Longing for Her Beloved

1Who will give thee as a brother to me, sucking the breasts of my mother? I shall find thee without, I shall kiss thee; also they shall not despise me.

2I will lead thee, I will bring thee to the house of my mother; thou wilt teach me: I will give thee to drink from spiced wine from the new wine of my pomegranate.

3His left hand under my head, and his right shall embrace me.

4I adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem, why will ye awake, and why will ye rouse love till he shall desire?

5Who this coming up from the desert, leaning herself upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I aroused thee: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she bearing thee, brought forth.

6Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love was strong as death; jealousy hard as hades: its flames, flames of fire, flames of Jehovah.

7Many waters shall not be able to quench love, and rivers shall not overwhelm it: if a man shall give all the riches of his house for love, despising, they shall be despised for him.

8A little sister to us, and no breasts to her: what shall we do for our sister in the day it shall be spoken for her?

9If she be a wall, we will build upon her a fortress of silver: and if she is a door we will bind upon her a tablet of cedar.

10I am a wall, and my breasts as towers: then was I in his eyes as finding peace.

11A vineyard was to Solomon in the place of a multitude; he gave the vineyards to those watching; each shall bring in its fruit a thousand of silver.

12My vineyard to me before me: a thousand to thee, O Solomon, and two hundred to those watching its fruit.

13Thou sitting in the gardens, the companions attending to thy voice: cause thou me to hear.

14Flee, my beloved, and be it likened to thee to the roe or to the fawn of the hinds upon the mountains of spices.