Meet Melissa McDonald

1  How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
    O noble daughter!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
    the work of a master hand.
2  Your navel is a rounded bowl
    that never lacks mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat,
    encircled with lilies.
3  Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twins of a gazelle.
4  Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
    by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
    which looks toward Damascus.
5  Your head crowns you like Carmel,
    and your flowing locks are like purple;
    a king is held captive in the tresses.

6  How beautiful and pleasant you are,
    O loved one, with all your delights! ^{1 7:6 Or among delights}
7  Your stature is like a palm tree,
    and your breasts are like its clusters.
8  I say I will climb the palm tree
    and lay hold of its fruit.
Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
    and the scent of your breath like apples,
9  and your mouth ^{2 7:9 Hebrew palate} like the best wine.

She

It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
    gliding over lips and teeth. ^{3 7:9 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew causing the lips of sleepers to speak, or gliding over the lips of those who sleep}

10  I am my beloved's,
    and his desire is for me.

The Bride Gives Her Love

11  Come, my beloved,
    let us go out into the fields
    and lodge in the villages; ^{4 7:11 Or among the henna plants}
12  let us go out early to the vineyards
    and see whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape blossoms have opened
    and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
13  The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
    and beside our doors are all choice fruits,
new as well as old,
    which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.