CHAPTER 7

                ¹Turn back, turn back, O Shulamite,

                    turn back, that we may behold you.

                —Why should you behold the Shulamite

                    in the dance of the double rows?

                ²—How fair your feet in sandals,

                    O daughter of a nobleman.

                The curves of your thighs like wrought rings,

                    the handiwork of a master.

                ³Your navel a crescent bowl,

                    let mixed wine never lack!

                Your belly a mound of wheat

                    hedged about with lilies.

                ⁴Your two breasts like two fawns,

                    twins of a gazelle.

                ⁵Your neck like an ivory tower,

                    your eyes like pools in Heshbon

                          by the gate of the town of grandees.

                Your nose like the tower of Lebanon

                    looking out toward Damascus.

                ⁶Your head upon you like Mount Carmel,

                    and the locks of your head are purple.

                          A king is caught in the tangle.

                ⁷How fair you are, how sweet,

                    O Love, among delights!

                ⁸Your stature was like a palm tree

                    and your breasts were like the clusters.

                ⁹I thought: I will climb the palm,

                    I will grasp its stalks,

                and let your breasts be like grape clusters,

                    and the scent of your breath like quince,

                ¹⁰and your mouth like goodly wine.

                    —It flows to my lover smoothly,

                          stirring sleepers’ lips to speak.

                ¹¹I am my lover’s

                    and for me his desire.

                ¹²Come my lover,

                    Let us go out to the field,

                          spend the night in the henna.

                                There will I give my love to you.

                ¹³Let us rise early in the vineyards.

                    We shall see if the vine is in flower,

                if the blossoms have opened,

                    if the pomegranate trees have budded.

                          There I will give my loving to you.

                ¹⁴The mandrakes give off fragrance

                    and at our door all luscious fruit,

                fresh picked and stored as well,

                    I have laid up for you, my love.