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¹⁰ I am my beloved’s,
   and his desire is for me.
¹¹ Come, my beloved,
   let us go forth into the fields,
   and lodge in the villages;
¹² let us go out early to the vineyards,
   and see whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape blossoms have opened
   and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
¹³ The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
   and over our doors are all choice fruits,
new as well as old,
   which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

8O that you were like a brother to me,
   who nursed at my mother’s breast!
If I met you outside, I would kiss you,
   and no one would despise me.
² I would lead you and bring you
   into the house of my mother,
   and into the chamber of the one who bore me.^*
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
   the juice of my pomegranates.
³ O that his left hand were under my head,
   and that his right hand embraced me!
⁴ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
   do not stir up or awaken love
   until it is ready!

Homecoming

⁵ Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
   leaning upon her beloved?

Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labour with you;
   there she who bore you was in labour.

⁶ Set me as a seal upon your heart,
   as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
   passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
   a raging flame.
⁷ Many waters cannot quench love,
   neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
   all the wealth of one’s house,
   it would be utterly scorned.