LEB SNG section

Maiden’s Fanciful Wish

8 How I wish that you were my little brother ,[fn][fn]
- who nursed upon my mother’s breasts ![fn]
If I met you outside ,[fn] I would kiss you,
- and no one would despise me ![fn]
2 I would surely bring you[fn][fn] to the house of my mother,
- who would surely teach me ;[fn]
I would give you spiced wine to drink ,[fn]
- the sweet wine[fn] of my pomegranates.[fn]

8:? Literally “O that he would give you like a brother to me”

8:? The Hebrew construction (which is somewhat misleading if rendered in a woodenly literal sense) is an idiom expressing one’s fanciful wish

8:? Literally “at the breast of my mother”

8:? Literally “I will find you in the street”

8:? Literally “also they would not despise me”

8:? Literally “I would lead you and I would bring you”

8:? The combination of the two verbs creates a hendiadys which may be rendered more cogently as “I would surely bring you …”

8:? Literally “she will teach me”

8:? Literally “I would give you to drink from the wine of the spice”

8:? Or “juice”

8:? The traditional Hebrew reads the singular “my pomegranate.” However, the plural reading “my pomegranates” is attested in numerous medieval Hebrew manuscripts and is reflected in the ancient versions (Greek Septuagint, Aramaic Targum, Syriac Peshitta). The latter makes the most sense in this context as a euphemistic description of the maiden’s delights

LEB by section SNG 8:1

Maiden’s Fanciful Wish