Song of Solomon rendering - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

1 All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.

Through the watches of the night I think about you and sometimes I get scared that you will leave me. So I wake up and in my mind I run after you in a panic wondering if you’ll find that I’m too much work.

2 I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.

One time I woke in a cold sweat, to the degree that I got out of bed and went in search for you. It’s like I sent out a search party in my head wondering if your love was steadfast and true. It’s hard to describe the fear that griped my heart.

I hear the cruelest things in my head when I’m needy. “He’s long gone.” “He’s found someone else that is less work.” “You are high maintenance, woman, even you know that.” I kept looking frantically for you, but alas, you were nowhere to be found confirming my suspicions to be, in fact, true.

3 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. 
“Have you seen the one my heart loves?”

Others who I had employed to keep an eye out for you joined me in my misery. They were like watchmen on the walls looking for trouble. They got in on the drama with me as I redundantly asked, “Have you seen the one my heart loves?” They shook their heads commiserating with my hardening beliefs.

4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. 
I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

But just about when I had given over to the idea that I was left alone, that you had found something or someone other than me, better than me, my eye caught you walking my way. At first I thought I’d made it up, projecting my fantasy on reality. But it wasn’t fiction, a dreamy, steamy love novel; it was real! And the thing that blew me away was how calm you were and all at the same time how unnerved I was.

“Where have you been?” I screamed in desperation. “I’ve been right here. I haven’t gone anywhere.” I broke down in fatigue. I held onto him so tight that he said, “Hey, why are you shaking, why so scared?” I couldn’t even answer you; I just clung to you like my life depended on it, depended on you. In time I relaxed and showered you with kisses while leading you to my mom’s house. I was so caught up in the moment of ecstasy that I drug you up to my mother’s bedroom. I looked at you and said, “This is where my mother conceived me. As was done to her, do unto me.”

5 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: 
Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

But again, I heard my father’s voice shout with that deep baritone quality, “Don’t wake up your lust before you tie the knot, kiddo. Remember, there’s nothing like waiting until your wedding night to enjoy the delicacies of sexual pleasure.” Sometimes I hate that my dad still holds such power over my pleasures. But he does…thankfully. I would have made a mess of my life a long time ago without his guiding conscience.

6 Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?

My mind muses again with the daydreams of a pining princess: “I see pillars of dust in the distant desert flatland, like the smoke of a fall campfire. Who is this that advances toward me so swiftly?

7 Look! It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel,

Oh my word, it’s my man accompanied by his band of brothers, some the most noble and honorable men I know.

8 all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.

They all are trained in the art of war, skilled with their swords. They fear nothing, not even the worst the enemy could unleash.

9 King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.

My lover has hand-hewn the chariot in which he stands tall and strong. I can tell that he poured his heart and soul into building it. His fingerprints are all over it.

10 Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. 
Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Jerusalem.

Every part of chariot has been a labor of love meticulously pieced together, not a splinter out of place. Just to look at it from a distance arouses a sense of awe.”

11 Come out, you daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon wearing the crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.

I call my friends to my side to look upon my knight in shining armor. I love bragging about him to them, they probably get sick of it but I can’t help it. I’m bewitched body and soul by him. He is wearing a King’s crown bestowed by his very mother. It has been placed upon his head in expectation of our wedding, the day where our hearts shall melt together as one. Oh, how I wish this were more than a daydream!