Quis mihi det te fratrem meum, sugentem ubera matris meæ, ut inveniam te foris, et deosculer te, et jam me nemo despiciat?

Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find thee without, and kiss thee, and now no man may despise me?

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.

Apprehendam te, et ducam in domum matris meæ: ibi me docebis, et dabo tibi poculum ex vino condito, et mustum malorum granatorum meorum.

I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house: there thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates.

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.

Læva ejus sub capite meo, et dextera illius amplexabitur me.

His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

His left hand pillows my head; his right hand, even now, ready to embrace me!

Sponsus Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem, ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, donec ipsa velit.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love till she please.

An oath, maidens of Jerusalem! Never wake from her sleep my heart’s love, till wake she will!

Chorus Quæ est ista quæ ascendit de deserto, deliciis affluens, innixa super dilectum suum? Sponsus Sub arbore malo suscitavi te; ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genitrix tua.

Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee.

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.

Sponsa Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum, ut signaculum super brachium tuum, quia fortis est ut mors dilectio, dura sicut infernus æmulatio: lampades ejus lampades ignis atque flammarum.

Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames.

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.

Aquæ multæ non potuerunt extinguere caritatem, nec flumina obruent illam. Si dederit homo omnem substantiam domus suæ pro dilectione, quasi nihil despiciet eam.

Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.

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.

Chorus Fratrum Soror nostra parva, et ubera non habet; quid faciemus sorori nostræ in die quando alloquenda est?

Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?

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?

Si murus est, ædificemus super eum propugnacula argentea; si ostium est, compingamus illud tabulis cedrinis.

If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.

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.

Sponsa Ego murus, et ubera mea sicut turris, ex quo facta sum coram eo, quasi pacem reperiens.

I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in his presence as one finding peace.

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.

Chorus Fratrum Vinea fuit pacifico in ea quæ habet populos: tradidit eam custodibus; vir affert pro fructu ejus mille argenteos.

The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let out the same to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver.

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.

Sponsa Vinea mea coram me est. Mille tui pacifici, et ducenti his qui custodiunt fructus ejus.

My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.

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.

Sponsus Quæ habitas in hortis, amici auscultant; fac me audire vocem tuam.

Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice.

Where is thy love of retired garden walks? All the countryside is listening to thee.

Sponsa Fuge, dilecte mi, et assimilare capreæ, hinnuloque cervorum super montes aromatum.

Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices.

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.