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Song of Songs 5

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1 εἰσῆλθον εἰς κῆπόν μου ἀδελφή μου νύμφη ἐτρύγησα σμύρναν μου μετὰ ἀρωμάτων μου ἔφαγον ἄρτον μου μετὰ μέλιτός μου ἔπιον οἶνόν μου μετὰ γάλακτός μου φάγετε πλησίοι καὶ πίετε καὶ μεθύσθητε ἀδελφοί

1 Into his garden, then, let my true love come, and taste his fruit.[1] The garden gained, my bride, my heart’s love; myrrh and spices of mine all reaped; the honey eaten in its comb, the wine drunk and the milk, that were kept for me! Eat your fill, lovers; drink, sweethearts, and drink deep!

1

Veniat dilectus meus in hortum suum,
et comedat fructum pomorum suorum.
Sponsus. Veni in hortum meum, soror mea, sponsa;
messui myrrham meam cum aromatibus meis;
comedi favum cum melle meo;
bibi vinum meum cum lacte meo;
comedite, amici, et bibite,
et inebriamini, carissimi.

2 ἐγὼ καθεύδω καὶ ἡ καρδία μου ἀγρυπνεῖ φωνὴ ἀδελφιδοῦ μου κρούει ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν ἄνοιξόν μοι ἀδελφή μου ἡ πλησίον μου περιστερά μου τελεία μου ὅτι ἡ κεφαλή μου ἐπλήσθη δρόσου καὶ οἱ βόστρυχοί μου ψεκάδων νυκτός 3 ἐξεδυσάμην τὸν χιτῶνά μου πῶς ἐνδύσωμαι αὐτόν ἐνιψάμην τοὺς πόδας μου πῶς μολυνῶ αὐτούς 4 ἀδελφιδός μου ἀπέστειλεν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀπῆς καὶ ἡ κοιλία μου ἐθροήθη ἐ{P'} αὐτόν 5 ἀνέστην ἐγὼ ἀνοῖξαι τῷ ἀδελφιδῷ μου χεῖρές μου ἔσταξαν σμύρναν δάκτυλοί μου σμύρναν πλήρη ἐπὶ χεῖρας τοῦ κλείθρου 6 ἤνοιξα ἐγὼ τῷ ἀδελφιδῷ μου ἀδελφιδός μου παρῆλθεν ψυχή μου ἐξῆλθεν ἐν λόγῳ αὐτοῦ ἐζήτησα αὐτὸν καὶ οὐχ εὗρον αὐτόν ἐκάλεσα αὐτόν καὶ οὐχ ὑπήκουσέν μου 7 εὕροσάν με οἱ φύλακες οἱ κυκλοῦντες ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐπάταξάν με ἐτραυμάτισάν με ἦραν τὸ θέριστρόν μου ἀ{P'} ἐμοῦ φύλακες τῶν τειχέων 8 ὥρκισα ὑμᾶς θυγατέρες Ιερουσαλημ ἐν ταῖς δυνάμεσιν καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἰσχύσεσιν τοῦ ἀγροῦ ἐὰν εὕρητε τὸν ἀδελφιδόν μου τί ἀπαγγείλητε αὐτῷ ὅτι τετρωμένη ἀγάπης εἰμὶ ἐγώ

2 I lie asleep; but oh, my heart is wakeful! A knock on the door, and then my true love’s voice: Let me in, my true love, so gentle, my bride, so pure! See, how bedewed is this head of mine, how the night rains have drenched my hair! 3 Ah, but my shift, I have laid it by: how can I put it on again? My feet I washed but now; shall I soil them with the dust? 4 Then my true love thrust his hand through the lattice, and I trembled inwardly at his touch. 5 I rose up to let him in; but my hands dripped ever with myrrh; still with the choicest myrrh my fingers were slippery, 6 as I caught the latch. When I opened, my true love was gone; he had passed me by. How my heart had melted at the sound of his voice! And now I searched for him in vain; there was no answer when I called out to him. 7 As they went the city rounds, the watchmen fell in with me, that guard the walls; beat me, and left me wounded, and took away my cloak. 8 I charge you, maidens of Jerusalem, fall you in with the man I long for, give him this news of me, that I pine away with love.[2]

2
Sponsa. Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat.
Vox dilecti mei pulsantis:
Sponsus. Aperi mihi, soror mea, amica mea,
columba mea, immaculata mea,
quia caput meum plenum est rore,
et cincinni mei guttis noctium. 3
Sponsa. Expoliavi me tunica mea: quomodo induar illa?
lavi pedes meos: quomodo inquinabo illos? 4
Dilectus meus misit manum suam per foramen,
et venter meus intremuit ad tactum ejus. 5
Surrexi ut aperirem dilecto meo;
manus meæ stillaverunt myrrham,
et digiti mei pleni myrrha probatissima. 6
Pessulum ostii mei aperui dilecto meo,
at ille declinaverat, atque transierat.
Anima mea liquefacta est, ut locutus est;
quæsivi, et non inveni illum;
vocavi, et non respondit mihi. 7
Invenerunt me custodes qui circumeunt civitatem;
percusserunt me, et vulneraverunt me.
Tulerunt pallium meum mihi custodes murorum. 8
Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem,
si inveneritis dilectum meum,
ut nuntietis ei quia amore langueo.

9 τί ἀδελφιδός σου ἀπὸ ἀδελφιδοῦ ἡ καλὴ ἐν γυναιξίν τί ἀδελφιδός σου ἀπὸ ἀδελφιδοῦ ὅτι οὕτως ὥρκισας ἡμᾶς

9 Nay, but tell us, fairest of women, how shall we know this sweetheart of thine from another’s? Why is he loved beyond all else, that thou art so urgent with us?

9
Chorus. Qualis est dilectus tuus ex dilecto, o pulcherrima mulierum?
qualis est dilectus tuus ex dilecto, quia sic adjurasti nos?

10 ἀδελφιδός μου λευκὸς καὶ πυρρός ἐκλελοχισμένος ἀπὸ μυριάδων 11 κεφαλὴ αὐτοῦ χρυσίον καὶ φαζ βόστρυχοι αὐτοῦ ἐλάται μέλανες ὡς κόραξ 12 ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτοῦ ὡς περιστεραὶ ἐπὶ πληρώματα ὑδάτων λελουσμέναι ἐν γάλακτι καθήμεναι ἐπὶ πληρώματα ὑδάτων 13 σιαγόνες αὐτοῦ ὡς φιάλαι τοῦ ἀρώματος φύουσαι μυρεψικά χείλη αὐτοῦ κρίνα στάζοντα σμύρναν πλήρη 14 χεῖρες αὐτοῦ τορευταὶ χρυσαῖ πεπληρωμέναι θαρσις κοιλία αὐτοῦ πυξίον ἐλεφάντινον ἐπὶ λίθου σαπφείρου 15 κνῆμαι αὐτοῦ στῦλοι μαρμάρινοι τεθεμελιωμένοι ἐπὶ βάσεις χρυσᾶς εἶδος αὐτοῦ ὡς Λίβανος ἐκλεκτὸς ὡς κέδροι 16 φάρυγξ αὐτοῦ γλυκασμοὶ καὶ ὅλος ἐπιθυμία οὗτος ἀδελφιδός μου καὶ οὗτος πλησίον μου θυγατέρες Ιερουσαλημ

10 My sweetheart? Among ten thousand you shall know him; so white is the colour of his fashioning, and so red. 11 His head dazzles like the purest gold; the hair on it lies close as the high palm-branches, raven hair. 12 His eyes are gentle as doves by the brook-side, only these are bathed in milk, eyes full of repose.[3] 13 Cheeks trim as a spice-bed of the perfumer’s own tending; drench lilies in the finest myrrh, and you shall know the fragrance of his lips. 14 Hands well rounded; gold set with jacynth is not workmanship so delicate; body of ivory, and veins of sapphire blue; 15 legs straight as marble columns, that stand in sockets of gold. Erect his stature as Lebanon itself, noble as Lebanon cedar. 16 Oh, that sweet utterance! Nothing of him but awakes desire. Such is my true love, maidens of Jerusalem; such is the companion I have lost.

10
Sponsa. Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus;
electus ex millibus. 11
Caput ejus aurum optimum;
comæ ejus sicut elatæ palmarum, nigræ quasi corvus. 12
Oculi ejus sicut columbæ super rivulos aquarum,
quæ lacte sunt lotæ, et resident juxta fluenta plenissima. 13
Genæ illius sicut areolæ aromatum,
consitæ a pigmentariis.
Labia ejus lilia,
distillantia myrrham primam. 14
Manus illius tornatiles, aureæ,
plenæ hyacinthis.
Venter ejus eburneus,
distinctus sapphiris. 15
Crura illius columnæ marmoreæ
quæ fundatæ sunt super bases aureas.
Species ejus ut Libani,
electus ut cedri. 16
Guttur illius suavissimum,
et totus desiderabilis.
Talis est dilectus meus,
et ipse est amicus meus, filiæ Jerusalem.

17 ποῦ ἀπῆλθεν ὁ ἀδελφιδός σου ἡ καλὴ ἐν γυναιξίν ποῦ ἀπέβλεψεν ὁ ἀδελφιδός σου καὶ ζητήσομεν αὐτὸν μετὰ σοῦ

17 But where went he, fairest of women, this true love of thine? Tell us what haunts he loves, and we will come with thee to search for him.

17
Chorus. Quo abiit dilectus tuus, o pulcherrima mulierum?
quo declinavit dilectus tuus?
et quæremus eum tecum.

[1] vv. 1-7: The first of these verses may describe a reunion which presents itself to the imagination of the village girl as she falls asleep; the remainder are evidently a dream, which repeats, with variations, the dream of 3.1-3.

[2] vv. 8-17: These verses, with the first two of the following chapter, form a dialogue in which the village girl, now awake, satisfies the curiosity of her companions about her lover’s appearance, but puts them off with vague guesses as to his whereabouts.

[3] ‘Eyes full of repose’; we can only make guesses at the meaning of the Hebrew phrase, ‘reposing upon fullness’, which the Latin version renders ‘residing by the floods’.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd