There is no sign in poem your lovers tend to be hitched; which they meet covertly inside countryside overnight and part at daybreak indicates the contrary

The Shulammite phone calls by herself a€?black and beautifula€? (1:5a€“6). This is exactly it seems that a reference to the girl sunburned skin-according to this lady poetic term a€?the sunshine features gazed on mea€? (26). Working out-of-doors (she is a€?keeper of the vineyardsa€? in 1:6) is perhaps associated with less social standing; people who could afford not to function out-of-doors would have a good complexion. The Shulammite’s should make up her dark colored body may seem apologetic; conversely, it is likely that she is featuring, not apologizing.

The woman enthusiast knocks at this lady home during the night, ardent and impatient, but the Shulammite coyly pretends resistance; the moment he renders, she is full of regret and longing

In addition to her teens and charm, the Shulammite’s most impressive attribute try the lady assertiveness. The woman is expressed by her partner as ayummah (6:10); your message complicated conveys the heart of the Hebrew a lot better than the commonly made awful. Only she produces dramatic statements about herself (1:5; 8:10), and just she commands the current weather (4:16). She fades in to the roads of Jerusalem at night to look for this lady lover-bold and strange attitude for an unmarried lady (3:1a€“4; 5:6a€“7). Her invites to love (4:16; 7:11a€“13; 8:2) are far more blunt than their, and this woman is the one that it seems that takes the initiative within lovemaking: a€?we awakened youa€? (8:5).

The Shulammite speaks the first terms inside poem-a€?kiss mea€? (1:2)-and the very last (8:14); she delivers a lot of the traces, including the rousing speeches in regards to the energy of love (2:7; 8:6a€“7). Her sound and views are available directly to your reader, unmediated by a narrator. The woman repeated adjurations to the daughters of Jerusalem (2:7; 3:5; 8:4), full of awe at love’s energy, communicate the severity that she regards this relationship. When she requires their fan to be true to her permanently (8:6), she’s revealing a hope for a long-term bond in vocabulary which characteristically emphatic.

The enthusiast’s affectionate expression a€?my brother, my bridea€? (4:9a€“10, 12; 5:1, 2) is certainly not to be taken practically; both epithets present closeness and intimacy. (In Egyptian appreciate poetry, the devotee consider each other as a€?sistera€? and a€?brothera€? as a sign of nearness.) In 8: i, the Shulammite states she desires the lady lover was a€?like a brothera€?; after that she could hug your within the roadways with no you would scorn this lady.

The most intricate portrait from the Shulammite normally one particular dramatic scene in poem (5:2a€“8), communicating warmth, coquetry, self-reproach, and yearning in fast succession. Running right through the roadways of Jerusalem to look for your, this woman is apprehended and outdone because of the city watchmen-one with the few dark times in a poem filled with pleasure and party.

Bloch, Ariel, and Chana Bloch. The track of tracks: A unique Translation with an intro and Commentary. Nyc: 1995.

Weems, Renita. a€?Song of music.a€? In Women’s Bible discourse, modified by Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe, 156a€“160. Louisville, KY: 1992 and 1998.

Like her lover, the Shulammite was represented in graphics that suggest soreness (lilies, doves, gazelles), also power and stateliness (pillars, towers). The poet’s metaphors push back-and-forth involving the actual landscape, suffused with sexual interaction, in addition to landscaping of this looks: the Shulammite waits on her enthusiast in a yard, but she by herself is actually a yard. The lovers venture out to your vineyards to produce enjoy, but she by herself try a vineyard, her boobs like groups of red grapes, in addition to their kisses an intoxicating wine. If the enthusiasts tend to be when compared with pets, it really is in tribute to their charm and undomesticated independence. Like her fan, the Shulammite has actually dovelike vision and is associated with deer and gazelles. Maybe strange on the latest viewer will be the evaluation associated with the Shulammite in 1:9 to a iliar trope in Greek poetry), indicating the woman stylish gracefulness.