Billings' text
V: 1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice,
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drank my wine with my milk.
Eat, o friends; drink, o friends, abundantly.
2 I sleep, but my heart waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved, saying: "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled,
for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night."
6 I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and he was gone...
I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
II: 5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.
VIII: 14 Make haste, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

Vores' text (translation by T. Carmi)
V:  2  	The Maiden  	I was asleep but my heart was awake. I heard my lover knocking:
         	The Lover     	Let me in, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one!
                                  	For my head is wet with dew, my curls with the mist of the night.
   4-5  	The Maiden	My lover drew back his hand from the latch, and my heart beat wildly for him. I rose to let my
   					lover in; my hands dripped with myrrh,  my fingers flowed with myrrh upon the handles of the                    
   					bolt.  I opened to my lover, but he had slipped away and was gone. I looked for him, but could not 
                    			find him. I called to him, but he did not answer me.
   10-16	The Maiden 	My lover is fair and radiant, peerless among ten thousand  His head is the finest gold; his locks 					
                       			are palm fronds, black as the raven.  His eyes are like doves beside flowing brooks; milk white 					
                                        doves.  His cheeks are like beds of spices, exhaling perfumes.   ...his body is a pillar of ivory... 
                                        His legs are marble columns, set in sockets of fine gold. His bearing is like the trees of Lebanon,
                                        lofty as cedars.  His mouth is most sweet; all of him is pure delight..
VII:2-10 	The Lover	How beautiful are your sandalled feet, O royal daughter.  Your curved thighs are like jewels...
					Your navel is a round goblet, brim-full of wine.  Your belly is a heap of wheat,
					ringed with lilies. Your breasts are like two fawns -- the twins of a gazelle. 
                    			Your neck is like a tower of ivory...  Here is your figure, stately as a palm-tree... let me climb
                                	the palm tree and take hold of its branches!  May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the
                                    	vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, and your mouth like choice wine...
VIII: 6-7	The Maiden &
		The Lover    	Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, 
					passion is as harsh as the grave;  its flashes are raging fires, violent flames.
	   				Vast floods cannot quench love, nor rivers sweep it away.

"I Heard My Lover Knocking"  was commissioned for JUBAL'S LYRE and is receiving its premiere performances in this series of Passover concerts.  Its Welsh-born composer  Andy Vores was a Fellow in Composition at Tanglewood in 1986, and has lived in the U.S. since 1987.  His recent commissioned works include the two-act comic opera "Freshwater" for the B.U.Opera Institute and "Sh'ma" for the Brookline Chorus (first performed last April as a Holocaust Memorial observance, and to be performed again this year at Boston College on April 27).  Upcoming projects include "The Bull-Dancer" for the Boston Ballet's '97-'98 season and a new  work for the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra's South African tour in 1997.
(The foregoing was written in 1996.  Now, in 2017, Vores is Associate Dean for Curriculum & Academic Planning + Interim Dean of Music at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.  See www.andyvores.com for more information about his composing since 1996.)