Admiration by the Bridegroom
“How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
O aprince’s daughter!
The curves of your hips are like jewels,
The work of the hands of an artist.
2 “Your navel is like a round goblet
Which never lacks mixed wine;
Your belly is like a heap of wheat
Fenced about with lilies.
3 “Your atwo breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle.
4 “Your aneck is like a tower of ivory,
Your eyes like the pools in bHeshbon
By the gate of Bath‑rabbim;
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon,
Which faces toward Damascus.
5 “Your head crowns you like aCarmel,
And the flowing locks of your head are like purple threads;
The king is captivated by your tresses.
6 “How abeautiful and how delightful you are,
My love, with all your charms!
7 “Your stature is like a palm tree,
And your breasts are like its clusters.
8 “I said, ‘I will climb the palm tree,
I will take hold of its fruit stalks.’
Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
And the fragrance of your breath like aapples,
9 And your amouth like the best wine!”
“It bgoes down smoothly for my beloved,
Flowing gently through the lips of those who fall asleep.
The Union of Love
10 “aI am my beloved’s,
And his bdesire is for me.
11 “Come, my beloved, let us go out into the country,
Let us spend the night in the villages.
12 “Let us rise early and go to the vineyards;
Let us asee whether the vine has budded
And its blossoms have opened,
And whether the pomegranates have bloomed.
There I will give you my love.
13 “The amandrakes have given forth fragrance;
And over our doors are all bchoice fruits,
Both new and old,
Which I have saved up for you, my beloved.
The Lovers Speak
“Oh that you were like a brother to me
Who nursed at my mother’s breasts.
If I found you outdoors, I would kiss you;
No one would despise me, either.
2 “I would lead you and abring you
Into the house of my mother, who used to instruct me;
I would give you spiced wine to drink from the juice of my pomegranates.
3 “Let ahis left hand be under my head
And his right hand embrace me.”
4 “aI want you to swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not arouse or awaken my love
Until she pleases.”
5 “aWho is this coming up from the wilderness
Leaning on her beloved?”
“Beneath the bapple tree I awakened you;
There your mother was in labor with you,
There she was in labor and gave you birth.
6 “Put me like a seal over your heart,
Like a aseal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death,
bJealousy is as severe as Sheol;
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
The very flame of the Lord.
7 “Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor will rivers overflow it;
aIf a man were to give all the riches of his house for love,
It would be utterly despised.”
8 “We have a little sister,
And she ahas 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 aplanks of cedar.”
10 “I was a wall, and amy breasts were like towers;
Then I became in his eyes as one who finds peace.
11 “Solomon had a avineyard at Baal‑hamon;
He bentrusted the vineyard to ccaretakers.
Each one was to bring a dthousand shekels of silver for its efruit.
12 “My very own vineyard is at my disposal;
The thousand shekels are for you, Solomon,
And two hundred are for those who take care of its fruit.”
13 “O you who sit in the gardens,
My acompanions are listening for your voice—
bLet me hear it!”
14 “Hurry, my beloved,
And be alike a gazelle or a young stag
On the bmountains of spices.”