Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: for thy breasts are better than wine,

Sponsa Osculetur me osculo oris sui; quia meliora sunt ubera tua vino,

A kiss from those lips! Wine cannot ravish the senses like that embrace,

Smelling sweet of the best ointments. Thy name is as oil poured out: therefore young maidens have loved thee.

Chorus adolescentularum fragrantia unguentis optimis. Oleum effusum nomen tuum; ideo adolescentulæ dilexerunt te.

nor the fragrance of rare perfumes match it for delight. Thy very name spoken soothes the heart like flow of oil; what wonder the maids should love thee?

Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments. The king hath brought me into his storerooms: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine: the rightous love thee.

Sponsa Trahe me, post te curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum. Introduxit me rex in cellaria sua; exsultabimus et lætabimur in te, memores uberum tuorum super vinum. Recti diligunt te.

Draw me after thee where thou wilt; see, we hasten after thee, by the very fragrance of those perfumes allured! To his own bower the king has brought me; he is our pride and boast, on his embrace, more ravishing than wine, our thoughts shall linger. They love truly that know thy love.

I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

Sponsa Nigra sum, sed formosa, filiæ Jerusalem, sicut tabernacula Cedar, sicut pelles Salomonis.

Dark of skin, and yet I have beauty, daughters of Jerusalem. Black are the tents they have in Cedar; black are Solomon’s own curtains; then why not I?

Do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath altered my colour: the sons of my mother have fought against me, they have made me the keeper in the vineyards: my vineyard I have not kept.

Nolite me considerare quod fusca sim, quia decoloravit me sol. Filii matris meæ pugnaverunt contra me; posuerunt me custodem in vineis: vineam meam non custodivi.

Take no note of this Ethiop colour; it was the sun tanned me, when my own brothers, that had a grudge against me, set me a-watching in the vineyards. I have a vineyard of my own that I have watched but ill.

Shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions.

Indica mihi, quem diligit anima mea, ubi pascas, ubi cubes in meridie, ne vagari incipiam post greges sodalium tuorum.

Tell me, my true love, where is now thy pasture-ground, where now is thy resting-place under the noon’s heat? Thou wouldst not have me wander to and fro where the flocks graze that are none of thine?

If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds.

Sponsus Si ignoras te, o pulcherrima inter mulieres, egredere, et abi post vestigia gregum, et pasce hædos tuos juxta tabernacula pastorum.

Still bewildered, fairest of womankind? Nay, if thou wilt, wander abroad, and follow with the shepherds’ flocks; feed, if thou wilt, those goats of thine beside the shepherds’ encampment.

To my company of horsemen, in Pharao’s chariots, have I likened thee, O my love.

Equitatui meo in curribus Pharaonis assimilavi te, amica mea.

My heart’s love, prized above all my horsemen, with Pharao’s wealth of chariots behind them!

Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove’s, thy neck as jewels.

Pulchræ sunt genæ tuæ sicut turturis; collum tuum sicut monilia.

Soft as doves are thy cheeks, thy neck smooth as coral.

We will make thee chains of gold, inlaid with silver.

Murenulas aureas faciemus tibi, vermiculatas argento.

Chains of gold that neck must have, inlaid with silver.

While the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent forth the odour thereof.

Sponsa Dum esset rex in accubitu suo, nardus mea dedit odorem suum.

Now, while the king sits at his wine, breathes out the spikenard of my thoughts!

A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts.

Fasciculus myrrhæ dilectus meus mihi; inter ubera mea commorabitur.

Close my love is to my heart as the cluster of myrrh that lodges in my bosom all the night through.

A cluster of cypress my love is to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi.

Botrus cypri dilectus meus mihi in vineis Engaddi.

Close he clings as a tuft of cypress in the vine-clad rocks of Engedi.

Behold thou art fair, O my love, behold thou art fair, thy eyes are as those of doves.

Sponsus Ecce tu pulchra es, amica mea! ecce tu pulchra es! Oculi tui columbarum.

See how fair is the maid I love! Soft eyes thou hast, like a dove’s eyes.

Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flourishing.

Sponsa Ecce tu pulcher es, dilecte mi, et decorus! Lectulus noster floridus.

And see how fair is the man I love, how stately! Green grows that bower, thine and mine,

The beams of our houses are of cedar, our rafters of cypress trees.

Tigna domorum nostrarum cedrina, laquearia nostra cypressina.

with its roof of cedars, with a covert of cypress for its walls.