T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Fairest Love
Song of Solomon VI. 1–7, 9–13(Arranged by Sir James George Frazer, 1895) WHITHER is thy beloved gone, | |
| O thou fairest among women? | |
| Whither is thy beloved turned aside? | |
| That we may seek him with thee. | |
| My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, | 5 |
| To feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. | |
| I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: | |
| He feedeth among the lilies. | |
| Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, | |
| Comely as Jerusalem, | 10 |
| Terrible as an army with banners. | |
| Turn away thine eyes from me, | |
| For they have overcome me; | |
| Thy hair is as a flock of goats | |
| That appear from Gilead. | 15 |
| Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep | |
| Which go up from the washing, | |
| Whereof every one beareth twins, | |
| And there is not one barren among them. | |
| As a piece of a pomegranate are thy temples | 20 |
| Within thy locks. | |
| My love, my undefiled is but one; | |
| She is the only one of her mother, | |
| She is the choice one of her that bare her. | |
| The daughters saw her, and blessed her; | 25 |
| Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her. | |
| Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, | |
| Fair as the moon, | |
| Clear as the sun, | |
| And terrible as an army with banners? | 30 |
| I went down into the garden of nuts, | |
| To see the fruits of the valley, | |
| And to see whether the vine flourished, | |
| And the pomegranates budded. | |
| Or ever I was aware, my soul made me | 35 |
| Like the chariots of Ammi-nadib. | |
| Return, return, O Shulamite; | |
| Return, return, that we may look upon thee. | |
| What will ye see in the Shulamite? | |
| As it were the company of two armies. | 40 |