Canticum Canticorum 8
1 Quis mihi det te fratrem meum, sugentem ubera matris meæ, ut inveniam te foris, et deosculer te, et jam me nemo despiciat?
Oh that you were my brother, who took milk from my mother's breasts! When I came to you in the street, I would give you kisses; yes, I would not be looked down on.
2 Apprehendam te, et ducam in domum matris meæ: ibi me docebis, et dabo tibi poculum ex vino condito, et mustum malorum granatorum meorum.
I would take you by the hand into my mother's house, and she would be my teacher. I would give you drink of spiced wine, drink of the pomegranate.
3 Læva ejus sub capite meo, et dextera illius amplexabitur me.
His left hand would be under my head, and his right hand about me.
4 Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem, ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, donec ipsa velit.
I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not let love be moved till it is ready.
5 Quæ est ista quæ ascendit de deserto, deliciis affluens, innixa super dilectum suum? Sub arbore malo suscitavi te; ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genitrix tua.
Who is this, who comes up from the waste places, resting on her loved one? It was I who made you awake under the apple-tree, where your mother gave you birth; there she was in pain at your birth.
6 Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum, ut signaculum super brachium tuum, quia fortis est ut mors dilectio, dura sicut infernus æmulatio: lampades ejus lampades ignis atque flammarum. (Sheol h7585)
Put me as a sign on your heart, as a sign on your arm; love is strong as death, and wrath bitter as the underworld: its coals are coals of fire; violent are its flames. (Sheol h7585)
7 Aquæ multæ non potuerunt extinguere caritatem, nec flumina obruent illam. Si dederit homo omnem substantiam domus suæ pro dilectione, quasi nihil despiciet eam.
Much water may not put out love, or the deep waters overcome it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be judged a price not great enough.
8 Soror nostra parva, et ubera non habet; quid faciemus sorori nostræ in die quando alloquenda est?
We have a young sister, and she has no breasts; what are we to do for our sister in the day when she is given to a man?
9 Si murus est, ædificemus super eum propugnacula argentea; si ostium est, compingamus illud tabulis cedrinis.
If she is a wall, we will make on her a strong base of silver; and if she is a door, we will let her be shut up with cedar-wood.
10 Ego murus, et ubera mea sicut turris, ex quo facta sum coram eo, quasi pacem reperiens.
I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; then was I in his eyes as one to whom good chance had come.
11 Vinea fuit pacifico in ea quæ habet populos: tradidit eam custodibus; vir affert pro fructu ejus mille argenteos.
Solomon had a vine-garden at Baal-hamon; he let out the vine-garden to keepers; every one had to give a thousand bits of silver for its fruit.
12 Vinea mea coram me est. Mille tui pacifici, et ducenti his qui custodiunt fructus ejus.
My vine-garden, which is mine, is before me: you, O Solomon, will have the thousand, and those who keep the fruit of them two hundred.
13 Quæ habitas in hortis, amici auscultant; fac me audire vocem tuam.
You who have your resting-place in the gardens, the friends give ear to your voice; make me give ear to it.
14 Fuge, dilecte mi, et assimilare capreæ, hinnuloque cervorum super montes aromatum.
Come quickly, my loved one, and be like a roe on the mountains of spice.
