-
Colloquy of Bride and Friends
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine,
-
your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is perfume poured out; therefore the maidens love you.
-
Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.
-
Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?
-
Colloquy of Bridegroom, Friends, and Bride
I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
-
Ah, you are beautiful, my love; ah, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.
-
Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green;
-
As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.
-
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention towards me was love.
-
Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love.
-
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!
-
My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
-
The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
-
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
-
A Dream of Love
Upon my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.
-
‘I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves.’ I sought him, but found him not.
-
The sentinels found me, as they went about in the city. ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’
-
Scarcely had I passed them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
-
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!
-
He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior was inlaid with love. Daughters of Jerusalem,
-
The Bride’s Beauty Extolled
How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead.
-
Your lips are like a crimson thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.
-
You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.
-
How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride! how much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
-
I come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I gather my myrrh with my spice, I eat my honeycomb with my honey, I drink my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love.
-
Another Dream
I slept, but my heart was awake. Listen! my beloved is knocking. ‘Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.’
-
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell him this: I am faint with love.
-
The Bride’s Matchless Beauty
You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.
-
How fair and pleasant you are, O loved one, delectable maiden!
-
let us go out early to the vineyards, and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.
-
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!
-
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
-
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned.
