“O, gaze not upon me!” implores Sulamith. “Thine eyes stir me.”
But of her own accord she bends backward and lays her head upon Solomon’s breast. Her lips glow over the gleaming teeth, her eyelids tremble with intense desire. Solomon’s lips cling greedily to her enticing mouth. He feels the flame of her lips and the slipperiness of her teeth, and the sweet moistness of her tongue; and he is all consumed of an unbearable desire, such as he has never yet known in his life.
Thus passes one minute; then two.
“What dost thou with me!” says Sulamith faintly, closing her eyes.
But Solomon passionately whispers near her very mouth:
“Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue.... O, come away with me, speedily. Here, behind the wall, it is dark and cool. None shall see us. The green is soft here underneath the cedars.”
“Nay, nay, leave me. I desire it not, I can not.”
“Sulamith ... thou dost desire it, thou dost desire it.... Come to me, my sister, my beloved!”
Some one’s steps resound below, upon the highway, below the wall of the vineyard, but Solomon detains the frightened girl by her hand.
“Tell me, quickly,—where dwellest thou? This night shall I come to thee,” he is hurriedly saying.