Cantar de los Cantares 2

VBL · Chapter 2/8

1Soy sólo una flor de la llanura de Sharon, un lirio que se encuentra en los valles.

2Al igual que un lirio destaca entre las zarzas, tú, querida, destacas entre las demás mujeres.

3Mi amor es como un manzano entre los árboles del bosque, comparado con otros jóvenes. Me gusta sentarme a su sombra y su fruta me sabe dulce.

4Me llevó a beber de su vino, queriendo demostrar su amor por mí.

5Aliméntame con pasas para darme energía, dame manzanas para reanimarme, porque el amor me ha debilitado!

6Sostiene mi cabeza con su mano izquierda, y me estrecha con la derecha.

7Mujeres de Jerusalén, júrenme por las gacelas o los ciervos salvajes que no molestarán nuestro amor hasta el momento oportuno.

8Escuchen. ¡Oigo la voz de mi amor! Miren, ahí viene, saltando sobre las montañas, brincando sobre las colinas-

9¡Mi amor es como una gacela o un ciervo joven! Miren, está ahí, parado detrás de nuestra pared, mirando a través de la ventana, asomándose a través de la pantalla.

10Mi amor me llama: “¡Levántate, cariño mío, mi hermosa niña, y ven conmigo! ¡Sólo mira!

11El invierno ha terminado; las lluvias han terminado y se han ido.

12Las flores florecen por todas partes; ha llegado el tiempo del canto de los pájaros; la llamada de la tórtola se oye en el campo.

13Las higueras empiezan a producir frutos maduros, mientras las vides florecen, desprendiendo su fragancia. Levántate, querida, mi hermosa niña, y ven conmigo!”

14Mi paloma está fuera de la vista en las grietas de la roca, en los escondites del acantilado. Por favor, ¡déjame verte! ¡Deja que te escuche! ¡Porque hablas tan dulcemente, y te ves tan hermosa!

15Atrapa a los zorros ¡por nosotros, todos los zorritos que vienen y destruyen las viñas, nuestras viñas que están en flor!

16¡Mi amor es mío, y yo soy suya! Él se alimenta entre los lirios,

17hasta que sopla la brisa de la mañana y desaparecen las sombras. Vuelve a mí, amor mío, y sé como una gacela o un joven ciervo en las montañas partidas.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The beloved compares herself to a rose and a lily, and her lover is compared to a fruitful apple tree. He invites her to come away, for winter has passed and spring has arrived. She asks that love not be awakened before its proper time.

Explanation

The images of spring — flowers, the budding fig tree, blossoming vines — depict the landscape of Israel between March and April, when the rainy winter ends. For the original hearers, these agricultural metaphors conveyed vitality, renewal, and the fitting season for love to blossom. The refrain "do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases" (repeated three times in the book) teaches that love has its proper timing and should not be forced or rushed. Application for today: healthy relationships respect the natural pace of growth, without artificial haste.

Fun facts

  • The "rose of Sharon" was probably not the modern rose but a wild narcissus or crocus that grew on the coastal plain of Sharon in Israel.
  • The refrain about not awakening love "until it pleases" also appears in 3:5 and 8:4, functioning as a structural refrain that divides the poem into sections.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Cantar de los Cantares 2:1The images “rose of Sharon” and “lily of the valleys” simply describe common flowers of the region, but later tradition, both Jewish and Christian, used these expressions as a symbol of beauty and purity in many other contexts.
  2. Cantar de los Cantares 2:2Comparing the beloved to a lily among thorns is a compliment that also suggests contrast: she stands out not just for her own beauty, but for shining amid surroundings that lack the same delicacy.
  3. Cantar de los Cantares 2:3The apple tree was a rare tree, valued for its shade and sweet fruit in the region’s climate — comparing the beloved to it combines protection (the shade) and pleasure (the fruit) in a single image.
  4. Cantar de los Cantares 2:4“Banner” here probably evokes a military or celebratory standard, raised over her as a public symbol — a poetic way of saying that the love between the two was openly declared, not hidden.
  5. Cantar de los Cantares 2:5Asking for raisins and apples to recover from “love-sickness” treats passion almost like a real physical illness that needs food and care to be endured.
  6. Cantar de los Cantares 2:6This description of a specific embrace, left hand under the head and right hand around the body, appears more than once in the book as a repeated scene of physical comfort between the couple.
  7. Cantar de los Cantares 2:7The refrain “stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please” repeats several times in the book, working as a request that the couple’s intimacy not be rushed or forced by others, but follow its own timing.
  8. Cantar de los Cantares 2:8Describing the beloved leaping over mountains and hills conveys urgency and enthusiasm — he is not walking calmly, but running to reach her as soon as possible.
  9. Cantar de los Cantares 2:9The image of the beloved as a young deer peeking behind the wall and looking through the windows conveys anxiety and longing for reunion, comparing the lover’s agitation to the nervous, agile movement of a wild animal.
  10. Cantar de los Cantares 2:10This direct invitation to “rise up, and come away” introduces the beautiful sequence that follows about the arrival of spring, as if the right season for love had finally come.
  11. Cantar de los Cantares 2:11Marking the end of the rainy winter is a concrete way of placing the scene in the region’s agricultural calendar, where the dry season also brought with it the time for festivals and outdoor meetings.
  12. Cantar de los Cantares 2:12The turtledove migrates back to the region in spring, and its distinctive call signaled to ancient listeners the real arrival of the season, a seasonal detail recognizable to anyone at the time.
  13. Cantar de los Cantares 2:13Repeating the invitation “arise, come away” right after listing signs of nature reinforces that the season and the romantic longing move together in this poem, one imitating the other’s awakening.
  14. Cantar de los Cantares 2:14Picturing the beloved hidden among the clefts of the rock, hard to reach, conveys both shyness and the lover’s desire to close that distance just to hear her voice.
  15. Cantar de los Cantares 2:15The little foxes that spoil the vine in bloom work as a metaphor for small problems or interferences that threaten a relationship still new and delicate, before it fully matures.
  16. Cantar de los Cantares 2:16This mutual declaration of belonging, “my beloved is mine, and I am his,” is one of the most central lines in the book, repeated with small variations in other chapters as a refrain of commitment.
  17. Cantar de los Cantares 2:17Asking him to be like a swift gazelle upon the mountains is an affectionate invitation for him to return quickly, comparing his speed to the same lightness already used elsewhere in the poem.

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