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The Wedding Dance

He Speaks:

You are a princess,
and your feet are graceful
    in their sandals.
Your thighs are works of art,
    each one a jewel;
your navel is a wine glass
    filled to overflowing.
Your body is full and slender
like a bundle of wheat
    bound together by lilies.
Your breasts are like twins
    of a deer.
Your neck is like ivory,
    and your eyes sparkle
like the pools of Heshbon
    by the gate of Bath-Rabbim.
Your nose is beautiful
like Mount Lebanon
    above the city of Damascus.
Your head is held high
    like Mount Carmel;
your hair is so lovely
    it holds a king prisoner.[a]

You are very beautiful,
    so desirable!
You are tall and slender
like a palm tree,
    and your breasts are full.
I will climb that tree
    and cling to its branches.
I will discover that your breasts
    are clusters of grapes,
and that your breath
    is the aroma of apples.
Kissing you is more delicious
than drinking the finest wine.
    How wonderful and tasty![b]

She Speaks:

10 My darling, I am yours,
    and you desire me.
11 Let's stroll through the fields
    and sleep in the villages.
12 At dawn let's slip out and see
if grapevines and fruit trees
    are covered with blossoms.
When we are there,
    I will give you my love.
13 Perfume from the magic flower[c]
    fills the air, my darling.
Right at our doorstep
I have stored up for you
    all kinds of tasty fruits.

Footnotes

  1. 7.5 it … prisoner: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  2. 7.9 How … tasty: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  3. 7.13 magic flower: The Hebrew text has “mandrake,” a plant that was thought to give sexual powers.

[a]How beautiful your sandaled feet,
    O prince’s(A) daughter!
Your graceful legs are like jewels,
    the work of an artist’s hands.
Your navel is a rounded goblet
    that never lacks blended wine.
Your waist is a mound of wheat
    encircled by lilies.
Your breasts(B) are like two fawns,
    like twin fawns of a gazelle.
Your neck is like an ivory tower.(C)
Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon(D)
    by the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon(E)
    looking toward Damascus.
Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel.(F)
    Your hair is like royal tapestry;
    the king is held captive by its tresses.
How beautiful(G) you are and how pleasing,
    my love, with your delights!(H)
Your stature is like that of the palm,
    and your breasts(I) like clusters of fruit.
I said, “I will climb the palm tree;
    I will take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine,
    the fragrance of your breath like apples,(J)
    and your mouth like the best wine.

She

May the wine go straight to my beloved,(K)
    flowing gently over lips and teeth.[b]
10 I belong to my beloved,
    and his desire(L) is for me.(M)
11 Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside,
    let us spend the night in the villages.[c]
12 Let us go early to the vineyards(N)
    to see if the vines have budded,(O)
if their blossoms(P) have opened,
    and if the pomegranates(Q) are in bloom(R)
    there I will give you my love.
13 The mandrakes(S) send out their fragrance,
    and at our door is every delicacy,
both new and old,
    that I have stored up for you, my beloved.(T)

Footnotes

  1. Song of Songs 7:1 In Hebrew texts 7:1-13 is numbered 7:2-14.
  2. Song of Songs 7:9 Septuagint, Aquila, Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew lips of sleepers
  3. Song of Songs 7:11 Or the henna bushes