Study

The Bride’s Beauty Extolled

 4

How beautiful you are, my love,

how very beautiful!

Your eyes are doves

behind your veil.

Your hair is like a flock of goats,

moving down the slopes of Gilead.

2

Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes

that have come up from the washing,

all of which bear twins,

and not one among them is bereaved.

3

Your lips are like a crimson thread,

and your mouth is lovely.

Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

behind your veil.

4

Your neck is like the tower of David,

built in courses;

on it hang a thousand bucklers,

all of them shields of warriors.

5

Your two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle,

that feed among the lilies.

6

Until the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

I will hasten to the mountain of myrrh

and the hill of frankincense.

7

You are altogether beautiful, my love;

there is no flaw in you.

8

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;

come with me from Lebanon.

Depart from the peak of Amana,

from the peak of Senir and Hermon,

from the dens of lions,

from the mountains of leopards.

 

9

You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride,

you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes,

with one jewel of your necklace.

10

How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride!

how much better is your love than wine,

and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!

11

Your lips distill nectar, my bride;

honey and milk are under your tongue;

the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.

12

A garden locked is my sister, my bride,

a garden locked, a fountain sealed.

13

Your channel is an orchard of pomegranates

with all choicest fruits,

henna with nard,

14

nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,

with all trees of frankincense,

myrrh and aloes,

with all chief spices—

15

a garden fountain, a well of living water,

and flowing streams from Lebanon.

 

16

Awake, O north wind,

and come, O south wind!

Blow upon my garden

that its fragrance may be wafted abroad.

Let my beloved come to his garden,

and eat its choicest fruits.