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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 Beelamon; 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.