Cânticos 2

ARC · Chapter 2/8

1Eu sou a rosa de Saron, o lyrio dos valles.

2Qual o lyrio entre os espinhos, tal é a minha amiga entre as filhas.

3Qual a macieira entre as arvores do bosque, tal é o meu amado entre os filhos: desejo muito a sua sombra, e de-* baixo d'ella me assento; e o seu fructo é doce ao meu paladar.

4Levou-me á sala do banquete, e o seu estandarte sobre mim era o amor.

5Sustentae-me com passas, esforçae-me com maçãs, porque desfalleço d'amor.

6A sua mão esquerda esteja debaixo da minha cabeça, e a sua mão direita me abrace.

7Conjuro-vos, ó filhas de Jerusalem, pelas corças e cervas do campo, que não acordeis nem desperteis o meu amor, até que queira.

8Esta é a voz do meu amado: eil-o ahi, que já vem saltando sobre os montes, pulando sobre os outeiros.

9O meu amado é similhante ao corço, ou ao filho do veado: eis que está detraz da nossa parede, olhando pelas janellas, reluzindo pelas grades.

10O meu amado responde e me diz: Levanta-te, amiga minha, formosa minha, e vem.

11Porque eis que passou o inverno: a chuva cessou, e se foi:

12As flores se mostram na terra, o tempo de cantar chega, e a voz da rola se ouve em nossa terra:

13A figueira brotou os seus figuinhos, e as vides em flor dão o seu cheiro: levanta-te, amiga minha, formosa minha, e vem.

14Pomba minha, que andas pelas fendas das penhas, no occulto das ladeiras, mostra-me a tua face, faze-me ouvir a tua voz, porque a tua voz é doce, e a tua face aprazivel.

15Tomae-nos as raposas, as raposinhas, que fazem mal ás vinhas, poque as nossas vinhas estão em flor.

16O meu amado é meu, e eu sou d'elle: elle apascenta o seu rebanho entre os lyrios.

17Até que sopre o dia, e fujam as sombras, volta, amado meu: faze-te similhante á corça ou ao filho dos veados sobre os montes de Bether.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The beloved compares herself to a rose and a lily, and her lover is compared to a fruitful apple tree. He invites her to come away, for winter has passed and spring has arrived. She asks that love not be awakened before its proper time.

Explanation

The images of spring — flowers, the budding fig tree, blossoming vines — depict the landscape of Israel between March and April, when the rainy winter ends. For the original hearers, these agricultural metaphors conveyed vitality, renewal, and the fitting season for love to blossom. The refrain "do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases" (repeated three times in the book) teaches that love has its proper timing and should not be forced or rushed. Application for today: healthy relationships respect the natural pace of growth, without artificial haste.

Fun facts

  • The "rose of Sharon" was probably not the modern rose but a wild narcissus or crocus that grew on the coastal plain of Sharon in Israel.
  • The refrain about not awakening love "until it pleases" also appears in 3:5 and 8:4, functioning as a structural refrain that divides the poem into sections.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Cânticos 2:1The images “rose of Sharon” and “lily of the valleys” simply describe common flowers of the region, but later tradition, both Jewish and Christian, used these expressions as a symbol of beauty and purity in many other contexts.
  2. Cânticos 2:2Comparing the beloved to a lily among thorns is a compliment that also suggests contrast: she stands out not just for her own beauty, but for shining amid surroundings that lack the same delicacy.
  3. Cânticos 2:3The apple tree was a rare tree, valued for its shade and sweet fruit in the region’s climate — comparing the beloved to it combines protection (the shade) and pleasure (the fruit) in a single image.
  4. Cânticos 2:4“Banner” here probably evokes a military or celebratory standard, raised over her as a public symbol — a poetic way of saying that the love between the two was openly declared, not hidden.
  5. Cânticos 2:5Asking for raisins and apples to recover from “love-sickness” treats passion almost like a real physical illness that needs food and care to be endured.
  6. Cânticos 2:6This description of a specific embrace, left hand under the head and right hand around the body, appears more than once in the book as a repeated scene of physical comfort between the couple.
  7. Cânticos 2:7The refrain “stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please” repeats several times in the book, working as a request that the couple’s intimacy not be rushed or forced by others, but follow its own timing.
  8. Cânticos 2:8Describing the beloved leaping over mountains and hills conveys urgency and enthusiasm — he is not walking calmly, but running to reach her as soon as possible.
  9. Cânticos 2:9The image of the beloved as a young deer peeking behind the wall and looking through the windows conveys anxiety and longing for reunion, comparing the lover’s agitation to the nervous, agile movement of a wild animal.
  10. Cânticos 2:10This direct invitation to “rise up, and come away” introduces the beautiful sequence that follows about the arrival of spring, as if the right season for love had finally come.
  11. Cânticos 2:11Marking the end of the rainy winter is a concrete way of placing the scene in the region’s agricultural calendar, where the dry season also brought with it the time for festivals and outdoor meetings.
  12. Cânticos 2:12The turtledove migrates back to the region in spring, and its distinctive call signaled to ancient listeners the real arrival of the season, a seasonal detail recognizable to anyone at the time.
  13. Cânticos 2:13Repeating the invitation “arise, come away” right after listing signs of nature reinforces that the season and the romantic longing move together in this poem, one imitating the other’s awakening.
  14. Cânticos 2:14Picturing the beloved hidden among the clefts of the rock, hard to reach, conveys both shyness and the lover’s desire to close that distance just to hear her voice.
  15. Cânticos 2:15The little foxes that spoil the vine in bloom work as a metaphor for small problems or interferences that threaten a relationship still new and delicate, before it fully matures.
  16. Cânticos 2:16This mutual declaration of belonging, “my beloved is mine, and I am his,” is one of the most central lines in the book, repeated with small variations in other chapters as a refrain of commitment.
  17. Cânticos 2:17Asking him to be like a swift gazelle upon the mountains is an affectionate invitation for him to return quickly, comparing his speed to the same lightness already used elsewhere in the poem.

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