Help

Chapter 8

1

Oh, that you were my brother,
nursed at my mother's breasts!
If I met you out of doors, I would kiss you
and none would taunt me.

2

I would lead you, bring you in
to the home of my mother.
There you would teach me to give you
spiced wine to drink and pomegranate juice.

3

His left hand is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.

4

I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles and hinds of the field,
Do not arouse, do not stir up love,
before its own time.

5

D ¹ Who is this coming up from the desert,
leaning upon her lover?
G Under the apple tree I awakened you;
it was there that your mother conceived you,
it was there that your parent conceived.

6

B ² Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.

7

Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away.
Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love,
he would be roundly mocked.

8

³ "Our sister is little
and she has no breasts as yet.
What shall we do for our sister
when her courtship begins?

9

If she is a wall,
we will build upon it a silver parapet;
If she is a door,
we will reinforce it with a cedar plank."

10

I am a wall,
and my breasts are like towers.
So now in his eyes I have become
one to be welcomed.

11

B ⁴ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he gave over the vineyard to caretakers.
For its fruit one would have to pay
a thousand silver pieces.

12

My vineyard is at my own disposal;
the thousand pieces are for you, O Solomon,
and two hundred for the caretakers of its fruit.

13

G ⁵ O garden-dweller,
my friends are listening for your voice,
let me hear it!

14

B Be swift, my lover,
like a gazelle or a young stag
on the mountains of spices!