Topic: Excerpts from The Song of Solomon (Canticles)

[Nichi]

Chapter 8

1: O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.
2: I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
3: His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
4: I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
5: Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.
6: Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
7: Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
8: We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?
9: If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.
10: I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
11: Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
12: My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
13: Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.
14: Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

[Nichi]

Chapter 1

1: The song of songs, which is Solomon's.
2: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
3: Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.
4: Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.
5: I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
6: Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
7: Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?
8: If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.
9: I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.
10: Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
11: We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.
12: While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
13: A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
14: My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi.
15: Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.
16: Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
17: The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.

[Nichi]

These lines call me from some distant place...

~Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?


~We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.



~A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.


~Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.



~O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.



~Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.




~Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.

[Nichi]

In my sordid days, when I wasn't beyond spell-work, The Song of Solomon figured in greatly to my 'work'. It is the ultimate invocation, and it's really surprising that it made the "cut" when the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church were making their decisions about which books were in, and which were out. The imagery is undeniably erotic.

(This comment comes late to the party ... I happened to be in here reading it as my roommate was declaring that there was no poetic sensibility in the Tanach.)