1 The Sublime Song: it has come from Solomon
2 Shower me with kisses of your mouth:
3 Your oil smells sweeter than any perfume,
4 Lure me to you, let us fly!
5 I am sunburned yet lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
6 it is the sun that has darkened me.
7 Tell me, my soul’s beloved,
8 If you do not know yourself,
9 To a mare in Pharaoh’s chariot
10 Your cheeks look lovely between pendants,
11 We will make you earrings of gold
12 While the king rests on his couch,
13 My lover is for me a sachet of myrrh
14 My lover is for me a cluster of henna
15 How beautiful you are, my love,
16 How handsome you are, my love,
17 The beams of our house are cedar,
- Genesis 37,16
- John 20,1
- Jeremiah 31,22
I am sunburned yet lovely. The beloved represents the Jewish community, poor and fervent, returning home after the exile, when Israel had lost its reputation and its independence. She is the one who admits: I failed to tend my vineyard, namely, my land, Palestine.
And the King, the Lover, is the Lord. This first love poem is the dream of the beloved in which she already enjoys the day of her return to the king and tells herself the longed-for dialogue that they will have "on that day." The choir shows her the place, which she already knows, where she will find the lover: The Shepherds' Tent, an expression designating Mount Zion, the Holy City, where the descendants of David - the King-Shepherd - ruled.
At the end of this poem (2:7) we will find the Lord's answer to those asking: "When would this dream be fulfilled?" Don't arouse or stir up love before her time has come. God is looking toward a true love experience, all the delays for his coming are due to the fact that our heart is not yet really ready.
I am sunburned yet lovely. She was chosen and looked upon in spite of her tanned face - and perhaps precisely because she had been marked by suffering, errors and deception. She gained in no longer counting for anything in her own eyes and this humility had more value before God than many good works. She was already burnt perhaps by the regard of the one who wanted her for himself.
