8
The Beloved to Her Lover:
1 Oh, how I wish you were my little brother,
nursing at my mother’s breasts;
if I saw you outside, I could kiss you –
surely no one would despise me!
2 I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house,
the one who taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the nectar of my pomegranates.
Double Refrain: Embracing and Adjuration
The Beloved about Her Lover:
3 His left hand caresses my head,
and his right hand stimulates me.
The Beloved to the Maidens:
4 I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem:
“Do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”
The Awakening of Love
The Maidens about His Beloved:
5 Who is this coming up from the desert,
leaning on her beloved?
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Under the apple tree I aroused you;
there your mother conceived you,
there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.
The Nature of True Love
The Beloved to Her Lover:
6 Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart,
like a signet on your arm.
For love is as strong as death,
passion is as unrelenting as Sheol.
Its flames burst forth,
it is a blazing flame.
7 Surging waters cannot quench love;
floodwaters cannot overflow it.
If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love,
the offer would be utterly despised.
The Brother’s Plan and the Sister’s Reward
The Beloved’s Brothers:
8 We have a little sister,
and as yet she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver;
but if she is a door,
we will barricade her with boards of cedar.
The Beloved:
10 I was a wall,
and my breasts were like fortress towers.
Then I found favor in his eyes.
Solomon’s Vineyard and the Beloved’s Vineyard
The Beloved to Her Lover:
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon;
he leased out the vineyard to those who maintained it.
Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.
12 My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone.
The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon,
and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.
Epilogue: The Lover’s Request and His Beloved’s Invitation
The Lover to His Beloved:
13 O you who stay in the gardens,
my companions are listening attentively for your voice;
let me be the one to hear it!
The Beloved to Her Lover:
14 Make haste, my beloved!
Be like a gazelle or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.