Study Desk

Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: for thy breasts are better than wine,

Smelling sweet of the best ointments. Thy name is as oil poured out: therefore young maidens have loved thee.

Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments.

The king hath brought me into his storerooms: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine: the righteous love thee.

(1-4) I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

(1-5) Do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath altered my colour: the sons of my mother have fought against me, they have made me the keeper in the vineyards: my vineyard I have not kept.

(1-6) Shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions.

(1-7) If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds.

(1-8) To my company of horsemen, in Pharao’s chariots, have I likened thee, O my love.

(1-9) Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove’s, thy neck as jewels.

(1-10) We will make thee chains of gold, inlaid with silver.

(1-11) While the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent forth the odour thereof.

(1-12) A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts.

(1-13) A cluster of cypress my love is to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi.

(1-14) Behold thou are fair, O my love, behold thou are fair, thy eyes are as those of doves.

(1-15) Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flourishing.

(1-16) The beams of our houses are of cedar, our rafters of cypress trees.

I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys.

As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow, whom I desired: and his fruit was sweet to my palate.

He brought me into the cellar of wine, he set in order charity in me.

Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love.

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and the harts of the field, that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she please.

The voice of my beloved, behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills.

My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart. Behold he standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices.

Behold my beloved speaketh to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come.

For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone.

The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle is heard in our land:

The fig tree hath put forth her green figs: the vines in flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come:

My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall, shew me thy face, let thy voice sound in my ears: for thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely.

Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines: for our vineyard hath flourished.

My beloved to me, and I to him who feedeth among the lilies,

Till the day break, and the shadows retire. Return: be like, my beloved, to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.