1 I wish that you were my brother,
that my mother had nursed you at her breast.
Then, if I met you in the street,
I could kiss you and no one would mind.
2 I would take you to my mother's house,
where you could teach me love.
I would give you spiced wine,
my pomegranate wine to drink.
3 Your left hand is under my head,
and your right hand caresses me.
4 Promise me, women of Jerusalem,
that you will not interrupt our love.
The Sixth Song
The Women
5 Who is this coming from the desert,
arm in arm with her lover?
The Woman
Under the apple tree I woke you,
in the place where you were born.
6 Close your heart to every love but mine;
hold no one in your arms but me.
Love is as powerful as death;
passion is as strong as death itself.
It bursts into flame
and burns like a raging fire.
7 Water cannot put it out;
no flood can drown it.
But if any tried to buy love with their wealth,
contempt is all they would get.
The Woman's Brothers
8 We have a young sister,
and her breasts are still small.
What will we do for her
when a young man comes courting?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build her a silver tower.
But if she is a gate,
we will protect her with panels of cedar.
The Woman
10 I am a wall,
and my breasts are its towers.
My lover knows that with him
I find contentment and peace.
The Man
11 Solomon has a vineyard
in a place called Baal Hamon.
There are farmers who rent it from him;
each one pays a thousand silver coins.
12 Solomon is welcome to his thousand coins,
and the farmers to two hundred as their share;
I have a vineyard of my own!
13 Let me hear your voice from the garden, my love;
my companions are waiting to hear you speak.
The Woman
14 Come to me, my lover, like a gazelle,
like a young stag on the mountains where spices grow.
1 Oh that thou werest as my brother that sucked the brestes of my mother: I would finde thee without, I would kisse thee, then they should not despise thee. 2 I will leade thee and bring thee into my mothers house: there thou shalt teache me: and I will cause thee to drinke spiced wine, and newe wine of the pomegranate. 3 His left hand shalbe vnder mine head, and his right hand shall embrace me. 4 I charge you, O daughters of Ierusale, that you stir not vp, nor waken my loue, vntil she please. 5 (Who is this that commeth vp out of the wildernesse, leaning vpon her welbeloued?) I raysed thee vp vnder an apple tree: there thy mother conceiued thee: there she coceiued that bare thee. 6 Set mee as a seale on thine heart, and as a signet vpon thine arme: for loue is strong as death: ielousie is cruel as the graue: the coles thereof are fierie coles, and a vehement flame. 7 Much water can not quench loue, neither can the floods drowne it: If a man should giue all the substance of his house for loue, they would greatly contemne it. 8 Wee haue a litle sister, and she hath no breastes: what shall we do for our sister when she shalbe spoken for? 9 If shee be a wall, we will builde vpon her a siluer palace: and if she be a doore, we wil keepe her in with bordes of cedar. 10 I am a wall, and my breasts are as towres: then was I in his eyes as one that findeth peace. 11 Salomon had a vine in Baal-hamon: hee gaue the vineyarde vnto keepers: euery one bringeth for ye fruite thereof a thousand pieces of siluer. 12 But my vineyarde which is mine, is before me: to thee, O Salomon appertaineth a thousand pieces of siluer, and two hundreth to them that keepe the fruite thereof. 13 O thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken vnto thy voyce: cause me to heare it. 14 O my welbeloued, flee away, and be like vnto the roe, or to the yong harte vpon ye mountaines of spices.