the shadows flee, turn, ²  my beloved – be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain gorges. ³ 

The Beloved to the Maidens: ¹ I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: “Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

Until the dawn arrives ¹  and the shadows flee, I will go up to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.