Marriage Song

Fair is my dove, my loved one,
    None can with her compare:
  Yea, comely as Jerusalem,
    Like unto Tirzah fair.

Shall she in tents unstable
    A wanderer abide,
  While in my heart awaits her
    A dwelling deep and wide?

The magic of her beauty
    Has stolen my heart away:
  Not Egypt’s wise enchanters
    Held half such wondrous sway.

E’en as the changing opal
    In varying lustre glows,
  Her face at every moment
    New charms and sweetness shows.

White lilies and red roses
    There blossom on one stem:
  Her lips of crimson berries
    Tempt mine to gather them.

By dusky tresses shaded
    Her brow gleams fair and pale,
  Like to the sun at twilight,
    Behind a cloudy veil.

Her beauty shames the day-star,
    And makes the darkness light:
  Day in her radiant presence
    Grows seven times more bright

This is a lonely lover!
    Come, fair one, to his side,
  That happy be together
    The bridegroom and the bride!

The hour of love approaches
    That shall make one of twain:
  Soon may be thus united
    All Israel’s hosts again!