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Dhammapada · narration sample

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The Bible · 678 of 1189

Song of Solomon 7

1.How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. 2. Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies. 3. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins. 4. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus. 5. Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries. 6. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! 7. This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. 8. I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples; 9. And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.

10.I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me. 11. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. 12. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. 13. The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

Asked of Guide

Why does the lover use such detailed body imagery for the beloved in this chapter?

The speaker uses sensual, crafted images—feet with shoes, “navel like a round goblet,” breasts like “two young roes”—to celebrate the beloved’s embodied presence and desirability in concrete, tactile terms. These comparisons treat the body as a landscape and a work of art, making desire and admiration visible rather than abstract.

This lyrical catalog also stages reciprocity: the beloved declares “I am my beloved’s,” and invitations to vineyards and mandrakes link physical longing with shared time and fruitfulness. Song of Solomon’s vivid language matches the erotic optimism of Ecclesiastes’ attention to earthly pleasures, though here pleasure is mutual and praising rather than merely observed.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.