The material from which the Song is composed has been sifted by storytellers over thousands of years so thoroughly that only the most brilliant rubies, sapphires, and diamonds remain in the sieve... I am the crocus of Sharon, I am the lily of the valley. * How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are, your eyes shine like doves. * Your lips are like a scarlet thread and your mouth is lovely; your forehead is a split pomegranate in the shadow of the veil. * You are beautiful, my dear, like Tirzah, and as lovely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. ... exploding into fiery metaphors, full of urgent beauty and exhaling exotic scents, which then seeped into all love poetry, music, sculptures, and paintings. If the Song of Songs, according to Hebrew, the pinnacle, the most beautiful song – and the most romantic – was indeed written by King Solomon and based on what was dear to him, we are captivated by the perfection of empathy with which he captured the feelings and thoughts of the beautiful, modest Shulamit, for roses and lilies are the most ordinary wildflowers there. She suddenly speaks as if from an intoxicating dream in longing imaginations and memories that are so vivid and filled with emotion that she sees her man before her, even though he had to leave earlier. The young couple delights in identifying with the divine Shulamit and her...
