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⁷How fair and how pleasant art thou,

O love, for delights!

⁸This thy stature is like to a palm-tree,

And thy breasts to clusters of grapes.

⁹I said: 'I will climb up into the palm-tree,

I will take hold of the branches thereof;

And let thy breasts be as clusters of the vine,

And the smell of thy countenance like apples;

¹⁰And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine,

That glideth down smoothly for my beloved,

Moving gently the lips of those that are asleep.'

 

¹¹I am my beloved's,

And his desire is toward me.:

¹²Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field;

Let us lodge in the villages.

¹³Let us get up early to the vineyards;

Let us see whether the vine hath budded,

Whether the vine-blossom be opened,

And the pomegranates be in flower;

There will I give thee my love.

¹⁴The mandrakes give forth fragrance,

And at our doors are all manner of precious fruits,

New and old,

Which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

 

8 Oh that thou wert as my brother,

That sucked the breasts of my mother!

When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee;

Yea, and none would despise me.

²I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house,

That thou mightest instruct me;

I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine,

Of the juice of my pomegranate.

³His left hand should be under my head,

And his right hand should embrace me.

⁴'I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem:

Why should ye awaken, or stir up love,

Until it please?'

 

⁵Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness,

Leaning upon her beloved?

Under the apple-tree I awakened thee;

There thy mother was in travail with thee;

There was she in travail and brought thee forth.

 

⁶Set me as a seal upon thy heart,

As a seal upon thine arm;

For love is strong as death,

Jealousy is cruel as the grave;

The flashes thereof are flashes of fire,

A very flame of the Lord.

⁷Many waters cannot quench love,

Neither can the floods drown it;

If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,

He would utterly be contemned.

 

⁸We have a little sister,

And she hath no breasts;

What shall we do for our sister

In the day when she shall be spoken for?

⁹If she be a wall,

We will build upon her a turret of silver;

And if she be a door,

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