Shir Hashirim

I – Kiss me, O my Love

 

Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth

for your love is better than wine.

 

Your balms have a delicate fragrance;

Your name is like the finest oil.

Therefore all the maidens love you.

 

Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields

And lie among the henna

 Let us go early into the vineyards;

To see if the vines have budded,

If the wine blossoms are open and

The pomegranates are in flower

 

 

There I will give you my love;

The mandrakes will give up their scent,

And at our doors, rare fruit.

 

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II – Dodi Li

 

My beloved is mine, and I am his, who feeds his flock among the lilies.

 

Before the day breathes,

Before the shadows flee,

Run away, my love, like a gazelle

Or a wild stag upon the jagged mountains.

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III – On my bed at night

 

On my bed at night

I longed for my one true love;

I sought him, but I found him not.

 

'I must arise and go about the city,

Through the narrow streets and squares

I must seek my one true love;

I sought him but found him not.

 

Then the watchmen found me

As they went about the city:

“Have you seen him, my one true love?”

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Scarcely had I passed them

When I found my one true love;

I held him and wouldn’t let him go

Until I brought him to my mother’s house,

To the room of her who conceived me.

 

Swear to me, Daughters of Jerusalem:

By the gazelles, by the deer of the field,

That you will not wake or arouse love

Until it is pleasing.

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IV – Kol Dodi

 

The voice of my love; here he comes,

Leaping over the mountains,

Bounding over the hills.

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My love is like a gazelle

or a wild stag;

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There he stands

On the other side of our wall

Gazing through the window

 

My love beckons and speaks to me

“Arise, my beloved and come away.

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For now the winter has past,

The rains are over and gone.”

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V- Bind me as a seal

 

Bind me as a seal upon your heart

A sign upon your arm

For love is strong as death

Its jealousy as bitter as the grave,

Its sparks a raging fire

A devouring flame.

 

Great seas cannot extinguish Love

No river can sweep it away

Those who think that wealth

can buy them love

they only play the fool

and will meet with scorn

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VI – Until the king returns

 

Until the king returns to his couch

I give off sweet fragrance

A cluster of Myrrh, between my breasts he will lie:

a sheaf a blossoms

my beloved is to me

in the vineyard of Ein Gedi.

 

 

Oh for your kiss and your love,

Since your love is better that wine.

 

 

Strengthen me with dainties;

Comfort me with apples

For I am sick with love.

 

 

 

For your scent and sweet name-

For all this the maidens love but you.