Chapter II: 8–iii. 5

Here we have a second scene, which is also in the royal tent. The speakers are the Shulamite and the court ladies. The Shulamite, to account for the cause of the severity of her brothers, mentioned in ii. 6, relates that her beloved shepherd came one charming morning in the spring to invite her to the fields (8–14); that her brothers, in order to prevent her from going, gave her employment in the gardens (15); that she consoled herself with the assurance that her beloved, though separated from her at that time, would come again in the evening (16, 17); that seeing he did not come, she, under difficult circumstances, ventured to seek him, and found him (ch. iii. 1–4). Having narrated these events, and reiterated her ardent affection for her beloved, she concludes as before, by adjuring the court ladies not to persuade her to change her love.

THE SHULAMITE.

Hark! my beloved!
Lo, he came
Leaping over the mountains,
Bounding over the hills.
My beloved was like a gazelle,
Or the young one of a hind.
Lo! there he stood behind our wall,
He looked through the window,
He glanced through the lattice.
My beloved spake, he spake to me,
“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come!
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over, is gone.
The flowers appear upon the fields,
The time of singing is come,
The cooing of the turtle-dove is heard in our land.
The fig-tree sweetens her green figs,
The vines blossom,
They diffuse fragrance;
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come!
My dove in the clefts of the rock,
In the hiding-place of the cliff,
Let me see thy countenance,
Let me hear thy voice,
For sweet is thy voice,
And thy countenance lovely.”

THE BROTHERS OF THE SHULAMITE.

Catch us the foxes, the little foxes
Which destroy the vineyards,
For our vineyards are in bloom.

THE SHULAMITE.

My beloved is mine, and I am his,
His who feeds his flock among the lilies.
When the day cools,
And the shadows flee away,
Return, haste, O my beloved,
Like the gazelle or the young one of the hind,
Over the mountains of separation.
Chap. III. When on my nightly couch,
I still sought him whom my soul loveth;
I sought him, but found him not.
I must arise now and go about the city,
In the streets and in the squares;
I must seek him whom my soul loveth:
I sought him, but found him not.
The watchmen who patrol the city found me:
“Have you seen him whom my soul loveth?”
Scarcely had I passed them,
When I found him whom my soul loveth;
I seized him and would not let him go
Till I brought him to the house of my mother,
Into the apartment of her who gave me birth.
I adjure you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or the hinds of the field,
Neither to excite nor to incite my affection
Till it wishes another love.