Canticle of Canticles 8

1Who shall give thee to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find thee without, and kiss thee, and now no man may despise me?

Quis mihi det te fratrem meum, sugentem ubera matris meæ, ut inveniam te foris, et deosculer te, et jam me nemo despiciat?

2I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house: there thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates.

Apprehendam te, et ducam in domum matris meæ: ibi me docebis, et dabo tibi poculum ex vino condito, et mustum malorum granatorum meorum.

3His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

Læva ejus sub capite meo, et dextera illius amplexabitur me.

4I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love till she please.

Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem, ne suscitetis, neque evigilare faciatis dilectam, donec ipsa velit.

5Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted, there she was defloured that bore thee.

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.

6Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames.

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.

7Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.

Aquæ multæ non potuerunt extinguere caritatem, nec flumina obruent illam. Si dederit homo omnem substantiam domus suæ pro dilectione, quasi nihil despiciet eam.

8Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?

Soror nostra parva, et ubera non habet; quid faciemus sorori nostræ in die quando alloquenda est?

9If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she be a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.

Si murus est, ædificemus super eum propugnacula argentea; si ostium est, compingamus illud tabulis cedrinis.

10I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower since I am become in his presence as one finding peace.

Ego murus, et ubera mea sicut turris, ex quo facta sum coram eo, quasi pacem reperiens.

11The peaceable had a vineyard, in that which hath people: he let out the same to keepers, every man bringeth for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver.

Vinea fuit pacifico in ea quæ habet populos: tradidit eam custodibus; vir affert pro fructu ejus mille argenteos.

12My vineyard is before me. A thousand are for thee, the peaceable, and two hundred for them that keep the fruit thereof.

Vinea mea coram me est. Mille tui pacifici, et ducenti his qui custodiunt fructus ejus.

13Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice.

Quæ habitas in hortis, amici auscultant; fac me audire vocem tuam.

14Flee away, O my beloved, and be like to the roe, and to the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices.

Fuge, dilecte mi, et assimilare capreæ, hinnuloque cervorum super montes aromatum.