Week 26 Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon is a pretty tricky book.
That’s not the same as saying it’s totally incomprehensible. It’s not like it’s written in Xhosa. I can read the words and get a kind of baseline idea about what’s going on. I can see that there’s a guy and a girl who are tangled-up in a romantic and dreamily-erotic longing & hoping. So I’d say it’s a kind of love-story (how much of a story I’m not sure).
More important for me today is that I notice how easy it is to lose track of who’s talking. I’m reading chapters 1-4 and saying: hold on a sec’…who’s-actually-saying-this?
It usually helps a reader to know who says something. Luckily the words and ideas sometimes tip me off:
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth – that’s the girl talking
If you do not know, most beautiful of women… – that’s the guy
My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts – the girl
How beautiful you are – sounds like the guy
How handsome you are – likely the girl
His left arm is under my head – girl
My lover is mine and I am his – girl
Your two breasts are like fawns – guy
Let my lover come into his garden – girl.
I know this isn’t much of a discovery. But it all helps. I finish chapter 4 reminding myself: I’ve gotta learn to walk before I can run.
Note: quotes from Song of Solomon 1:8 13 15 16 2:6 16 4:5 16 (NIV)