Canticle of Canticles 8

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Ah, why are you not my brother, nursed at my mother's breast! Then if I met you out of doors, I couldkiss you without people thinking il of me.	1 Bride to Groom: "Who will give you to me as my brother, feeding from the breasts of my mother, so that I may discover you outside, and may kiss you, and so that now no one may despise me?"
2 I should lead you, I should take you into my mother's house, and you would teach me! I should give youspiced wine to drink, juice of my pomegranates.	2 "I will take hold of you and lead you into my mother’s house. There you will teach me, and I will give you a cup of spiced wine, and of new wine from my pomegranates."
3 His left arm is under my head and his right embraces me.	3 "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me."
4 LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved, before shepleases!	4 Groom to Chorus: "I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills."
5 Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? I awakened you under the apple tree, whereyour mother conceived you, where she who bore you conceived you.	5 Chorus to Groom: "Who is she, who ascends from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?"
6 BELOVED: Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as Death,passion as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh himself.	6 Groom to Bride: "Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was corrupted. There she who bore you was violated."
7 Love no flood can quench, no torrents drown. Were a man to offer all his family wealth to buy love,contempt is al that he would gain.	7 "Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong, like death, and envy is enduring, like hell: their lamps are made of fire and flames."
8 Our sister is little: her breasts are not yet formed. What shal we do for our sister on the day she isspoken for?	8 "A multitude of waters cannot extinguish love, nor can a river overwhelm it. If a man were to give all the substance of his house in exchange for love, he would despise it as nothing."
9 If she is a rampart, on the crest we shal build a battlement of silver; if she is a door, we shal board herup with planks of cedar.	9 Chorus: "Our sister is little and has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is called upon?"
10 I am a wal , and my breasts represent its towers. And under their eyes I have found true peace.	10 "If she is a wall, let us build a rampart of silver upon it. If she is a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar."
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon. He entrusted it to overseers, and each one was to pay himthe value of its produce, a thousand shekels of silver.	11 Bride to Chorus: "I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers, since, in his presence, I have become like one who has discovered peace."
12 But I tend my own vineyard myself. You, Solomon, may have your thousand shekels, and those whooversee its produce their two hundred.	12 "The peaceful one had a vineyard, in that which held the peoples. He handed it on to the caretakers; a man brought, in exchange for its fruit, a thousand pieces of silver."
13 You who dwel in the gardens, my companions listen for your voice; let me hear it.	13 Groom: "My vineyard is before me. The thousand is for your peacefulness, and two hundred is for those who care for its fruit."
14 Haste away, my love, be like a gazel e, a young stag, on the spice-laden mountains.	14 "Flee away, my beloved, and become like the doe and the young stag upon the mountains of aromatic plants."