Song of Solomon 3:3-5

Contemporary English Version

³ I even asked the guards
    patrolling the town,
“Have you seen the one
    I love so much?”
⁴ Right after that, I found him.
I held him and would not let go
    until I had taken him
    to the home of my mother.
⁵ Young women of Jerusalem,
promise me by the power
    of deer and gazelles,^[a]
never to awaken love
    before it is ready.