Chapter 7 - The maiden and the youth

TO THE MAIDEN


1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are [like] jewels, the work (of the hands) of a cunning workman.


2 Thy navel is [like] a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is [like] an heap of wheat set about with lilies.


3 Thy two breasts are [like] two young roes that are twins.


4 Thy neck is [as] a tower of ivory; thine eyes [like] the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is [as] the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.


5 Thine head upon thee is [like] Carmel, and the hair (of thine head) like purple; the king is held in the galleries.


6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!


THE YOUTH TO THE MAIDEN


7 This thy stature is [like] to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.


8 I said, 

I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be [as] clusters of the vine, and the smell (of thy nose) like apples;

9 And the roof of thy mouth [like] the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.


THE MAIDEN


10 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.


11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.


12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.


13 The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.



Chapter 8