Title of Poem or Text Song of the Songs
Title of Book or Collection Bible
Text Chapter 1, v. 1, 2
Osculetur me osculo oris sui quia meliora sunt ubera tua vino.
Fraglantia unguentis optimis oleum effusum nomen tuum ideo adulescentulae dilexerunt te.
Chapter 5, v. 5, 6, 8
Surrexi ut aperirem dilecto meo manus meae stillaverunt murra digiti mei pleni murra probatissima pessulum ostii.
Aperui dilecto meo at ille declinaverat atque transierat anima mea liquefacta est. Ut locutus est quaesivi et non inveni, illum vocavi et non respondit mihi Adiuro vos filiae Hierusalem si inveneritis dilectum meum ut nuntietis ei quia amore langueo Chapter 7, v. 11-13
Veni dilecte mi egrediamur in agrum commoremur in villis. Mane surgamus ad vineas videamus si floruit vinea si flores fructus parturiunt si floruerunt mala punica ibi dabo tibi ubera mea. Mandragorae dederunt odorem in portis nostris omnia poma nova et vetera dilecte mi servavi tibi.
Translation:
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the
virgins love thee.
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.
I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.
Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.
Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
Shîyr means “Song”. Shîr Hashirim means “Song of songs”.
These are the first words of the sacred text written by Solomon, in the Old Testament. It has been poetically and theologically interpreted throughout the centuries in many different ways. The most common ones are the Christian official interpretation that considers it as an allegory of the love between the Church (the wife) and God (the husband), or the Jewish interpretation as the love between Israel and God. But also there is a possible interpretation of this text as a real love song between husband and wife, containing simultaneously all the sacred and sensual implications that marriage and life together must have.
This piece does not attempt to induce any of these interpretations on the listener, but tries to leave an open space for the listener. It is the wish of the author that a religious person may hear in it the spirituality of the sacred relation, but at the same time an agnostic person may see in it the sensual and almost erotic implications of the text.
