Song of Songs
Chapter 1
The Sublime Song, from Solomon
I. The Wife
Shower me with kisses of your mouth: your love is more delicious than wine.
Your oil smells sweeter than any perfume, your name spreads out like balm; no wonder the maidens long for you.
Lure me to you, let us fly!Bring me, O king, into your room,and be our joy, our excitement.We will praise your caresses more than wine,how rightly are you loved.
II. An Innocent Girl
I am sunburned yet lovely,O daughters of Jerusalem, dark as the tents of Qedar,as the tent curtains of Solomon.
Stare not at my dark complexion;it is the sun that has darkened me.My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me work in the vineyards; for I had failed to tend my own.
III. The Inaccessible Shepherd
Tell me, my soul’s beloved, where do you graze your flock, where do you rest your sheep at noon? Why must I be wandering beside the flocks of your companions?
Chorus 8If you do not know yourself, most beautiful woman, follow the tracks of the flock and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.
IV. Feminine Charms
To a mare in Pharaoh’s chariot would I liken you, my love.
Your cheeks look lovely between pendants, your neck beautiful with strings of beads.
We will make you earrings of gold and necklaces of silver.
V. A Night of Love
While the king rests on his couch, my perfume gives forth its fragrance.
My lover is for me a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts.
My lover is for me a cluster of henna from the vineyards of Engedi.
VI. Dialogue in the Forest
How beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves!
How handsome you are, my love, how handsome! Our bed is evergreen!
The beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are fir.
Commentaries
About Song of Songs
The expression “Song of Songs” is a relative superlative. It can be translated in other ways: “The most beautiful, most sublime, unrivaled song…” It is attributed to Solomon, although Solomon is not the author of the book. The Song is a collection of poems, which may have circulated independently but, when compiled into a book, gained a sense of unity and developed a certain energy or plot, guided by the editor. In the translation and commentary, I omit the voices (he – she – chorus, which are usual in the book) and focus on the possible isolated stanzas after conducting a structural analysis.
The Wife
The first song is an epigram that passionately celebrates physical love: from kisses on the mouth to the taste of “intoxicating loves”: the loving embrace. The interlocutor is the king. The woman is assumed to be the queen. The place to enjoy the drink of love is inside the palace, the royal bedchamber. The language is delicate and allusive, lacking the realism and coarseness found in other biblical passages (cf. Ezk 16; 26; 20; 23, for example). This epigram also serves as a good introduction to the book: introducing the woman (in this case, the wife) and the man (the “king”; the woman would be the queen), plants and aromas, flavors and the sense of taste, movement and haste, maidens and falling in love… All these themes will be explored throughout the Song.
An Innocent Girl.
In this second epigram, a girl is depicted who is not a perfect example of beauty. She recognizes her own charms: she is “fascinating.” She shares her occupation: she is a vineyard keeper. She admits her weakness: she failed to guard her own vineyard. We understand that her brothers were angry with her (or, according to a specific textual tradition, “they promised her as a wife”) because the girl did not know how to protect her own vineyard. The author plays with the double meaning of “vineyard”: the literal and the symbolic. The vineyard is an image of Israel (cf. Jer 2:10; Ps 80:13ff, etc.), and also hints at the feminine gender. In other words, the girl has already had sexual relations, though we don’t know with whom. The man in the Song is a necessary listener, but the main focus is the woman. The woman who now appears is no longer the queen of the first epigram but can be understood as the lover.
The Inaccessible Shepherd.
The third epigram is built around a question and an answer. The characters are now a shepherdess and a shepherd. The woman speaking in this epigram does not want to stay a prostitute, not a “wandering” woman, as it is usually translated. We do not know who responds, it may be the same person who asked, ‘Why fall in love with only one when the girl’s beauty charms so many other shepherds?’ Whoever the responder is, the woman (now a shepherdess) must give up the unreachable shepherd and follow the footsteps of the other shepherds. She is condemned to keep practicing her trade.
Feminine Charms.
For the first time, we hear the man’s voice. This fourth epigram can, in fact, be attributed to the first woman who appears in the Song: the wife (queen), although she is not named, nor is the king mentioned.
A Night of Love.
The wife (queen) evokes a night of love with the king. The perfumes penetrate the senses: nard, myrrh, henna. Nard appears only in the Song (Prov 7 lists seven perfumes but omits nard). This perfume will enter the New Testament through a key scene: the unknown woman who anoints Jesus with nard (Mk 14:3-5). This woman will be remembered wherever the Good News is preached (Mk 14:9). The perfumes in this scene from the Song symbolize the pleasure enjoyed by the king and queen during their union.
Dialogue in the Forest.
From inside the palace, we move to the countryside: the young man encounters his beloved in an open field. Nature becomes the temple of love for the young woman in love, who, as she confesses, lives her life in the countryside. Once again, the woman takes the initiative and makes the first move.