The Lover

¹How beautiful are your feet in sandals,

O noble daughter!

The curves of your thighs are like jewels,

the work of an artist’s hands.

²Your navel is like a rounded goblet

that never lacks mixed wine.

Your belly is like a heap of wheat,

encircled with lilies.

³Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

⁴Your neck is like an ivory tower.[#Ps 144:12; SS 4:4]

Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon,

by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon

which looks toward Damascus.

⁵Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel,[#Isa 35:2]

and your flowing locks are like royal purple;

a king is held captive by your tresses.

⁶How beautiful and how pleasant you are,[#SS 1:15–16; 4:10]

my beloved, with all your delights!

⁷Your stature is like a palm tree,

and your breasts are like its clusters.

⁸I say I will climb the palm tree

and take hold of its fruit.

Oh may your breasts be like the clusters of the vine,

and the scent of your breath like apples,

⁹and your mouth like the best wine.[#SS 5:16]

It travels down smoothly for my beloved,

gliding through the lips of those who fall asleep.

The Beloved

¹⁰I belong to my lover,

and his desire is for me.

¹¹Come, my lover, let us go out into the country,[#SS 4:8]

and lodge in the villages;

¹²let 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 my love to you.

¹³The mandrakes give forth their fragrance,[#Ge 30:14]

and over our doors are all choice fruits,

both new and old,

which I have stored up for you, my lover.