HOLY BIBLE: Song of Songs 5 (original) (raw)

2 ἐγὼ καθεύδω καὶ ἡ καρδία μου ἀγρυπνεῖ φωνὴ ἀδελφιδοῦ μου κρούει ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν ἄνοιξόν μοι ἀδελφή μου ἡ πλησίον μου περιστερά μου τελεία μου ὅτι ἡ κεφαλή μου ἐπλήσθη δρόσου καὶ οἱ βόστρυχοί μου ψεκάδων νυκτός 3 ἐξεδυσάμην τὸν χιτῶνά μου πῶς ἐνδύσωμαι αὐτόν ἐνιψάμην τοὺς πόδας μου πῶς μολυνῶ αὐτούς 4 ἀδελφιδός μου ἀπέστειλεν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀπῆς καὶ ἡ κοιλία μου ἐθροήθη ἐ{P'} αὐτόν 5 ἀνέστην ἐγὼ ἀνοῖξαι τῷ ἀδελφιδῷ μου χεῖρές μου ἔσταξαν σμύρναν δάκτυλοί μου σμύρναν πλήρη ἐπὶ χεῖρας τοῦ κλείθρου 6 ἤνοιξα ἐγὼ τῷ ἀδελφιδῷ μου ἀδελφιδός μου παρῆλθεν ψυχή μου ἐξῆλθεν ἐν λόγῳ αὐτοῦ ἐζήτησα αὐτὸν καὶ οὐχ εὗρον αὐτόν ἐκάλεσα αὐτόν καὶ οὐχ ὑπήκουσέν μου 7 εὕροσάν με οἱ φύλακες οἱ κυκλοῦντες ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐπάταξάν με ἐτραυμάτισάν με ἦραν τὸ θέριστρόν μου ἀ{P'} ἐμοῦ φύλακες τῶν τειχέων 8 ὥρκισα ὑμᾶς θυγατέρες Ιερουσαλημ ἐν ταῖς δυνάμεσιν καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἰσχύσεσιν τοῦ ἀγροῦ ἐὰν εὕρητε τὸν ἀδελφιδόν μου τί ἀπαγγείλητε αὐτῷ ὅτι τετρωμένη ἀγάπης εἰμὶ ἐγώ

2 I lie asleep; but oh, my heart is wakeful! A knock on the door, and then my true love’s voice: Let me in, my true love, so gentle, my bride, so pure! See, how bedewed is this head of mine, how the night rains have drenched my hair! 3 Ah, but my shift, I have laid it by: how can I put it on again? My feet I washed but now; shall I soil them with the dust? 4 Then my true love thrust his hand through the lattice, and I trembled inwardly at his touch. 5 I rose up to let him in; but my hands dripped ever with myrrh; still with the choicest myrrh my fingers were slippery, 6 as I caught the latch. When I opened, my true love was gone; he had passed me by. How my heart had melted at the sound of his voice! And now I searched for him in vain; there was no answer when I called out to him. 7 As they went the city rounds, the watchmen fell in with me, that guard the walls; beat me, and left me wounded, and took away my cloak. 8 I charge you, maidens of Jerusalem, fall you in with the man I long for, give him this news of me, that I pine away with love.[2]

2
Sponsa. Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat.
Vox dilecti mei pulsantis:
Sponsus. Aperi mihi, soror mea, amica mea,
columba mea, immaculata mea,
quia caput meum plenum est rore,
et cincinni mei guttis noctium. 3
Sponsa. Expoliavi me tunica mea: quomodo induar illa?
lavi pedes meos: quomodo inquinabo illos? 4
Dilectus meus misit manum suam per foramen,
et venter meus intremuit ad tactum ejus. 5
Surrexi ut aperirem dilecto meo;
manus meæ stillaverunt myrrham,
et digiti mei pleni myrrha probatissima. 6
Pessulum ostii mei aperui dilecto meo,
at ille declinaverat, atque transierat.
Anima mea liquefacta est, ut locutus est;
quæsivi, et non inveni illum;
vocavi, et non respondit mihi. 7
Invenerunt me custodes qui circumeunt civitatem;
percusserunt me, et vulneraverunt me.
Tulerunt pallium meum mihi custodes murorum. 8
Adjuro vos, filiæ Jerusalem,
si inveneritis dilectum meum,
ut nuntietis ei quia amore langueo.

[1] vv. 1-7: The first of these verses may describe a reunion which presents itself to the imagination of the village girl as she falls asleep; the remainder are evidently a dream, which repeats, with variations, the dream of 3.1-3.

[2] vv. 8-17: These verses, with the first two of the following chapter, form a dialogue in which the village girl, now awake, satisfies the curiosity of her companions about her lover’s appearance, but puts them off with vague guesses as to his whereabouts.

[3] ‘Eyes full of repose’; we can only make guesses at the meaning of the Hebrew phrase, ‘reposing upon fullness’, which the Latin version renders ‘residing by the floods’.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd