young lovers

²fragranced with the finest perfumes. Bride to Groom: Your name is oil that has been poured out; therefore, the maidens have loved you.

⁴Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated. ⁵Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil. ⁶Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth. ⁷Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.

¹⁰Lo, he stands beyond our wall, gazing through the windows, watching through the lattices. ¹¹Lo, my beloved speaks to me: ¹²Groom to Bride: Rise up, quickly, my love, my dove, my shapely one, and advance. ¹³For winter has now past; the rain has decreased and gone away.

⁶Groom to Bride: Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was corrupted. There she who bore you was violated. ⁷Set 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.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth: ¹⁹a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.

¹²Let no one despise your youth, but be an example among the faithful in word, in behavior, in charity, in faith, in chastity.

⁹You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse. You have wounded my heart with one look of your eyes, and with one lock of hair on your neck. ¹⁰How beautiful are your breasts, my sister, my spouse! Your breasts are more beautiful than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all aromatic oils.

¹Bride: On my bed, throughout the night, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, and did not find him. ²I will rise up, and I will circle through the city. Through the side streets and thoroughfares, I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, and did not find him. ³The watchers who guard the city found me: “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” ⁴When I had passed by them a little, I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not release him, until I would bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who bore me.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and handed himself over for her, ²⁶so that he might sanctify her, washing her clean by water and the Word of life, ²⁷so that he might offer her to himself as a glorious Church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she would be holy and immaculate. ²⁸So, too, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹For no man has ever hated his own flesh, but instead he nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ also does to the Church. ³⁰For we are a part of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.

¹⁶She answered, “Do not be against me, as if I would abandon you and go away; for wherever you will go, I will go, and where you will stay, I also will stay with you. Your people are my people, and your God is my God. ¹⁷Whichever land will receive you dying, in the same I will die, and there I will have the place of my burial. May God cause these things to happen to me, and add more also, if anything except death alone should separate you and I.”

²⁰Therefore, Jacob served for seven years for Rachel. And these seemed like only a few days, because of the greatness of love.

²²So then, flee from the desires of your youth, yet truly, pursue justice, faith, hope, charity, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.

¹⁸And Jacob, loving her, said, “I will serve you for seven years, for your younger daughter Rachel.” ¹⁹Laban responded, “It is better that I give her to you than to another man; remain with me.” ²⁰Therefore, Jacob served for seven years for Rachel. And these seemed like only a few days, because of the greatness of love.

¹⁸Three things are difficult for me, and about a fourth, I am nearly ignorant: ¹⁹the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the middle of the sea, and the way of a man in adolescence.

¹⁵Bride to Groom: Behold, you are handsome, O my beloved, and graceful. Our bed is flourishing. ¹⁶Groom to Bride: The timbers of our houses are of cedar; our ceilings are of cypress.

⁸But, before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves. For love covers a multitude of sins.

³Groom to Bride: My love, you are beautiful: sweet and graceful, like Jerusalem; terrible, like an army in battle array.

¹⁰Bride: Your throat is like the finest wine: wine worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and teeth to contemplate.

¹⁶My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollows of the wall, reveal to me your face. Let your voice sound in my ears. For your voice is sweet, and your face is graceful.