1Oh, how I wish you were my little brother,
nursing at my mother’s breasts;
if I saw you outside, I could kiss you –
surely no one would despise me!
2I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house,
the one who taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the nectar of my pomegranates.
3His left hand caresses my head,
and his right hand stimulates me.
4I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem:
“Do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”
5Who is this coming up from the desert,
leaning on her beloved?The Beloved to Her Lover:Under the apple tree I aroused you;
there your mother conceived you,
there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.
6Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart,
like a signet on your arm.
For love is as strong as death,
passion is as unrelenting as Sheol.
Its flames burst forth,
it is a blazing flame.
7Surging waters cannot quench love;
floodwaters cannot overflow it.
If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love,
the offer would be utterly despised.
8We have a little sister,
and as yet she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?
9If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver;
but if she is a door,
we will barricade her with boards of cedar.
10I was a wall,
and my breasts were like fortress towers.
Then I found favor in his eyes.
11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon;
he leased out the vineyard to those who maintained it.
Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.
12My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone.
The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon,
and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.
13O you who stay in the gardens,
my companions are listening attentively for your voice;
let me be the one to hear it!
14Make haste, my beloved!
Be like a gazelle or a young stagon the mountains of spices.