Song of Songs
Chapter 3
X. First Nocturne
On my bed at night I looked for the one I love, I sought him without finding him; I called him, but he didn’t answer.
I will rise and go about the city, through the streets and the squares; I will seek the love of my heart…
I sought him without finding him; the watchmen came upon me, those who patrol the city. “Have you seen the love of my heart?”
As soon as I left them, I found the love of my heart. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house to the room of her who conceived me.
I beg you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and hinds of the field, not to arouse or stir up love before her time has come.
XI. Meeting of the Spouses
Who is this coming from the wilderness? There seems to be a pillar of smoke, with fumes of myrrh and frankincense.
Look, it is Solomon’s carriage! sixty warriors escort him, the strongest of Israel,
all girded with swords, all seasoned in battle; each is ready with a sword at his side, each prepared for the terrors of the night.
King Solomon has made for himself a carriage of wood from Lebanon,
its columns of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple cloth, its framework inlaid with ivory.
Come, daughters of Zion, see King Solomon wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day his heart rejoiced.
Commentaries
First Nocturne.
In relation to the previous idyll, this one transports us from the brightness and colors of spring to the darkness of night; we shift from the open countryside to the closed bedroom, where a woman dreams night after night. She spends her nights searching in her dreams: “I searched… I searched and could not find… I will search… I searched and could not find…” This verbal sequence creates an effect of intense psychological emotion. What she is searching for is “the love of my soul”: the one who loves me and whom I love. It is the eager search of a woman in love and fearless, who does not shy away from the dangers of the night, and a curious encounter. Patrolling the city like sentinels, she searches; they find her, but they know nothing of the one she asks about: the “love of my soul.” Once she sees him, he is stripped of his voice and his face. He is simply “the love of my soul.” He disappears when he is brought into her mother’s bedroom. He is gone. It was a dream. And the woman remains wounded by love, as we know from the refrain, which we find when this woman was injured at the banquet. A question similar to the one asked by the woman in this dream, along with a gesture identical to hers, appears in the Gospel scene of Mary Magdalene at the tomb of Jesus (Jn 20:11-18).
Meeting of the Spouses.
An anonymous voice announces the ascent of a female figure: that one or this one. From afar, only a cloud of dust is visible, but perfumes herald the woman’s arrival. Based on the context and the flow of the stanza, I understand that the ascending figure is the Shulamite. The procession is striking: the most distinguished warriors of Israel. Their mission is to protect not just the “queen” but the ‘woman’ from “night ambushes.” The bride is already present. Without any introduction, the groom also appears: Solomon. The poet is more interested in the palanquin carrying him—made of Lebanon wood, silver, gold, and adorned with purple—especially in the Love that “illuminates its interior.” The wife and husband are dressed for the wedding. Love (in Hebrew without an article) briefly appears: it is an ornament on Solomon’s palanquin; it lights up its interior, unnoticed by the spouses but only noticed by the poet.