1The Sublime Song: it has come from Solomon
She
2Shower me with kisses of your mouth:
your love is more delicious than wine. 3Your oil smells sweeter than any perfume,
your name spreads out like balm;
no wonder the maidens long for you. 4Lure me to you, let us fly!
Bring me, O king, into your room,
and be our joy, our excitement.
We will praise your caresses more than wine,
how rightly are you loved. 5 ① I am sunburned yet lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
dark as the tents of Kedar,
as the tent curtains of Solomon. 6Stare not at my dark complexion;
it is the sun that has darkened me My mother’s sons were angry with me
and made me work in the vineyards;
for I had failed to tend my own. 7Tell me, my soul’s beloved,
where do you graze your flock,
where do you rest your sheep at noon?
Why must I be wandering
beside the flocks of your companions? Chorus
Chorus
8If you do not know yourself,
most beautiful woman,
follow the tracks of the flock
and pasture your young goats
beside the shepherds’ tents. He
He
9To a mare in Pharaoh’s chariot
would I liken you, my love. 10Your cheeks look lovely between pendants,
your neck beautiful with strings of beads. 11We will make you earrings of gold
and necklaces of silver.
She and he
12While the king rests on his couch,
my perfume gives forth its fragrance. 13My lover is for me a sachet of myrrh
lying between my breasts. 14My lover is for me a cluster of henna
from the vineyards of Engedi. 15How beautiful you are, my love,
how beautiful! Your eyes are doves! 16How handsome you are, my love,
how handsome! Our bed is ever green! 17The beams of our house are cedar,
our rafters are fir.
- Song 1,5 I am sunburned yet lovely. The beloved represents the Jewish community, poor and fervent, returning home after the exile, when Israel had lost its reputation and its independence. She is the one who admits: I failed to tend my vineyard, namely, my land, Palestine. And the King, the Lover, is the Lord. This first love poem is the dream of the beloved in which she already enjoys the day of her return to the king and tells herself the longed-for dialogue that they will have on that day. The choir shows her the place, which she already knows, where she will find the lover: The Shepherds' Tent, an expression designating Mount Zion, the Holy City, where the descendants of David-the King-Shepherd-ruled. At the end of this poem (2:7) we will find the Lord's answer to those asking: When would this dream be fulfilled? Don't arouse or stir up love before her time has come. God is looking toward a true love experience, all the delays for his coming are due to the fact that our heart is not yet really ready. I am sunburned yet lovely. She was chosen and looked upon in spite of her tanned face-and perhaps precisely because she had been marked by suffering, errors and deception. She gained in no longer counting for anything in her own eyes and this humility had more value before God than many good works. She was already burnt perhaps by the regard of the one who wanted her for himself.
