Love songs Bridegroom

   8   If you yourself do not know,
    O fairest of women,
  go, follow the tracks of the sheep
and mind your kids by the shepherds' huts.
     9   I would compare you, my dearest,
    to Pharaoh's chariot-horses.
   10   Your cheeks are lovely between plaited tresses,
    your neck with its jewelled chains.
Companions

   11   We will make you braided plaits of gold
    set with beads of silver.
Bride

     12   While the king reclines on his couch,
  my spikenard gives forth its scent.
   13   My beloved is for me a bunch of myrrh
    as he lies on my breast,
   14   my beloved is for me a cluster of henna-blossom
    from the vineyards of En-gedi.
Bridegroom

   15   How beautiful you are, my dearest,
    O how beautiful,
    your eyes are like doves!
Bride

   16   How beautiful you are, O my love,
    and how pleasant!
Bridegroom

  Our couch is shaded with branches;
     17   the beams of our house are of cedar,
    our ceilings are all of fir.
Bride

   1   I am an asphodel in Sharon,
    a lily growing in the valley.
Bridegroom

     2   No, a lily among thorns
  is my dearest among girls.

Love songs Bride

     3   Like an apricot-tree among the trees of the wood,
  so is my beloved among boys.
  To sit in its shadow was my delight,
  and its fruit was sweet to my taste.
     4   He took me into the wine-garden
  and gave me loving glances.
5   He refreshed me with raisins, he revived me with apricots;
    for I was faint with love.
6   His left arm was under my head, his right arm was round me.
Bridegroom

   7   I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
  by the spirits and the goddesses ^note of the field:
  Do not rouse her, do not disturb my love
    until she is ready. ^note
Bride

   8   Hark! My beloved! Here he comes,
bounding over the mountains, leaping over the hills.
   9   My beloved is like a gazelle
    or a young wild goat:
  there he stands outside our wall,
peeping in at the windows, glancing through the lattice.


10   My beloved answered, he said to me:
  Rise up, my darling;
  my fairest, come away.
   11   For now the winter is past,
  the rains are over and gone;
   12   the flowers appear in the country-side;
  the time is coming when the birds will sing,
  and the turtle-dove's cooing will be heard in our land;
   13   when the green figs will ripen on the fig-trees
  and the vines ^note give forth their fragrance.
  Rise up, my darling;
  my fairest, come away.
Bridegroom

   14   My dove, that hides in holes in the cliffs
    or in crannies on the high ledges,
let me see your face, let me hear your voice;
for your voice is pleasant, your face is lovely.

Love songs Companions

15   Catch for us the jackals, the little jackals, ^note
that spoil our vineyards, when the vines are in flower.
Bride

16   My beloved is mine and I am his;
    he delights in the lilies.
17   While the day is cool and the shadows are dispersing,
  turn, my beloved, and show yourself
  a gazelle or a young wild goat
    on the hills where cinnamon grows. ^note


     1   Night after night on my bed
  I have sought my true love;
  I have sought him but not found him,
  I have called him but he has not answered. ^note
2   I said, ‘I will rise and go the rounds of the city,
    through the streets and the squares,
  seeking my true love.’
  I sought him but I did not find him,
  I called him but he did not answer. ^note
3   The watchmen, going the rounds of the city, met me,
and I asked, ‘Have you seen my true love?’
   4   Scarcely had I left them behind me
  when I met my true love.
  I seized him and would not let him go
  until I had brought him to my mother's house,
    to the room of her who conceived me.
Bridegroom

   5   I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
  by the spirits and the goddesses ^note of the field:
  Do not rouse her, do not disturb my love
    until she is ready. ^note
Companions

   6   What is this coming up from the wilderness
    like a column of smoke
    from burning myrrh or frankincense,
    from all the powdered spices that merchants bring?
     7   Look; it is Solomon carried in his litter;

Love songs
  sixty of Israel's chosen warriors
    are his escort,
     8   all of them skilled swordsmen,
    all trained to handle arms,
  each with his sword ready at his side
    to ward off the demon of the night.


9   The palanquin which King Solomon had made for himself
    was of wood from Lebanon.
   10   Its poles he had made of silver,
    its head-rest of gold;
    its seat was of purple stuff,
  and its lining was of leather.


   11   Come out, daughters of Jerusalem;
you daughters of Zion, come out and welcome King Solomon,
  wearing the crown with which his mother has crowned him,
  on his wedding day, on his day of joy.
Bridegroom

   1   How beautiful you are, my dearest, how beautiful!
Your eyes behind your veil are like doves,
your hair like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.
   2   Your teeth are like a flock of ewes just shorn
    which have come up fresh from the dipping;
each ewe has twins and none has cast a lamb.
   3   Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
    and your words are delightful; ^note
  your parted lips behind your veil
    are like a pomegranate cut open.
   4   Your neck is like David's tower,
    which is built with winding courses;
  a thousand bucklers hang upon it,
    and all are warriors' shields.
   5   Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twin fawns of a gazelle. ^note
6   While the day is cool and the shadows are dispersing,
  I will go to the mountains of myrrh
    and to the hills of frankincense.
   7   You are beautiful, my dearest,
    beautiful without a flaw.


8   Come from Lebanon, my bride;
    come with me from Lebanon.

Love songs
  Hurry down from the top of Amana,
    from Senir's top and Hermon's,
    from the lions' lairs, and the hills the leopards haunt.


   9   You have stolen my heart, ^note my sister,
  you have stolen it, ^note my bride,
  with one of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.
10   How beautiful are your breasts, my sister, my bride!
  Your love is more fragrant than wine,
  and your perfumes sweeter than any spices.
11   Your lips drop sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride,
  syrup and milk are under your tongue,
  and your dress has the scent of Lebanon.
   13    ^note Your two cheeks ^note are an orchard of pomegranates,
    an orchard full of rare fruits: ^note
14   spikenard and saffron, sweet-cane and cinnamon
  with every incense-bearing tree,
    myrrh and aloes
  with all the choicest spices.
12   My sister, my bride, is a garden close-locked,
a garden ^note close-locked, a fountain sealed.
Bride

15   The fountain in my garden ^note is a spring of running water
    pouring down from Lebanon.
16   Awake, north wind, and come, south wind;
blow upon my garden that its perfumes may pour forth,
  that my beloved may come to his garden
    and enjoy its rare fruits.
Bridegroom

1   I have come to my garden, my sister and bride,
  and have plucked my myrrh with my spices;
  I have eaten my honey and my syrup,
  I have drunk my wine and my milk.
  Eat, friends, and drink,
    until you are drunk with love.
Bride

2   I sleep but my heart is awake.
  Listen! My beloved is knocking:

Love songs

‘Open to me, my sister, my dearest,
    my dove, my perfect one;
  for my head is drenched with dew,
    my locks with the moisture of the night.’


3   ‘I have stripped off my dress; must I put it on again?
I have washed my feet; must I soil them again?’


4   When my beloved slipped his hand through the latch-hole,
  my bowels stirred ^note within me.
5   When I arose to open for my beloved,
  my hands dripped with myrrh;
the liquid myrrh from my fingers
  ran over the knobs of the bolt.
   6   With my own hands I opened to my love,
  but my love had turned away and gone by;
  my heart sank when he turned his back.
  I sought him but I did not find him,
  I called him but he did not answer.
7   The watchmen, going the rounds of the city, met me;
    they struck me and wounded me;
the watchmen on the walls took away my cloak.
   8   I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved, will you not tell him ^note
  that I am faint with love?
Companions

   9   What is your beloved more than any other,
    O fairest of women?
  What is your beloved more than any other,
    that you give us this charge?
Bride

   10   My beloved is fair and ruddy,
    a paragon among ten thousand.
   11   His head is gold, finest gold;
    his locks are like palm-fronds. ^note
12   His eyes are like doves beside brooks of water,
    splashed by the milky water
    as they sit where it is drawn.
13   His cheeks are like beds of spices or chests full of perfumes;
his lips are lilies, and drop liquid myrrh;
14   his hands are golden rods set in topaz;

Love songs
his belly a plaque of ivory overlaid with lapis lazuli.
15   His legs are pillars of marble in sockets of finest gold;
his aspect is like Lebanon, noble as cedars.
16   His whispers are ^note sweetness itself, wholly desirable.
Such is my beloved, such is my darling,
    daughters of Jerusalem.
Companions

   1   Where has your beloved gone,
    O fairest of women?
  Which way did your beloved go,
    that we may help you to seek him?
Bride

   2   My beloved has gone down to his garden,
    to the beds where balsam grows,
to delight in the garden ^note and to pick the lilies.
3   I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,
    he who delights in the lilies.
Bridegroom

4   You are beautiful, my dearest, as Tirzah,
    lovely as Jerusalem. ^note
   5   Turn your eyes away from me;
    they dazzle me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead;
6   your teeth are like a flock of ewes come up fresh from the dipping,
each ewe has twins and none has cast a lamb.
   7   Your parted lips behind your veil
    are like a pomegranate cut open.
   8   There may be sixty princesses,
eighty concubines, and young women past counting,
9   but there is one alone, my dove, my perfect one,
  her mother's only child,
  devoted to the mother who bore her;
  young girls see her and call her happy,
  princesses and concubines praise her.
10   Who is this that looks out like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
    majestic as the starry heavens?


   11   I went down to a garden of nut-trees
    to look at the rushes by the stream,

Love songs
  to see if the vine had budded
    or the pomegranates were in flower.
     12   I did not know myself;
    she made me feel more than a prince
    reigning over the myriads ^note of his people.
Companions

   13    ^note Come back, come back, Shulammite maiden,
  come back, that we may gaze upon you.
Bridegroom

  How you love to gaze on the Shulammite maiden,
    as she moves between the lines of dancers ^note!


1   How beautiful are your sandalled feet, O prince's daughter!
  The curves of your thighs are like jewels,
    the work of a skilled craftsman.
     2   Your navel is a rounded goblet
    that never shall want for spiced wine.
    Your belly is a heap of wheat
    fenced in by lilies.
   3   Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twin fawns of a gazelle.
   4   Your neck is like a tower of ivory.
  Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon,
    beside the gate of the crowded city. ^note
  Your nose is like towering Lebanon
    that looks towards Damascus.
   5   You carry your head like Carmel;
    the flowing hair on your head is lustrous black,
    your tresses are braided with ribbons.
     6   How beautiful, how entrancing you are,
    my loved one, daughter of delights!
   7   You are stately as a palm-tree,
    and your breasts are the clusters of dates.
   8   I said, ‘I will climb up into the palm
    to grasp its fronds.’
May I find your breasts like clusters of grapes on the vine,
    the scent of your breath like apricots,
   9   and your whispers ^note like spiced wine
  flowing smoothly to welcome my caresses,
  gliding down through lips and teeth. ^note

Love songs Bride

10   I am my beloved's, his longing is all for me.
11   Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields
    to lie among the henna-bushes;
   12   let us go early to the vineyards
and see if the vine has budded or its blossom opened,
    if the pomegranates are in flower.
  There will I give you my love,
   13   when the mandrakes give their perfume,
  and all rare fruits are ready at our door,
  fruits new and old
  which I have in store for you, my love.


     1   If only you were my own true brother
    that sucked my mother's breasts!
  Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you,
    and no man would despise me.
   2   I would lead you to the room of the mother who bore me, ^note
bring you to her house for you to embrace me; ^note
  I would give you mulled wine to drink
    and the fresh juice of pomegranates,
3   your ^note left arm under my head and your ^note right arm round me.
Bridegroom

   4   I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem:
  Do not rouse her, do not disturb my love
    until she is ready. ^note
Companions

   5   Who is this coming up from the wilderness
    leaning on her beloved?
Bridegroom

    Under the apricot-trees I roused you,
  there where your mother was in labour with you,
  there where she who bore you was in labour.
   6   Wear me as a seal upon your heart,
    as a seal upon your arm;
  for love is strong as death,
  passion cruel as the grave; ^note
    it blazes up like blazing fire,
    fiercer than any flame.

Love songs
7   Many waters cannot quench love,
    no flood can sweep it away;
  if a man were to offer for love
    the whole wealth of his house,
    it would be utterly scorned.
Companions

   8   We have a little sister
    who has no breasts;
    what shall we do for our sister
  when she is asked in marriage?
     9   If she is a wall,
  we will build on it a silver parapet,
    but ^note if she is a door,
  we will close it up with planks of cedar.
Bride

10   I am a wall and my breasts are like towers;
so in his eyes I am as one who brings contentment.
11   Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
  he has let out his vineyard to guardians,
  and each is to bring for its fruit
    a thousand pieces of silver.
   12   But my vineyard is mine to give;
  the thousand pieces are yours, O Solomon,
  and the guardians of the fruit shall have two hundred.
Bridegroom

     13   My bride, you who sit in my garden,
  what is it that my friends ^note are listening to?
    Let me also hear your voice.
Bride

     14   Come into the open, my beloved,
and show yourself like a gazelle or a young wild goat
    on the spice-bearing mountains.

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