The Love and Longing of the Bride

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth- for your love is more delightful than wine. 

Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you!

Take me away with you-let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!

Dark am I, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.

Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother's sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have neglected.

Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?

If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds.

I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh.

Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.

We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.

While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.

My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.

My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.

How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.

The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.

The Love and Longing of the Bride

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