The ache of longing

¹The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine.

³Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you.

⁴Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. Friends We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! Beloved They are right to love you.

⁵I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains.

⁶Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard.

⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; for why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

⁸If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹I have compared you, my love, to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots.

¹⁰Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.

¹¹We will make you earrings of gold, with studs of silver.

¹²While the king sat at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.

¹³My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.

¹⁵Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves.

¹⁶Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; and our couch is verdant.

¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.

¹I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

²As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

³As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, his fruit was sweet to my taste.

⁴He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love.

⁵Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love.

⁶His left hand is under my head. His right hand embraces me.

⁷I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.

⁸The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills.

⁹My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice.

¹⁰My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.

¹¹For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone.

¹²The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

¹³The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give out their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.”

¹⁴My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.

¹⁵Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom.

¹⁶My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies.

¹⁷Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.

¹By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.

²I will get up 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 I didn’t find him.

³The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

⁴I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me.

⁵I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love, until it so desires.