8
The woman speaks
1 I wish that you were my brother
who ◄nursed at/drank milk from► my mother’s breasts when you were a baby,
because, if you were my brother, if I saw you when you were outside the house,
I could kiss you,
and no one would say that my doing that was wrong.
2 No one would object if I led you to my mother’s house,
to where my mother, who taught me many things, lives.
I would like to take you to my mother’s house because I would like to make love to you [EUP],
and that would be as delightful as [MET] juice squeezed from pomegranates.
3 You would put your left arm under my head
and with your right arm hold me close.
4 I would say to you women of Jerusalem,
“Solemnly promise me
that you will not disturb us while we are making love
until we are ready to quit.”
Their friends speak
5 Who is that woman who is coming up from the desert,
◄leaning on/clinging close to► the man who loves her?
The woman speaks
I woke you up when you were under the apple tree
at the place where your mother conceived you,
which is the same place where she gave birth to you.
6 Keep me close to you,
like [SIM] a seal on your heart,
or like [SIM] a bracelet on your arm.
Our love for each other is as powerful as death,
it is as enduring as the grave.
It is as though our love for each other bursts into flames
and burns like a hot fire.
7 Nothing can extinguish our love for each other,
not even a flood.
If a man tried to cause a woman to love him by saying he would give her everything that is in his house,
she would refuse.
Their friends speak
8 We have a younger sister,
and her breasts are still small.
So this is [RHQ] what we should do for her on the day that we promise some young man that he can marry her:
9 If her chest is flat like [MET] a wall,
we will decorate it by putting silver jewels that are like [MET] towers on it.
Or, if she is flat like [MET] a door,
we will decorate her with bits/pieces of cedar wood.
The woman speaks
10 My chest was previously flat like [MET] a wall,
but now my breasts are big like [SIM] towers.
So the one who loves me is delighted with me.
11 King Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon,
and he rented it to people for them to take care of it.
He required each one to pay him 1,000 pieces of silver each year for the grapes that they harvested.
12 But my body is like [MET] my own vineyard,
and Solomon, I am giving it to you.
You do not need to pay me 1,000 pieces of silver to enjoy my body,
but I will give 200 pieces of silver to those who take care of me [MET].
The man speaks to the woman
13 You are staying in the gardens
and my friends are listening to your voice;
so allow me to hear it, too.
The woman speaks
14 You who love me, come to me quickly;
run to me [MET, EUP] as fast as [SIM] a gazelle or young deer
runs across [MET] hills of spices.