Song of Solomon

¹ so beautiful, and your dove eyes are veiled By your hair as it flows and shimmers, like a flock of goats in the distance streaming down a hillside in the sunshine.

² expressive and strong and clean.

³ your mouth elegant and inviting, your veiled cheeks soft and radiant.

⁴ command notice—all heads turn in awe and admiration!

⁵ twins of a gazelle, grazing among the first spring flowers.

⁶ the soft, spiced contours of your flesh Invite me, and I come. I stay until dawn breathes its light and night slips away.

⁷ beautiful beyond compare, absolutely flawless.

⁸ Leave Lebanon behind, and come. Leave your high mountain hideaway. Abandon your wilderness seclusion, Where you keep company with lions and panthers guard your safety.

⁹ You looked at me, and I fell in love. One look my way and I was hopelessly in love!

¹⁰ far more pleasing than a fine, rare wine, your fragrance more exotic than select spices.

¹¹ every syllable you speak a delicacy to savor. Your clothes smell like the wild outdoors, the ozone scent of high mountains.

¹² a private and pure fountain.

¹³ a whole orchard of succulent fruits— Ripe apricots and peaches, oranges and pears; Nut trees and cinnamon, and all scented woods;

¹⁴ and all herbs aromatic;

¹⁵ fed by spring waters from the Lebanon mountains.

¹⁶ get moving, South Wind! Breathe on my garden, fill the air with spice fragrance. Oh, let my lover enter his garden! Yes, let him eat the fine, ripe fruits.