Song of Songs: Chapter Four, verses twelve-sixteen

Song of Songs, Chapter Four, verse twelve: A garden inclosed [is] my sister, [my] spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

This is continuing from the last bit, where the Guy is talking about his Sweetie. In the last bit, though, he was talking to his sweetie about her charms, and this line is in the third person. I don't think it's a scene shift, but rather a device the Guy is using, still in conversation with her. Much as I might tell my Best Reader that I have the Best Reader there ever was, which I do. This is also the start of a few verses using the garden metaphor. It's about beauty and fertility, sure, but also about possessiveness. When I get here, though, I can't help thinking who is he talking about; the Babe of this poem is scarcely a fountain sealed.

Chapter Four, verse thirteen: Thy plants [are] an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

Pomegranates, again, are symbols of fertility, or so I'm told. Have I mentioned yet that garden imagery inevitably (and, I have to assume, deliberately) evokes the Garden? I think that the Song uses Eden as a reference, in part to make the sweet point that a true marriage is Edenic, but also to underscore the Babe's Eve-like assertiveness, in a positive light. It might be I've got the wrong end of that particular stick, here, but I do think that romantic love (and by implication, marriage) is a natural for Adam-and-Eve stuff.

Also, here, thy plants are thy shelach, which is an odd word, and seems to be a sort of noun form of shalach, to shoot forth. There are places where a shelach is a sword or a spear. I like the idea that her weapons are the garden of pomegranates and pleasant fruits and, of course, nard. On the other hand, working presumably from the verb to shoot forth, the Vulgate has here emissiones; you may choose whether he is praising her plants, her weapons or her emissions, or all three at once.

Chapter Four, verse fourteen: Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

Verb? We don't need no stinkin' verb!

Chapter Four, verse fifteen: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

Now, clearly here we are primarily talking about how she is wonderful, like water is wonderful. When you live in a desert (and don't forget that Your Humble Blogger grew up in the desert), it is nice to be compared to a cool drink of fresh water. And the phrase here mayim chayim or living water is lovely. For Jeremiah, the lord is living water, for John the living water is the grace of the Lord, and those who drink of it shall never thirst. And that's all great, and wonderful, and I certainly don't want to make any sort of claim that the lyricist is not saying all of that. But, um, how to put this ... what he is actually saying is that she is really, really, wet. And he likes that. A lot. I mean, yes, it's a metaphor. But it's also, um.

Chapter Four, verse sixteen: Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, [that] the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

And in case I am being too delicate, here, let me clarify: These verses are about cunnilingus. I don't mean that it's possible, with a dirty mind and all (which I certainly have), to interpret these as being about cunnilingus. I mean that it really shouldn't be possible to read these verses without thinking about cunnilingus. It's described poetically, yes, but I don't think that it's supposed to be obscure.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.