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from Songs of Solomon

 

Also called The Canticles, the Songs of Solomon is a controversial book of The Bible, with its authorship called in question and its content a subject of debate. Notwithstanding arguments, scholars ascribe this work to the guy who had 700 wives and 300 concubines. 

Often described sensual and erotic, the book is supposed to be an allegorical poem describing a man's relationship with his god. 

Chapter 4
1: Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead.
2: Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them is bereaved.
3: Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.
4: Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an arsenal, whereon hang a thousand bucklers, all of them shields of warriors.
5: Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.
6: Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will hie me to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.
7: You are all fair, my love; there is no flaw in you.
8: Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the peak of Ama'na, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.
9: You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.
10: How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride! how much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
11: Your lips distil nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.
12: A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed.
13: Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,
14: nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices --
15: a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon.
16: Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its fragrance be wafted abroad. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.

Chapter 5
1: I come to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gather my myrrh with my spice, I eat my honeycomb with my honey, I drink my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink: drink deeply, O lovers!
2: I slept, but my heart was awake. Hark! my beloved is knocking. "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night."
3: I had put off my garment, how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet, how could I soil them?
4: My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me.
5: I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt.
6: I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.
7: The watchmen found me, as they went about in the city; they beat me, they wounded me, they took away my mantle, those watchmen of the walls.
8: I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am sick with love.
9: What is your beloved more than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?
10: My beloved is all radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.
11: His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
12: His eyes are like doves beside springs of water, bathed in milk, fitly set.
13: His cheeks are like beds of spices, yielding fragrance. His lips are lilies, distilling liquid myrrh.
14: His arms are rounded gold, set with jewels. His body is ivory work, encrusted with sapphires.
15: His legs are alabaster columns, set upon bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.
16: His speech is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

 

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(These passages are taken from the Revised Standard Edition of The Bible. The illustration is from Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. )