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Cantar de los Cantares 5

VBL · Chapter 5/8

1¡Entro en mi jardín, hermana mía, novia mía! Recojo mirra con mi especia. Como mi panal con mi miel. Bebo vino con mi leche. ¡Comamos nuestra saciedad de amor! Embriaguémonos de amor!

2Aunque estaba dormida, mi mente iba a toda velocidad. Oí que mi amor llamaba a la puerta, y gritaba: “Por favor, abre la puerta, hermana mía, querida, paloma mía, mi amor perfecto. Mi cabeza está empapada de rocío, mis cabellos están mojados por la niebla nocturna”.

3Respondí: “Ya me he desvestido. No tengo que volver a vestirme, ¿verdad? Ya me he lavado los pies. No tengo que ensuciarlos de nuevo, ¿verdad?”

4Mi amor metió la mano en la abertura. En mi interior lo anhelaba.

5Me levanté para dejar entrar a mi amor. Mis manos goteaban de mirra, mis dedos de mirra líquida, mientras agarraba las asas del cerrojo.

6Me abrí a mi amor, pero él se había ido, ¡se había ido! Quedé destrozada por ello. Lo busqué pero no pude encontrarlo. Lo llamé, pero no respondió.

7Los vigilantes me encontraron al pasar por la ciudad. Me golpearon, me hirieron y me robaron el manto, aquellos centinelas de las murallas.

8Mujeres de Jerusalén, prométanme que si encuentran a mi amor y no saben qué decirle, díganle que estoy débil de amor.

9¿Por qué el que amas es mejor que cualquier otro? Dinos, mujer más bella de las mujeres? ¿En qué es el que amas es mejor que cualquier otro para que te prometamos eso?

10Mi amor tiene una apariencia deslumbrante y está muy en forma, mejor que otros diez mil.

11Su cabeza es como el oro más fino, su cabello es ondulado y negro como el cuervo.

12Sus ojos son como palomas junto a manantiales de agua, lavados con leche y engastados como joyas resplandecientes.

13Sus mejillas son como un macizo de especias que produce fragancia. Sus labios son como lirios, goteando mirra líquida.

14Sus brazos son barras redondas de oro con incrustaciones de joyas. Su abdomen es como marfil tallado con incrustaciones de lapislázuli.

15Sus piernas son columnas de alabastro asentadas sobre bases de oro. Parece fuerte, como los poderosos cedros del Líbano.

16Su boca es la más dulce de todas; ¡es absolutamente deseable! Este es mi amor, mi amigo, mujeres de Jerusalén.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The lover arrives at the beloved's door, but she is slow to open it, and by the time she does, he is gone. She goes out searching for him through the city and is mistreated by the watchmen. She then describes his physical beauty in detail to the daughters of Jerusalem.

Explanation

This passage portrays a moment of temporary loss and searching, an emotional pattern common in relationships: misunderstanding, hesitation, and the fear that love has slipped away. The hostile response of the watchmen shows the real dangers a woman faced going out alone at night in ancient society. Notably, here it is the woman who praises the man's body, something rare in ancient literature, showing that the Song treats female desire with the same dignity as male desire. Application for today: honest communication about feelings keeps small misunderstandings from growing into great distances in a relationship.

Fun facts

  • The description of the lover as having a "head of finest gold" and "legs like pillars of marble" follows the same poetic pattern used to describe idols and royal statues in ancient Near Eastern literature, signaling magnificence.
  • This is one of the few biblical texts in which a woman openly praises a man's physical beauty, a point noted by commentators as a sign of the mutuality of love in the book.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Cantar de los Cantares 5:1The closing invitation to “eat, and drink abundantly” seems to include the couple’s friends celebrating along with them, as if this scene of intimacy ended up turning into a shared celebration, not just a private moment.
  2. Cantar de los Cantares 5:2The scene where the beloved knocks at the door at night, she hesitates to open it, and by the time she finally does he is already gone, repeats the theme of searching and missed connection already seen earlier in the book, showing love’s more painful side.
  3. Cantar de los Cantares 5:3Her excuses for not getting up right away, already undressed and with her feet washed, sound like lazy hesitation that she herself will bitterly regret as soon as he is gone.
  4. Cantar de los Cantares 5:4The door with a hole or gap for a hand to reach through was a common architectural detail in ancient houses — his gesture of trying to open it that way is a quiet, intimate request for entry.
  5. Cantar de los Cantares 5:5The myrrh dripping from her hands onto the door handles suggests she had perfumed herself while waiting for him, a sensory detail that turns even the act of opening the door into something charged with desire.
  6. Cantar de los Cantares 5:6Her delay in opening the door has a real consequence: by the time she finally does, he is already gone, turning the scene of anticipation into one of regret and desperate searching right afterward.
  7. Cantar de los Cantares 5:7Unlike the gentle encounter with the watchmen in chapter 3, here they mistreat her and take her veil — an escalation of violence that may reflect either a real danger or the emotional intensity of her own despair.
  8. Cantar de los Cantares 5:8Asking the other young women to pass along a message, in case they find the beloved before she does, shows how lost her search already feels — she turns to intermediaries because she can no longer find him on her own.
  9. Cantar de los Cantares 5:9The other women’s curious question, what makes this love so special, works as a narrative hook that introduces the long physical description of him in the following verses.
  10. Cantar de los Cantares 5:10After he described her body in earlier chapters, here it is her turn to describe his, with equally elaborate images like a head of fine gold and legs like marble columns, showing that the physical admiration was mutual between the two.
  11. Cantar de los Cantares 5:11Comparing the head to pure gold and the hair to a black raven brings together two very different images of value and beauty, material luxury and nature’s intense color, in a single description.
  12. Cantar de los Cantares 5:12The same dove-eyes image used to describe the beloved in chapter 1 appears here reversed, applied to him — the poem reuses compliments between the two characters in both directions.
  13. Cantar de los Cantares 5:13Describing the lips as lilies dripping myrrh combines a delicate visual image with an almost tangible sense of perfume coming from his speech or his kiss.
  14. Cantar de los Cantares 5:14Comparing parts of the body to metals and precious stones, gold, ivory, sapphires, builds an almost sculptural portrait of him, both a work of art and a real person.
  15. Cantar de los Cantares 5:15Ending the description by comparing him to marble columns and the cedars of Lebanon reinforces an image of stability and grandeur, worthy of a temple or palace, applied to the body of a loved one.
  16. Cantar de los Cantares 5:16Calling him both “beloved” and “friend” in the same verse shows that the poem does not separate romantic passion from companionship — the two terms appear together as part of the same relationship.

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