Study Desk

The Ultimate Song, by Shlomo:

[She]

Let him smother me with kisses from his mouth, for your love is better than wine.

Your anointing oils have a wonderful fragrance; your name is like anointing oil poured out. This is why young women love you —

"Take me with you. We will run after you." The king has brought me into his rooms.

[Chorus]

We will be glad and rejoice for you. We will praise your love more than wine. How right it is for them to love you!

[She]

I am dark tan but beautiful, you daughters of Yerushalayim, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Shlomo.

Don't stare at me because I'm dark; it's the sun that tanned me. My mother's sons were angry with me and made me look after the vineyards. But I haven't cared for my own vineyard.

Tell me, my love, where you pasture your flock, where you have them rest at noon; for why should I veil myself [like a whore] beside the flocks of your friends?

[Chorus]

If you do not know, you most beautiful of women, then follow the footprints of the flock and let your kids graze by the shepherds' tents.

[He]

My love, I compare you with my mare, pulling one of Pharaoh's chariots —

your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with its strings of beads;

we will make you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

[She]

As the king reclines at table, my nard gives forth its perfume:

to me the man I love is a sachet of myrrh lodged between my breasts;

to me the man I love is a spray of henna flowers in the vineyards of ‘Ein-Gedi.

[He]

Look at you, my love! How beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves —

[She]

— Look at you! So handsome, so pleasing, my darling! Our bed is the greenery;

cedars are the beams of our houses, cypresses the rafters.

I am but a rose from the Sharon, just a lily in the valleys.

[He]

Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the other women.

[She]

Like an apple tree among the other trees in the forest is my darling among the other men. I love to sit in his shadow; his fruit is sweet to my taste.

He brings me to the banquet hall; his banner over me is love.

Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love.

[I wish] his left arm [were] under my head, and his right arm around me.

I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim, by the gazelles and deer in the wilds, not to awaken or stir up love until it wants to arise!

The voice of the man I love! Here he comes, bounding over the mountains, skipping over the hills!

My darling is like a gazelle or young stag. There he is, standing outside our wall, looking in through the windows, peering in through the lattice.

My darling speaks; he is saying to me, "Get up, my love! My beauty! Come away!

For you see that the winter has passed, the rain is finished and gone,

the flowers are appearing in the countryside, the time has come for [the birds] to sing, and the cooing of doves can be heard in the land.

The fig trees are forming their unripe figs, and the grapevines in bloom give out their perfume. Get up, my love, my beauty! Come away!"

[He]

My dove, hiding in holes in the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, let me see your face and hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

[She]

"Catch the foxes for us, yes, the little foxes! They are ruining the vineyards when our vineyards are in bloom!"

My darling is mine, and I am his, as he pastures his flock among the lilies.

Before the daytime breeze rises and the shadows flee, return, my love, like a stag or gazelle on the hills of Beter.