Song of Solomon 1:5

Here the Shulammite, under the inquisitive glances of the court ladies, who probably desire to see whether they have in any degree accomplished their purpose of rousing her admiration for the king, remembers her rustic appearance, and explains that the swarthy colour which is so different from theirs, is not natural or permanent, and asserts her equality in beauty.

I am black Better, swart. The word denotes here, not blackness as of a negro or of a horse (cp. Zechariah 6:2; Zechariah 6:6), but the ruddy or brown hue of sunburning; though with poetic exaggeration the speaker compares herself to the Bedouin tents of camel's hair, for blackness, and to the brilliantly coloured curtains of Solomon's tent, for beauty.

Kedar i.e. black, was the name of a tribe of nomads whose eponymous ancestor was (Genesis 25:13) a son of Ishmael. They wandered in the Arabian desert towards Babylonia, and are called Kidruin the cuneiform inscriptions.