No book needs this lens more, because no book gives less help. The Song of Songs is a dialogue, but the Hebrew prints no names — not one. Every "she said" and "he said" you have ever read in it was supplied by an editor casting the parts by ear, and they do not always agree. This edition makes that casting visible: the Bride (much the largest voice), the Lover, the Daughters of Jerusalem who answer and question like a chorus, and — once, near the end — the Bride's brothers, the same "mother's sons" who set her to keep the vineyards. The contested flags fall where the assignment has been argued for centuries; and the old "shepherd hypothesis" — that the king who keeps appearing is not the lover at all but a rival the girl resists — hangs over every line that names Solomon.
I · Longing
The one line of framing, then straight into the woman's voice — desire, the chorus answering, and her own self-defense to the watching daughters.
“The Song of songs, which is Solomon's.” The only line spoken from outside the love-dialogue.
“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth… The king has brought me into his rooms.” The Daughters' refrain — “We will be glad and rejoice in you” — closes the verse.
“I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem… Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock.”
“If you don't know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep, and graze your young goats beside the shepherds' tents.”
II · The first exchange of praise
Now both voices, trading compliments — and the first real casting puzzle, the “rose of Sharon.”
“I have compared you, my love, to a steed in Pharaoh's chariots… we will make you earrings of gold” — the closing plural may draw the maidens in.
“My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts… a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.”
“Behold, you are beautiful, my love… Your eyes are doves.”
“Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant… I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.”
“As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”
“As the apple tree among the trees of the wood… His banner over me is love.” She closes with the refrain to the Daughters: “Don't stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.”
III · The spring invitation
The Bride hears him coming and, for a whole passage, lets us hear him — his words inside her telling.
“The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains… he stands behind our wall, looking in at the windows.”
His words, reported by the Bride: “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. For, behold, the winter is past… Arise, my love, and come away.”
“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards… My beloved is mine, and I am his.”
IV · The night search & the procession
A dream of seeking him through the city — then a crowd's eye on a royal cortège coming up from the desert.
“By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves… I held him, and would not let him go.” Again the refrain to the Daughters.
“Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke…? Behold, it is Solomon's carriage… Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see king Solomon.”
V · The Lover's praise (the wasf)
His long head-to-foot praise of her — the form Arabic poetry would later call a wasf.
“Behold, you are beautiful, my love… your teeth are like a newly shorn flock… You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.”
“Come with me from Lebanon, my bride… A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain… a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters.”
VI · The garden, and the second night
Consummation in the garden's imagery — then a second, harsher dream of loss.
“Awake, north wind, and come, you south!… Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.”
“I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride… Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.”
“I was asleep, but my heart was awake… I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had gone. The watchmen found me; they beat me.” The refrain becomes a plea: tell him I am faint with love.
VII · Her praise of him, and the reunion
The chorus's question draws out the Song's one head-to-foot praise of the man — spoken by the woman.
“How is your beloved better than another beloved, you fairest among women?”
The book's only praise of the man's body, in her mouth: “My beloved is white and ruddy, the best among ten thousand… altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend.”
“Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women? … that we may seek him with you.”
“My beloved has gone down to his garden… I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.”
VIII · The Shulammite, and the dance
His praise again — and the only verse that gives the woman a name, the Shulammite, called back so the company can watch her dance.
“You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners… My dove, my perfect one, is unique.”
“I went down into the nut tree grove… Without realizing it, my desire set me with my royal people's chariots.”
“Return, return, Shulammite! Return, return, that we may gaze at you.” — the one place she is named. (The WEB hands the answering “Why do you desire to gaze…?” to the Lover within the same verse.)
“How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince's daughter!… your stature is like a palm tree… your mouth like the best wine.”
IX · The seal upon the heart
The Bride's longest sustained turn: invitation, a wish to love him openly, and the Song's great oath on love itself.
“I am my beloved's. His desire is toward me. Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field… there I will give you my love.”
“Oh that you were like my brother… I would lead you, bringing you into my mother's house.” The refrain a third and final time: do not awaken love until it desires.
“Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?” — then the Bride takes the verse: “Under the apple tree I aroused you…”
“Set me as a seal on your heart… for love is strong as death… Many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it.”
X · The brothers, the vineyard, the close
A new voice breaks in — the brothers, deciding their little sister's future — and the Bride answers them, claims her own vineyard, and gives the Song its last word.
“We have a little sister, and she has no breasts… If she is a wall, we will build on her a turret of silver; if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.”
Her retort to them: “I am a wall, and my breasts like towers; then I was in his eyes like one who found peace.”
“Solomon had a vineyard… My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon” — she keeps her own vineyard, whatever Solomon keeps his.
“You who dwell in the gardens… let me hear your voice!”
“Come away, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!” — the Song closes, as it opened, in her voice.
Scripture: World English Bible · Public Domain · Wroot Press