1
Would that thou wert my brother, nursed at my own mother’s breast! Then I could meet thee in the open street and kiss thee, and earn no contemptuous looks.✻
2
To my mother’s house I will lead thee, my captive; there thou shalt teach me my lessons, and I will give thee spiced wine to drink, fresh brewed from my pomegranates.
3
His left hand pillows my head; his right hand, even now, ready to embrace me!
4
An oath, maidens of Jerusalem! Never wake from her sleep my heart’s love, till wake she will!✻
5
Who is this that makes her way up by the desert road, all gaily clad, leaning upon the arm of her true love?✻
When I came and woke thee, it was under the apple-tree, the same where sore distress overtook thy own mother, where she that bore thee had her hour of shame.
When I came and woke thee, it was under the apple-tree, the same where sore distress overtook thy own mother, where she that bore thee had her hour of shame.
6
Hold me close to thy heart, close as locket or bracelet fits; not death itself is so strong as love, not the grave itself cruel as love unrequited; the torch that lights it is a blaze of fire.
7
Yes, love is a fire no waters avail to quench, no floods to drown; for love, a man will give up all that he has in the world, and think nothing of his loss.
8
A little sister we have, still unripe for the love of man;✻ but the day will come when a man will claim her; what cheer shall she have from us then?
9
Steadfast as a wall if she be, that wall shall be crowned with silver; yield she as a door yields, we have cedar boards to fasten her.
10
And I, I am a wall; impregnable this breast as a fortress; and the man who claimed me found in me a bringer of content.
11
Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon; and when he gave the care of it to vine-dressers, each of these must pay a thousand silver pieces for the revenue of it.
12
A vineyard I have of my own, here at my side; keep thy thousand pieces, Solomon, and let each vine-dresser have his two hundred; not mine to grudge them.✻
13
Where is thy love of retired garden walks? All the countryside is listening to thee.
14
Give me but the word to come away, thy bridegroom, with thee;✻ hasten away like gazelle or fawn that spurns the scented hill-side underfoot.
