T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Fairest Love
Song of Solomon VI. 17, 913(Arranged by Sir James George Frazer, 1895) WHITHER is thy beloved gone, | |
O thou fairest among women? | |
Whither is thy beloved turned aside? | |
That we may seek him with thee. | |
My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, | 5 |
To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. | |
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: | |
He feedeth among the lilies. | |
Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, | |
Comely as Jerusalem, | 10 |
Terrible as an army with banners. | |
Turn away thine eyes from me, | |
For they have overcome me; | |
Thy hair is as a flock of goats | |
That appear from Gilead. | 15 |
Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep | |
Which go up from the washing, | |
Whereof every one beareth twins, | |
And there is not one barren among them. | |
As a piece of a pomegranate are thy temples | 20 |
Within thy locks. | |
My love, my undefiled is but one; | |
She is the only one of her mother, | |
She is the choice one of her that bare her. | |
The daughters saw her, and blessed her; | 25 |
Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her. | |
Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, | |
Fair as the moon, | |
Clear as the sun, | |
And terrible as an army with banners? | 30 |
I went down into the garden of nuts, | |
To see the fruits of the valley, | |
And to see whether the vine flourished, | |
And the pomegranates budded. | |
Or ever I was aware, my soul made me | 35 |
Like the chariots of Ammi-nadib. | |
Return, return, O Shulamite; | |
Return, return, that we may look upon thee. | |
What will ye see in the Shulamite? | |
As it were the company of two armies. | 40 |