Sponsa Dilectus meus descendit in hortum suum ad areolam aromatum, ut pascatur in hortis, et lilia colligat.

My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the bed of aromatical spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

Where should he be, my true love, but among the spices; where but in his garden, gathering the lilies?

Ego dilecto meo, et dilectus meus mihi, qui pascitur inter lilia.

I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies.

All mine, my true love, and I all his; ever he would choose the lilies for his pasture-ground.

SponsusPulchra es, amica mea; suavis, et decora sicut Jerusalem; terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata.

Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem: terrible as an army set in array.

Fair thou art and graceful, my heart’s love; for beauty, Jerusalem itself is not thy match; yet no embattled array so awes men’s hearts.

Averte oculos tuos a me, quia ipsi me avolare fecerunt. Capilli tui sicut grex caprarum quæ apparuerunt de Galaad.

Turn away thy eyes from me, for they have made me flee away. Thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Galaad.

Turn thy eyes away, that so unman me! Hair dazzling as the goats have, when they come flocking home from the Galaad hills;

Dentes tui sicut grex ovium quæ ascenderunt de lavacro: omnes gemellis fœtibus, et sterilis non est in eis.

Thy teeth as a flock of sheep, which come up from the washing, all with twins, and there is none barren among them.

teeth white as ewes fresh from the washing, well matched as the twin lambs that follow them; barren is none;

Sicut cortex mali punici, sic genæ tuæ, absque occultis tuis.

Thy cheeks are as the bark of a pomegranate, beside what is hidden within thee.

thy cheeks shew through their veil rosy as skin of pomegranate!

Sexaginta sunt reginæ, et octoginta concubinæ, et adolescentularum non est numerus.

There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and young maidens without number.

What are three score of queens, and eighty concubines, and maids about them past all counting?

Una est columba mea, perfecta mea, una est matris suæ, electa genetrici suæ. Viderunt eam filiæ, et beatissimam prædicaverunt; reginæ et concubinæ, et laudaverunt eam.

One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and declared her most blessed: the queens and concubines, and they praised her.

One there is beyond compare; for me, none so gentle, none so pure! Only once her mother travailed; she would have no darling but this. Maid was none that saw her but called her blessed; queen was none, nor concubine, but spoke in her praise.

Quæ est ista quæ progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata?

Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?

Who is this, whose coming shews like the dawn of day? No moon so fair, no sun so majestic, no embattled array so awes men’s hearts.

Sponsa Descendi in hortum nucum, ut viderem poma convallium, et inspicerem si floruisset vinea, et germinassent mala punica.

I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valleys, and to look if the vineyard had flourished, and the pomegranates budded.

But when I betook me to the fruit garden, to find apples in the hollows, to see if vine had flowered there, and pomegranate had budded,

Nescivi: anima mea conturbavit me, propter quadrigas Aminadab.

I knew not: my soul troubled me for the chariots of Aminadab.

all unawares, my heart misgave me … beside the chariots of Aminadab.

Chorus Revertere, revertere, Sulamitis! revertere, revertere ut intueamur te.

Return, return, O Sulamitess: return, return that we may behold thee.

Come back, maid of Sulam, come back; let us feast our eyes on thee. Maid of Sulam, come back, come back!