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“How beautiful you are, my darling love.

Your hair is like a flock of prancing goats.

The eyes behind your veil are graceful doves.

Like iv’ry is the whiteness of your throat.

Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn

that from the cleansing waters are adrip.

Each has its twin and charmingly adorns

your lovely mouth and scarlet-coloured lips.

Your cheeks are soft and round like pomegranates.

Your neck is elegant, like David’s tow’r.

Like matching fawns while grazing are your breasts—

the twins of a gazelle among the flow’rs.

Until the shadows flee at break of day

with you, my treasured bride, I’ll always stay. 

(Ch. 4:1-6)

Ophelia, John William Waterhouse, 1894

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