1. [LOOKING FORWARD to the shepherd's arrival, the eager girl pictures their meeting and says] Oh, that you were like my brother, who nursed from the breasts of my mother! If I should find you without, I would kiss you, yes, and none would despise me [for it]. [Ps. 143:6.]
2. I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother, who would instruct me. I would cause you to drink spiced wine and of the juice of my pomegranates.
3. [Then musingly she added] Oh, that his left hand were under my head and that his right hand embraced me! [Exod. 19:4; Deut. 33:27.]
4. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you never [again attempt to] stir up or awaken love until it pleases.