Song of Songs, Chapter One, verse 12: While the king [sitteth] at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
Ooh, nard. The question here is who she is referring to as the king. Is this the Shepherd, who is unlikely to be a king, or for whom a simple maiden is unlikely to have nard? Or are these metaphorical unguents, and she refers to her boyfriend as her king, rather than the king? I don’t know where the table comes from here, I might say “while the king’s around, I give him the smell of my nard”.
Chapter One, verse 13: A bundle of myrrh [is] my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
Mmm, myrrh.
Chapter One, verse 14: My beloved [is] unto me [as] a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
Mmm, camphire. Well, henna. Actually, this is totally obscure to me, but then I imagine if I wrote that my Best Reader was like a Sony Walkman whispering in my ear, or like a Teddy Ruxpin under the Xmas tree, there will come a time when such things are totally obscure as well. Anyway, he’s valuable.
Chapter One, verse 15: Behold, thou [art] fair, my love; behold, thou [art] fair; thou [hast] doves' eyes.
This is to her, and is presumably from the fellow who is like a cluster of camphire, whoever he is. I’ll point out that dove is yoni, which means, you know, yoni, but also, you know, dove.
Chapter One, verse 16: Behold, thou [art] fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed [is] green.
This is her to him back, again. He’s a hottie. Their bed is, green in the sense of growing, alive; I think it’s meant to imply that their getting it on outdoors, but also their bed is alive in the sense that their ongegetting is vivacious, etc, etc. It’s their love life that’s not dead. Or it’s green in the sense that they are new at this, like, er, saplings. It’s poetry, it gets to mean all of that at once.
Chapter One, verse 17: The beams of our house [are] cedar, [and] our rafters of fir.
This is actually nearly unintelligible; you have to make a lot of educated guesses that the words in question mean what we think they mean. Also, once you accept that the words are right, is she once again talking about the joys of outdoor screwing? Or is she talking about his ability to build her a strong house, made of expensive and sturdy wood? Because if he really is a shepherd boy, the first is very likely, the second not so much. But if she is here speaking to the King (not just her king), then we might be reminded that King David (not Solomon) told Nathan I dwell in an house of cedar, and that the Temple that Solomon built has beams of cedar and floors of fir.
Which might well bring us back the idea that it isn’t so much important whether her lover is a shepherd or a king, but whether our lover is the Divine Creator. But if so, we are still left with double meaning: are we to get it on with our Lover in the outdoors, where our bed is green, and our roof is the branches of trees? Or in the House of the Lord? And if we are to be taking this allegory, how am I to keep my bed green, in the sense of living, in the sense that I am lying down with the Divine?
These aren’t entirely rhetorical questions, you know.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.