1 | Bride to Groom: Who will give you to me as my brother, feeding from the breasts of my mother, so that I may discover you outside, and may kiss you, and so that now no one may despise me? |
2 | I will take hold of you and lead you into my mother's house. There you will teach me, and I will give you a cup of spiced wine, and of new wine from my pomegranates. |
3 | His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. |
4 | Groom to Chorus: I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills. |
5 | Chorus to Groom: Who is she, who ascends from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? |
6 | Groom to Bride: Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was corrupted. There she who bore you was violated. |
7 | Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong, like death, and envy is enduring, like hell: their lamps are made of fire and flames. |
8 | A multitude of waters cannot extinguish love, nor can a river overwhelm it. If a man were to give all the substance of his house in exchange for love, he would despise it as nothing. |
9 | Chorus: Our sister is little and has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is called upon? |
10 | If she is a wall, let us build a rampart of silver upon it. If she is a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar. |
11 | Bride to Chorus: I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers, since, in his presence, I have become like one who has discovered peace. |
12 | The peaceful one had a vineyard, in that which held the peoples. He handed it on to the caretakers; a man brought, in exchange for its fruit, a thousand pieces of silver. |
13 | Groom: My vineyard is before me. The thousand is for your peacefulness, and two hundred is for those who care for its fruit. |
14 | Bride to Groom: Your friends are attentive to those who have been dwelling in the gardens. Cause me to heed your voice. |
15 | Flee away, my beloved, and become like the doe and the young stag upon the mountains of aromatic plants. |