Admiration by the Bridegroom
1 “How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
O prince’s daughter!
The curves of your hips are like jewels,
The work of the hands of an artist.
2 “Your navel is a round goblet
Which never lacks mixed wine.
Your belly is like a heap of wheat
Surrounded with lilies.
3 “Your two breasts are like two fawns,
The twins of a gazelle.
4 “Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
Your eyes the [sparkling] pools of Heshbon
By the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
Which looks toward Damascus.
5 “Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel,
And the flowing hair of your head like purple threads;
I, the king, am held captive by yourtresses.
6 “How beautiful and how delightful you are,
My love, with all your delights!
7 “Your stature is like that of a palm tree
And your breastslike itsclusters [of dates].
8 “I said, ‘I will climb the palm tree;
I will grasp its branches.
Let your breasts be like clusters of the grapevine,
And the fragrance of your breath like apples,
9 ‘And your kisses like the best wine!’”
“It goesdownsmoothlyandsweetly for my beloved,
Gliding gently over his lips while he sleeps.
The Union of Love
10 “I am my beloved’s,
And his desire is for me.
11 “Come, my beloved, let us go out into the country,
Let us spend the night in the villages.
12 “Let us go out early to the vineyards;
Let us see whether the vine has budded
And itsblossoms have opened,
And whetherthe pomegranates have flowered.
There I will give you my love.
13 “The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
And over our doors are all [kinds of] choicefruits,
Both new and old,
Which I have saved up for you, my beloved.