Song of Songs 8

₁She says:

‘I wish you were my brother,

I wish that you had also drunk milk

from my mother's breasts.

Then, if I had found you

outside in the street,

I would have kissed you,

and no one would have thought it was wrong.

₂I would have taken you to my mother's home,

and you would have taught me about love.

I would have given you some of my herbal wine

and my pomegranate juice.

₃His left arm is under my head,

and his right arm is around my hips.

₄Young women of Jerusalem,

you must promise me

that you will not think about love

until the right time.’

₅Their friends say:

‘Who is this woman

who comes from the desert

and holds on to the arm

of the man that she loves?’

She says:

‘I have woken you up where you were sleeping

under the apple tree.

That is where you were born,

where your mother felt the pain

when you were born.

₆You must hold me like a seal

against your chest or around your arm,

because love is as strong as death.

It is as strong as the grave.

It is like a hot burning fire.

₇A lot of water can not stop the fire of love,

and rivers can not sweep it away.

You can not buy love.

If someone gives everything in his house,

and he wants to buy love with it,

people will laugh at him.’

₈Her brothers say:

‘Our sister is young,

and she does not have big breasts yet.

What can we do for our sister

when a man wants to marry her?

₉If she was a wall,

then we could have built

a silver tower around her.

If she was a door,

then we could have closed her

with cedar planks.’

₁₀She says: ‘I am a wall,

and my breasts are like towers.

I make the man happy, the man that I love.

That is why I am like one whom he has defeated.’

₁₁He says:

‘Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-Hamon

and he rented out his vineyard to people,

and each of them

had to pay him 1 000 pieces_of_silver

for the grapes that they harvested.

₁₂But my vineyard belongs to me only.

Solomon, you can keep

your 1 000 pieces_of_silver

and also the 200 pieces_of_silver

that the people get for looking after the grapes.’

₁₃He says:

‘You who live in the garden,

your friends are waiting to listen to what you say.

I also want to listen to what you say to me.’

₁₄She says:

‘Man that I love, you must hurry.

You must run like a gazelle

or like a young deer on the Balsam Mountains.’