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Come, my beloved,
let us go out into the fields
and lie all night among the flowering henna.
Let us go early to the vineyards
to see if the vine has budded,
if the blossoms have opened
and the pomegranate is in flower
There I will give you my love.
The air is filled with the scent of mandrakes
and at our doors
rare fruit of every kind, my love,
I have stored away for you."
Song of
Songs 7:12 - 14 ( 1 )
( Keywords: erotic poetry,
wedding music
)
The Song of Songs was composed in a
time when women were defined by law as the
property of men; marriages were arranged for the
sake of social advancement and material gain;
and daughters were passed from father to
husband as soon as they were able to bear
children. In the same era, veneration of the
Hebrew goddess—as the feminine aspect of
God—was forcibly suppressed.
Because of the Song's skillful blending of
love and politics, and its unique status as the
only erotic poem in holy scripture, the youthful
voice of an ancient poetess continues to speak
out against the oppression and exploitation of
women, while at the same time celebrating the
true friendship and equal partnership of a young
woman and her lover.
Two lovers meet in the countryside under the cover of darkness and part at
dawn. He calls her his sister and his bride, but there is only one wedding in the Song of
Songs: that of King Solomon... and the young Romeo of the poem is not Solomon.
Although the Song is, for the most part, a joyful celebration of love and sensual
pleasure, it is a composition of both light and shadow... and in its shadows there is an
understated conflict between the girl and her brothers ( or half-brothers, since it was
common for men to take several wives. ) We can see this drama more clearly if we
gather their interactions into a separate narrative. The first hint of their conflict is found in
verse 1: 6 :
My brothers were angry with me
they made me guard the vineyards.
I have not guarded my own. ( 1 )
Instead of keeping an eye on the vineyards, as she's been told, the young Juliet of
the Song meets with her Romeo in secret to savor the intoxicating wine of erotic
pleasure in the vineyard of her body. Speaking of her lover metaphorically as a
"branching apricot tree" she confides to her friends: "In that shade I have often lingered,
tasting the fruit," thus revealing the frequency and unbridled passion of their erotic
encounters. One of these trysts is interrupted—there is a moment of danger and they are
almost discovered when her brothers enter the vineyard hunting for foxes. Later on, she
has a troubled dream in which she is beaten and bruised by the "watchmen of the
walls"—the guardians of the city. Are they her brothers in thin disguise? This question is
answered indirectly in a passage where her brothers wonder what they are going to do
when their sister is completely beseiged by suitors: "We have a little sister and she has
no breasts," they say; and they make it clear that they will "bolt her with beams of
cedarwood" if she should open her door to the throng of suitors. Taking up her brother's
metaphor—in which she is seen as a city under seige—she tells them: "I am a wall and
my breasts are towers. But for my lover I am a city of peace." Then, in the final verse, we
find her urging her love to hurry away because of the danger of being discovered and
caught.
Hurry my love ! run away
my gazelle, my wild stag
on the hills of cinnamon. ( 1 )
Stated in the simplest terms, the underlying story of the Song of Songs is this:
Two lovers plead for permission to marry. The evidence of their maturity and readiness for
marriage is presented throughout the poem as they demonstrate their affection for each
other and their wisdom regarding the nature and value of true love. But their plea seems
to fall on deaf ears. Her father would be the one to decide the issue, but her father is
probably no longer alive since he plays no active role in the story—hence her struggle is
with her brothers. But her brothers never give their consent, and in the end her lover
hurries away to avoid discovery and capture. However, because of the pattern of meeting
and parting that is established throughout the poem, we are left with the impression that
they will continue to meet and make love in secret, in defiance of her brother's authority.
What, we might ask, is this story—celebrating two passionate adolescents who
meet and make love illicitly—doing in the midst of the holy scriptures ? One would
expect such a chronicle of misbehavior to be attended by strong words of disapproval
and stern warnings, with references to the severe penalties associated with sexual
misconduct in a time when females were considered the property of males, and often
transfered from father to husband as soon as they were ready to bear children.
( Keywords: erotic poetry,
wedding music
)
Indeed there is a warning in the poem, but its tone is gentle and plaintive, and it is
articulated by the girl herself for the benefit of her own sisters, the "daughters of
Jerusalem."
Daughters of Jerusalem, swear to me
by the gazelles, by the deer in the field,
that you will never awaken love
until it is ripe. ( 1 )
The difficulties associated with a precocious sexual awakening are dramatized by
her own story; but these are not the unhappy consequences of pre-marital sex that one
reads about in guidebooks for teens. What troubles the girl is
that, since her brothers think she is too young to marry, she and her lover must meet in
secret and live with the danger of being discovered and punished. On those nights when
they are unable to meet, she sleeps alone, yearning for his company.
Her disagreement with her brothers is focused on her physical maturity. "She has
no breasts," they say, and in their opinion she is barely ready for courtship... let alone
marriage. Should we believe her word or theirs ? Even if their point is well taken, she is
nevertheless very close to what was then considered the marriageable age. And, given
the historical context, it is quite likely that they would want to arrange a marriage to
serve their own interests, or at least control access to her—as if she were a city under
seige—smoothing the way for someone more to their liking than hers. As far as she is
concerned, these circumstances have forced the issue; and being a spirited girl with a
mind of her own, she is determined to resist their control and choose her own mate.
Socially, she and her lover are in an awkward transitional phase between
childhood and parenthood, and physically her body is undergoing an unsettling
transformation. "I am in the fever of love," she says. Erotic desire has often been
characterized as a kind of sickness. In the Song's natural philosophy, this
"lovesickness" tends to make her less accountable for her reckless behavior, effectively
arguing for compassion and lenience in the reader's response to her. Her passion is
presented as something perfectly normal, and all of nature seems to come to her
defense as her story unfolds in the timely season of flowering and ripening. Although her
brothers are determined to protect her from "unworthy" suitors, as far as she is
concerned, her brothers are the only real danger associated with her erotic
adventures—however well-intentioned their guardianship may be.
As for her lover, his intentions are clear : in his mind, they are already married.
"An enclosed garden
is my sister, my bride,
a hidden well, a sealed spring." ( 1 )
Notice that he refers to her as both his bride and his sister. On this point there
seems to be a curious lack of symmetry in their feelings for each other: She never refers
to him as her husband and brother. However, in a rather odd passage—just where we
might expect to find her dreaming about becoming his wife—we find her wishing that he
were her brother instead.
If only you were a brother
who nursed at my mother's breast
I would kiss you in the streets
and no one would scorn me. ( 1 )
According to translators, Ariel and Chana Bloch, "These words should not be
taken to imply that the Shulamite wishes for a brother-sister relation with her lover;
rather, as Fox notes, a brother is someone to whom she could legitimately show her
affection in public." This verse "is an expression of tenderness and intimacy: the
Shulamite wants to be as close to her lover as if they were nursing together at their
mother's breasts."
But as long as she's wishing, why not wish for a husband ? Why wish for a
brother if she delights in their erotic intimacies and looks forward to marriage ? A
brother-sister relationship would ultimately make marriage impossible. Obviously the
epithets "brother" and "sister" can also be used as terms of endearment; and when her
lover refers to her as his " sister," he seems to be using the word in this way to express
his feelings of closeness. But doesn't she feel as close to him as he does to her ? All
the evidence of their mutual desire and devotion suggests that she does. So why not call
him brother, in response ? Perhaps she is simply less optimistic that their future as
husband and wife—and metaphorical brother and sister—is a fait accompli. Whereas, if
they were brother and sister in the non-metaphorical physical sense—which she
emphasizes with the vivid image of her lover nursing at their mother's breast—at least
they would be able to maintain an aspect of their intimacy, and touch each other from
time to time without reproach.
But this interpretation is undermined by the passages that follow. The
brother-sister relationship that she has in mind is suffused with eros:
I would bring you to the house of my mother
and she would teach me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
my pomegranate wine.
His left hand beneath my head,
his right arm
holding me close. ( 1 )
The pomegranate wine and the stylized image of lovemaking with the left hand
and the right arm are both strongly associated with the ancient rite of Sacred Marriage.
There is a similar verse in the Sumerian poetry of hieros gamos : "Your right hand you
have placed on my vulva, / Your left stroked my head." And archaeologists have
uncovered an ancient Mesopotamian plaque showing two lovers embracing in this
posture. The historian and anthropologist, Raphael Patai, notes essentially the same
image in a Jewish mystical text describing the Sacred Marriage :
After singing a song of praise to the King, the Matronit's maidens
withdrew, and so did the youths who accompanied him. Alone, the King
and the Matronit embraced and kissed, and then he led her to the couch.
He placed his left arm under her head, his right arm embraced her, and he
let her enjoy his strength. The pleasure of the King and the Matronit in
each other was indescribable. They lay in tight embrace, she impressing
her image into his body like a seal that leaves its imprint upon a page of
writing, he playing betwixt her breasts and vowing in his great love that he
would never forsake her. ( 6 )
( Keywords: erotic poetry,
wedding music
)
In its ancient form, the rite of Sacred Marriage was an annual ceremony involving
an act of sympathetic magic in which two earthly representatives or embodiments of the
god and goddess would engage in sexual intercourse in order to stimulate the
regeneration of Nature. As embodiments of the god and goddess, they partook of a
primal relationship: being at once brother and sister, and also husband and wife—like
Adam and Eve, and like the first sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.
The poet draws this parallel in order to clarify that the lovers are brother and sister
in a way that does not preclude a sexual relationship and marriage. Their profound affinity
and rapport is the evidence of a kind of mystical kinship. They are "kindred spirits,"
"soulmates," or, in Shakespeare's phrase, "star-crossed lovers"—like Romeo and Juliet.
They were born for each other and their lives are meant to be interwoven, just as surely
as if they had been born of the same mother and nursed side-by-side at her breasts.
However, this mystical kinship is not validated by the authorities—which is why
she never uses "brother" as a term of endearment. Her reticence makes a critical point.
As she and her lover plead their case for marriage, she is also pleading for official
recognition of their mystical kinship, their sacred marriage. When she says, "If only you
were a brother," she is saying, in effect: If only you were recognized by the community
as my mystical brother—my kindred spirit, my soulmate. If our true love was honored by
the community as something sacred, our future as husband and wife could be taken for
granted, and we would be able to express our affection for each other as openly as
brother and sister. "I would kiss you in the streets, and no one would scorn me."
Her daydream is actually a memory—it preserves the memory of how it once was
in the ancient tradition of the Hebrew goddess, Asherah. In those days, women had
greater freedom to choose their own mates. But the Song was composed in a time when
the veneration of Asherah was being suppressed. The Song's Juliet lives in a world where
men take many wives, and her half-brothers are in a position to determine when and who
she will marry. In verse 8: 7, her criticism is subtle and oblique, but it is aimed at her
brothers.
If a man tried to buy love
with all the wealth of his house,
he would be despised. ( 1 )
Likewise her lover's criticism of Solomon in verses 8: 11-12.
King Solomon had a vineyard
on the Hill of Plenty.
He gave that vineyard to watchmen
and each would earn for its fruit
one thousand pieces of silver.
My vineyard is all my own.
Keep your thousand, Solomon! And pay
two hundred to those
who must guard the fruit. ( 1 )
If the laws and customs were wise; if love was valued above wealth and power,
their deep affinity would be considered sacred and inviolable; love would be the
pre-eminent reason for marriage; and any aspirations that men might have to control
women's sexuality and arrange marriages for their own social advancement and material
gain would be scorned.
It is easy to see why this subversive message was hidden beneath a mantle of
allegory. Even deliberate mistranslation has been used to conceal the Song's unruly
passion: as in all translations where the young lady has been supplied with a veil—even
though there is no mention of a veil in the original Hebrew. Rather than supporting the
author in her passionate cause, the various allegorical elaborations and digressions have
obscured and led away from her poetic argument, which promotes a greater measure of
autonomy and self-determination for women.
But why choose such an errant adventure in the first place—to be used as the
foundation of an allegory—only to turn around and conceal it ? The answer to that
question is in the Song's numerous references to the ancient rite of sacred marriage: the
sexual union of two earthly embodiments of the god and goddess. It seems that the
underlying story is indeed a metaphor for our relationship with the Source of Life, but with
a very different idea of the nature of that relationship—one that includes both male and
female, as aspects of the divine. And, as in Tantric yoga, sexual intercourse is
understood to be a way of experiencing the underlying unity of the cosmos. As an
expression of deep love, it can sweep away the illusion of separateness.
continued
( Keywords: erotic poetry,
wedding music
)
Celebrations of Sacred Pleasure
Art and Music in the Spirit of the Song of Songs
The Song illustrated
The Art of Sacred Pleasure
New Music
Choral Music
Hebrew Bible: Song of Songs
Feminine Divine
in Women's Early Music
Articles
A Secret Language for Lovers
Making Sex a Sacred Pleasure
"Falling in love provides a glimpse of the
real gold that lies at the heart of our humanness.
In love's early stages, powerful qualities of our
being—openness, peace, expansiveness,
delight—simply emerge, unbidden, out of the
heightened sense of presence we experience
with our partner."—(2)
"The entire universe is a manifestation of our
own deeper being. In our being we are naturally
one with all. Through relationship we are trying
to rediscover that unity... to discover ourselves
beyond the boundaries of the physical
body."—(3)
"The Song of Songs is the great love poem
of commingling—of different realms, different
senses, and the male and female bodies."—(4)
"Outwardly,
I am one apple among many.
Inwardly, I am the tree."
—(5)
References
(1)—
All quotations of the Song of Songs are from the new translation by Ariel and Chana Bloch.
(2)—
John Welwood "Love and Awakening: Discovering the Sacred Path of Intimate Relationship
(3)—
David Frawley, "Vedantic Meditation"
(4)—
Robert Alter from his commentary in the new translation by Ariel and Chana Bloch.
(5)—
Alan Watts, "Nature, Man, and Woman"
(6)—
Raphael Patai, "The Hebrew Goddess"
For an illuminating discussion of the historical context in which the bible was written, see :
Official Religion and Popular Religion in Pre-Exilic Ancient Israel, by Jacques Berlinerblau
email: songsong@webcom.com
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