1 I would that thou, O my kinsman, wert he that sucked the breasts of my mother;

When I found thee without, I would kiss thee;

Yea, they should not despise me.

2 I would take thee, I would bring thee into my mother’s house,

And into the chamber of her that conceived me;

I would make thee to drink of spiced wine,

Of the juice of my pomegranates.

3 His left hand should be under my head,

And his right hand should embrace me.

4 I have charged you, ye daughters of Jerusalem,

By the virtues of the field,

That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

5 Who is this that comes up all white,

Leaning on her kinsman?

I raised thee up under an apple tree;

There thy mother brought thee forth;

There she that bore thee brought thee forth.

6 Set 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,

Her shafts are shafts of fire, even the flames thereof.

7 Much water will not be able to quench love,

And rivers shall not drown it;

If a man would give all his substance for love,

Men would utterly despise it.

8 Our sister is little, and has no breasts;

What shall we do for our sister,

In the day wherein she shall be spoken for?

9 If she is a wall, let us build upon her silver bulwarks;

And if she is a door, let us carve for her cedar panels.

10 I am a wall, and my breasts are as towers;

I was in their eyes as one that found peace.

11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon;

He let his vineyard to keepers;

Every one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

12 My vineyard, even mine, is before me;

Solomon shall have a thousand,

And they that keep its fruit two hundred.

13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens,

The companions hearken to thy voice:

Make me hear it.

14 Away, my kinsman, and be like a doe

Or a fawn on the mountains of spices.