1:1 Solomon’s Song of Songs:
1:2 BELOVED: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love-making is sweeter than wine;
1:3 delicate is the fragrance of your perfume, your name is an oil poured out, and that is why girls love you.
1:4 Draw me in your footsteps, let us run. The king has brought me into his rooms; you will be our joy and our gladness. We shall praise your love more than wine; how right it is to love you.
1:5 BELOVED: I am black but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the pavilions of Salmah.
1:6 Take no notice of my dark colouring, it is the sun that has burnt me. My mother’s sons turned their anger on me, they made me look after the vineyards. My own vineyard I had not looked after!
1:7 Tell me then, sweetheart, where will you lead your flock to graze, where will you rest it at noon? That I may no more wander like a vagabond beside the flocks of your companions.
1:8 CHORUS: If you do not know this, O loveliest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and take your kids to graze close by the shepherds’ tents.
1:9 LOVER: I compare you, my love, to my mare harnessed to Pharaoh’s chariot.
1:10 Your cheeks show fair between their pendants and your neck within its necklaces.
1:11 We shall make you golden earrings and beads of silver.
1:12 DUO: -While the king rests in his own room my nard yields its perfume.
1:13 My love is a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts.
1:14 My love is a cluster of henna flowers among the vines of En-Gedi.
1:15 -How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves.
1:16 -How beautiful you are, my love, and how you delight me! Our bed is the greensward.
1:17 -The beams of our house are cedar trees, its panelling the cypress.
chapter 2
2:1 -I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys.
2:2 -As a lily among the thistles, so is my beloved among girls.
2:3 -As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my love among young men. In his delightful shade I sit, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
2:4 He has taken me to his cellar, and his banner over me is love.
2:5 Feed me with raisin cakes, restore me with apples, for I am sick with love.
2:6 His left arm is under my head, his right embraces me.
2:7 -I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by all gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.
2:8 BELOVED: I hear my love. See how he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills.
2:9 My love is like a gazelle, like a young stag. See where he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the opening.
2:10 My love lifts up his voice, he says to me, ‘Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.
2:11 For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone.
2:12 ‘Flowers are appearing on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.
2:13 The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.
2:14 ‘My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.’
2:15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards, for our vineyards are in fruit.
2:16 My love is mine and I am his. He pastures his flock among the lilies.
2:17 Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, return! Be, my love, like a gazelle, like a young stag, on the mountains of Bether.
chapter 3
3:1 On my bed at night I sought the man who is my sweetheart: I sought but could not find him!
3:2 So I shall get up and go through the city; in the streets and in the squares, I shall seek my sweetheart. I sought but could not find him!
3:3 I came upon the watchmen — those who go on their rounds in the city: ‘Have you seen my sweetheart?’
3:4 Barely had I passed them when I found my sweetheart. I caught him, would not let him go, not till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room where she conceived me!
3:5 LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.
3:6 POET: What is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, breathing of myrrh and frankincense and every exotic perfume?
3:7 Here comes Solomon’s litter. Around it are sixty champions, the flower of the warriors of Israel;
3:8 all of them skilled swordsmen, expert in war. Each man has his sword at his side, against alarms by night.
3:9 King Solomon has had a palanquin made of wood from Lebanon.
3:10 He has had the posts made of silver, the canopy of gold, the seat of purple; the centre is inlaid with ebony.
3:11 Daughters of Zion, come and see King Solomon, wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, on the day of his heart’s joy.
chapter 4
4:1 LOVER: How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves, behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats surging down Mount Gilead.
4:2 Your teeth, a flock of sheep to be shorn when they come up from the washing. Each one has its twin, not one unpaired with another.
4:3 Your lips are a scarlet thread and your words enchanting. Your cheeks, behind your veil, are halves of pomegranate.
4:4 Your neck is the Tower of David built on layers, hung round with a thousand bucklers, and each the shield of a hero.
4:5 Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.
4:6 Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, I shall go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.
4:7 You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and without a blemish.
4:8 Come from Lebanon, my promised bride, come from Lebanon, come on your way. Look down from the heights of Amanus, from the crests of Senir and Hermon, the haunt of lions, the mountains of leopards.
4:9 You ravish my heart, my sister, my promised bride, you ravish my heart with a single one of your glances, with a single link of your necklace.
4:10 What spells lie in your love, my sister, my promised bride! How delicious is your love, more delicious than wine! How fragrant your perfumes, more fragrant than all spices!
4:11 Your lips, my promised bride, distil wild honey. Honey and milk are under your tongue; and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.
4:12 She is a garden enclosed, my sister, my promised bride; a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain.
4:13 Your shoots form an orchard of pomegranate trees, bearing most exquisite fruit:
4:14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the incense-bearing trees; myrrh and aloes, with the subtlest odours.
4:15 Fountain of the garden, well of living water, streams flowing down from Lebanon!
4:16 BELOVED: Awake, north wind, come, wind of the south! Breathe over my garden, to spread its sweet smell around. Let my love come into his garden, let him taste its most exquisite fruits.
chapter 5
5:1 LOVER: I come into my garden, my sister, my promised bride, I pick my myrrh and balsam, I eat my honey and my honeycomb, I drink my wine and my milk. POET: Eat, friends, and drink, drink deep, my dearest friends.
5:2 BELOVED: I sleep, but my heart is awake. I hear my love knocking. ‘Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my hair with the drops of night.’
5:3 -‘I have taken off my tunic, am I to put it on again? I have washed my feet, am I to dirty them again?’
5:4 My love thrust his hand through the hole in the door; I trembled to the core of my being.
5:5 Then I got up to open to my love, myrrh ran off my hands, pure myrrh off my fingers, on to the handle of the bolt.
5:6 I opened to my love, but he had turned and gone. My soul failed at his flight, I sought but could not find him, I called, but he did not answer.
5:7 The watchmen met me, those who go on their rounds in the city. They beat me, they wounded me, they took my cloak away from me: those guardians of the ramparts!
5:8 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you should find my love, what are you to tell him? -That I am sick with love!
5:9 CHORUS: What makes your lover better than other lovers, O loveliest of women? What makes your lover better than other lovers, to put us under such an oath?
5:10 BELOVED: My love is fresh and ruddy, to be known among ten thousand.
5:11 His head is golden, purest gold, his locks are palm fronds and black as the raven.
5:12 His eyes are like doves beside the water-courses, bathing themselves in milk, perching on a fountain-rim.
5:13 His cheeks are beds of spices, banks sweetly scented. His lips are lilies, distilling pure myrrh.
5:14 His hands are golden, rounded, set with jewels of Tarshish. His belly a block of ivory covered with sapphires.
5:15 His legs are alabaster columns set in sockets of pure gold. His appearance is that of Lebanon, unrivalled as the cedars.
5:16 His conversation is sweetness itself, he is altogether lovable. Such is my love, such is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
chapter 6
6:1 CHORUS: Where did your lover go, O loveliest of women? Which way did your lover turn so that we can help you seek him?
6:2 BELOVED: My love went down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock on the grass and gather lilies.
6:3 I belong to my love, and my love to me. He pastures his flock among the lilies.
6:4 LOVER: You are fair as Tirzah, my beloved, enchanting as Jerusalem, formidable as an army!
6:5 Turn your eyes away from me, they take me by assault! Your hair is like a flock of goats surging down the slopes of Gilead.
6:6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes as they come up from being washed. Each one has its twin, not one unpaired with another.
6:7 Your cheeks, behind your veil, are halves of pomegranate.
6:8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines (and countless girls).
6:9 My dove is my only one, perfect and mine. She is the darling of her mother, the favourite of the one who bore her. Girls have seen her and proclaimed her blessed, queens and concubines have sung her praises,
6:10 ‘Who is this arising like the dawn, fair as the moon, resplendent as the sun, formidable as an army?’
6:11 I went down to the nut orchard to see the fresh shoots in the valley, to see if the vines were budding and the pomegranate trees in flower.
6:12 Before I knew . . . my desire had hurled me onto the chariots of Amminadib!
chapter 7
7:1 CHORUS: Come back, come back, girl from Shulam, come back, come back, where we can look at you! Why are you looking at the girl from Shulam, dancing between two lines of dancers?
7:2 LOVER: How beautiful are your feet in their sandals, O prince’s daughter! The curve of your thighs is like the curve of a necklace, work of a master hand.
7:3 Your navel is a bowl well rounded with no lack of wine, your belly a heap of wheat surrounded with lilies.
7:4 Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
7:5 Your neck is an ivory tower. Your eyes, the pools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. Your nose, the Tower of Lebanon, sentinel facing Damascus.
7:6 Your head is held high like Carmel, and its hair is as dark as purple; a king is held captive in your tresses.
7:7 How beautiful you are, how charming, my love, my delight!
7:8 In stature like the palm tree, its fruit-clusters your breasts.
7:9 I have decided, ‘I shall climb the palm tree, I shall seize its clusters of dates!’ May your breasts be clusters of grapes, your breath sweet-scented as apples,
7:10 and your palate like sweet wine. BELOVED: Flowing down the throat of my love, as it runs on the lips of those who sleep.
7:11 I belong to my love, and his desire is for me.
7:12 Come, my love, let us go to the fields. We will spend the night in the villages,
7:13 and in the early morning we will go to the vineyards. We will see if the vines are budding, if their blossoms are opening, if the pomegranate trees are in flower. Then I shall give you the gift of my love.
7:14 The mandrakes yield their fragrance, the most exquisite fruits are at our doors; the new as well as the old, I have stored them for you, my love.
chapter 8
8:1 Ah, why are you not my brother, nursed at my mother’s breast! Then if I met you out of doors, I could kiss you without people thinking ill of me.
8:2 I should lead you, I should take you into my mother’s house, and you would teach me! I should give you spiced wine to drink, juice of my pomegranates.
8:3 His left arm is under my head and his right embraces me.
8:4 LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved, before she pleases!
8:5 Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? I awakened you under the apple tree, where your mother conceived you, where she who bore you conceived you.
8:6 BELOVED: Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as Death, passion as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh himself.
8:7 Love no flood can quench, no torrents drown. Were a man to offer all his family wealth to buy love, contempt is all that he would gain.
8:8 Our sister is little: her breasts are not yet formed. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?
8:9 If she is a rampart, on the crest we shall build a battlement of silver; if she is a door, we shall board her up with planks of cedar.
8:10 I am a wall, and my breasts represent its towers. And under their eyes I have found true peace.
8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon. He entrusted it to overseers, and each one was to pay him the value of its produce, a thousand shekels of silver.
8:12 But I tend my own vineyard myself. You, Solomon, may have your thousand shekels, and those who oversee its produce their two hundred.
8:13 You who dwell in the gardens, my companions listen for your voice; let me hear it.
8:14 Haste away, my love, be like a gazelle, a young stag, on the spice-laden mountains.