1 Oh, how I wish you were my little brother,nursing at my mother’s breasts;if I saw you outside, I could kiss you – surely no one would despise me!
2 I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house,the one who taught me.I would give you spiced wine to drink,the nectar of my pomegranates.
3 His left hand caresses my head,and his right hand stimulates me.
4 I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem:“Do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”
5 Who is this coming up from the desert,leaning on her beloved?Under the apple tree I aroused you;there your mother conceived you,there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.
6 Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart,like a signet on your arm.For love is as strong as death,passion is as unrelenting as Sheol.Its flames burst forth,it is a blazing flame.
7 Surging waters cannot quench love;floodwaters cannot overflow it.If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love,the offer would be utterly despised.
8 We have a little sister,and as yet she has no breasts.What shall we do for our sisteron the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,we will build on her a battlement of silver;but if she is a door,we will barricade her with boards of cedar.
10 I was a wall,and my breasts were like fortress towers.Then I found favor in his eyes.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon;he leased out the vineyard to those who maintained it.Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.
12 My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone.The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon,and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.
13 O you who stay in the gardens,my companions are listening attentively for your voice;let me be the one to hear it!
14 Make haste, my beloved!Be like a gazelle or a young stagon the mountains of spices.