The Trials of Love: The Beloved’s Dream of Losing Her Lover

The Beloved about Her Lover:

5:2 I was asleep, but my mind3 was dreaming.4

Listen!5 My lover6 is knocking7 at the door!8

The Lover to His Beloved:

“Open9 for me, my sister, my darling,

my dove, my flawless one!

My head is drenched with dew,

my hair with the dampness of the night.”

The Beloved to Her Lover:

5:3 “I have already taken off my robe—must I put it on again?

I have already washed my feet—must I soil them again?”

5:4 My lover thrust his hand10 through11 the hole,12

and my feelings13 were stirred14 for him.

5:5 I arose to open for my beloved;

my hands dripped with myrrh—

my fingers flowed with myrrh

on the handles of the lock.

5:6 I opened for my beloved,

but my lover had already turned15 and gone away.16

I fell into despair17 when he departed.18

I looked for him but did not find him;

I called him but he did not answer me.

5:7 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city.

They beat me, they bruised me;

they took away my cloak, those watchmen on the walls!