NOTES for Sol 5:1-16
1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. |
2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. |
3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? |
4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. |
5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. |
6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. |
7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. |
8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. |
9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us? |
10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. |
11 His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. |
12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. |
13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. |
14 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. |
15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. |
16 His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. |
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I slept, but my heart was awake. The mind may sleep, shutting itself off from reality with familiar notions and logical constructs, but the soul perceives many things more deeply; it understands what escapes consciousness. Even when we manage to persuade ourselves that we are doing everything as we should, an uncertainty about it still aches in the depths of the soul.
He knocks at the door, and it must be opened for him; but how great is our love if we find it difficult to leave everything and rush to him? The beloved turns and goes away—is it because the one who is dear to him took too long to respond? Yes, he loves constantly and is glad to meet at any moment, but when rejected he does not impose himself. Sometimes a choice must be made instantly, and we should not be ashamed of the state in which we are found. To be is more important than to appear; love is higher than its outward expressions. But now the bride, too, spares no colors in singing the praises of her beloved. The meeting that did not take place has given her an opportunity to appreciate him more fully.
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