Second Canticle, While I Slept

While I slept my heart was awake, keeping vigil

I heard my beloved he's knocking and saying,

"Please open to me, my beloved, my fair one,

for my head is wet with the dampness of night.

I have taken off my robe,

am I then to put it on?

I have bathed my feet,

must I then soil them again?

My lover thrust his hand through the hole of the door,

my heart pounded, I trembled,

and I grew faint when he spoke.

I was thrilled he was near.

I rose up to open

to let my beloved come in

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

and my fingers were dripping of wetness

as I grasped the handle, the bolt of the lock

it too, dripped of from the myrrh.

I opened to my love

but he had already departed and gone

so I sought him but I could not find him

I called him, but he gave no answer to me. Song of Songs 5:2-6