Canticle of Canticles

Chapter 8

  1. 1

    Would that thou wert my brother, nursed at my own mother’s breast! Then I could meet thee in the open street and kiss thee, and earn no contemptuous looks.

  2. 2

    To my mother’s house I will lead thee, my captive; there thou shalt teach me my lessons, and I will give thee spiced wine to drink, fresh brewed from my pomegranates.

  3. 3

    His left hand pillows my head; his right hand, even now, ready to embrace me!

  4. 4

    An oath, maidens of Jerusalem! Never wake from her sleep my heart’s love, till wake she will!

  5. 5

    Who is this that makes her way up by the desert road, all gaily clad, leaning upon the arm of her true love?3 When I came and woke thee, it was under the apple-tree, the same where sore distress overtook thy own mother, where she that bore thee had her hour of shame.

  6. 6

    Hold me close to thy heart, close as locket or bracelet fits; not death itself is so strong as love, not the grave itself cruel as love unrequited; the torch that lights it is a blaze of fire.

  7. 7

    Yes, love is a fire no waters avail to quench, no floods to drown; for love, a man will give up all that he has in the world, and think nothing of his loss.

  8. 8

    A little sister we have, still unripe for the love of man;4 but the day will come when a man will claim her; what cheer shall she have from us then?

  9. 9

    Steadfast as a wall if she be, that wall shall be crowned with silver; yield she as a door yields, we have cedar boards to fasten her.

  10. 10

    And I, I am a wall; impregnable this breast as a fortress; and the man who claimed me found in me a bringer of content.

  11. 11

    Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon; and when he gave the care of it to vine-dressers, each of these must pay a thousand silver pieces for the revenue of it.

  12. 12

    A vineyard I have of my own, here at my side; keep thy thousand pieces, Solomon, and let each vine-dresser have his two hundred; not mine to grudge them.

  13. 13

    Where is thy love of retired garden walks? All the countryside is listening to thee.

  14. 14

    Give me but the word to come away, thy bridegroom, with thee;6 hasten away like gazelle or fawn that spurns the scented hill-side underfoot.