Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 198
186
IMMERSE
•
POETS
before they ruin the vineyard of love,
for the grapevines are blossoming!
My lover is mine, and I am his.
He browses among the lilies.
Before the dawn breezes blow
and the night shadows flee,
return to me, my love, like a gazelle
or a young stag on the rugged mountains.
One night as I lay in bed, I yearned for my lover.
I yearned for him, but he did not come.
So I said to myself, “I will get up and roam the city,
searching in all its streets and squares.
I will search for the one I love.”
So I searched everywhere but did not find him.
The watchmen stopped me as they made their rounds,
and I asked, “Have you seen the one I love?”
Then scarcely had I left them
when I found my love!
I caught and held him tightly,
then I brought him to my mother’s house,
into my mother’s bed, where I had been conceived.
Promise me, O women of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles and wild deer,
not to awaken love until the time is right.
Who is this sweeping in from the wilderness
like a cloud of smoke?
Who is it, fragrant with myrrh and frankincense
and every kind of spice?
Look, it is Solomon’s carriage,
surrounded by sixty heroic men,
the best of Israel’s soldiers.
They are all skilled swordsmen,
experienced warriors.
Each wears a sword on his thigh,
ready to defend the king against an attack in the night.
2:16–3:8
