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The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible
Striking in its appeal to the senses, the Song of Songs―the Bible’s only book of love poems―is remarkable for its lack of sexual stereotyping and its expression of mutuality in relationships between men and women. Marcia Falk’s rich and lyrical translation, praised by poets and scholars alike, is paired here with the original Hebrew text.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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About the author
Marcia Falk
19 books31 followersMarcia Falk was born in New York City and grew up in a traditional Jewish home on Long Island, where she was immersed in Jewish learning and Hebrew language from an early age. As a teenager, Marcia fled the suburbs for Manhattan, to take classes at the Art Students League and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
She graduated Brandeis University, magna cum laude, in Philosophy, and went on to Stanford, where she earned a doctorate in English and Comparative Literature, translating the biblical Song of Songs into English poetry for her dissertation. Along the way, she studied Hebrew language and literature as a Fulbright scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to which she returned, five years later, as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
Marcia was a professor of literature, Jewish studies, and creative writing for many years at the State University of New York at Binghamton and the Claremont Colleges. Today she is a popular public speaker, giving readings, talks, and workshops on subjects ranging from Jewish women’s voices to the love poetry of the Bible. She has published several books of poetry and translations Hebrew and Yiddish, as well as a groundbreaking re-creation of Jewish liturgy, The Book of Blessings, which has garnered international attention. The Days Between is that book’s long-awaited sequel.
In the past two decades, Marcia has returned to her first love, painting. Among her recent projects is a series of mizrachs—wall hangings that bring together visual images with blessings and poems.
Marcia lives in Berkeley with her spouse, the poet Steve Rood. They are the parents of a twenty-five year-old, Abraham Gilead Falk-Rood (aka Abby).
She graduated Brandeis University, magna cum laude, in Philosophy, and went on to Stanford, where she earned a doctorate in English and Comparative Literature, translating the biblical Song of Songs into English poetry for her dissertation. Along the way, she studied Hebrew language and literature as a Fulbright scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to which she returned, five years later, as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
Marcia was a professor of literature, Jewish studies, and creative writing for many years at the State University of New York at Binghamton and the Claremont Colleges. Today she is a popular public speaker, giving readings, talks, and workshops on subjects ranging from Jewish women’s voices to the love poetry of the Bible. She has published several books of poetry and translations Hebrew and Yiddish, as well as a groundbreaking re-creation of Jewish liturgy, The Book of Blessings, which has garnered international attention. The Days Between is that book’s long-awaited sequel.
In the past two decades, Marcia has returned to her first love, painting. Among her recent projects is a series of mizrachs—wall hangings that bring together visual images with blessings and poems.
Marcia lives in Berkeley with her spouse, the poet Steve Rood. They are the parents of a twenty-five year-old, Abraham Gilead Falk-Rood (aka Abby).
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 20, 2025
I love the Song of Songs SOOO much. It's one of my favourites. Read it for the first time in uni for a theology class and have been hooked since. Great re-read as always.
September 13, 2025
A feminist translation of the Song of Solomon, or a feminist’s translation? Who cares about a stupid introduction anyway. Let’s onto the main course. The translation is poetic, but it’s the structure that grabs. Breaking it down into 31 separate poems—somewhat arbitrary, but not unjustified—impels a different reading… as poetry should: slow and contemplative. Simple and short, but enough to stretch minds on a neglected book of the Bible. Oh, and the unassuming art ain’t bad either.
November 16, 2020
A brief but beautiful read. This translation brings the Song of Songs to life in a way that more typical translations such as the King James Bible and the JPS Tanakh do not do. The Song of Songs is one of my favorite books of the Tanakh because it is so unexpected and so beautiful. The song is very erotic and does not mention God once, yet, Falk notes that Rabbi Akiva said, "All the world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to the people of Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the holy of holies." Unusually for a biblical text, women speak over half of the lines of the song, and the love affairs recorded in the text are surprisingly equal to the point that they feel modern and even enlightened.
On the whole I love Falk's translation - what drew me to the text was reading about how she translates 1.5 as "Yes, I am black! and radiant" rather than as the much more common "I am dark yet comely" (found for example in KJV and JPS). It's a really important distinction, and one that is more true to the Hebrew - the woman is dark from working in the sun, but she is proud of her darkness and the beauty it gives her, whereas in the more typical (and incorrect) translation, the woman is apologizing for her darkness. It's taken a few thousand years but our society has finally come full circle to the point where we can once again accept and appreciate beautiful darkness.
The one aspect of Falk's translation that I didn't like was her decision to split the Song into 31 separate poems. I'm not a biblical scholar, and she is, so I guess it's a justified move, but in my uneducated opinion the Song definitely seems to have a very vague overarching narrative, and splitting the Song into 31 poems kind of breaks that apart. But I most object to "Poem 26": "Who is this approaching, / up from the wilderness, / arm on her lover's arm?" This was clearly not meant by the original author to be a standalone poem (haiku?) and to me shows that the whole endeavor of splitting up the Song has failed.
But overall the translation is amazing. I just wish I could get access to the version of the book with commentary on the Song. Here are a few of my favorite poems:
Poem 2
Yes, I am black! and radiant -
O city women watching me -
As black as Kedar's goathair tents
Or Solomon's fine tapestries.
Will you disrobe me with your stares?
The eyes of many morning suns
Have pierced my skin, and now I shine
Black as the light before the dawn.
And I have faced the angry glare
Of others, even my mother's sons
Who sent me out to watch their vines
While I neglected all my own.
Poem 4:
Like a mare among stallions,
You lure, I am held
Your cheeks framed with braids
Your neck traced with shells
I'll adorn you with gold
And with silver bells.
Poem 28:
Stamp me in your heart,
Upon your limbs,
Sear my emblem deep
Into your skin.
For love is strong as death,
Harsh as the grave,
Its tongues are flames, a fierce
And holy blaze.
Endless seas and floods,
Torrents and rivers
Never put out love's
Infinite fires.
Those who think that wealth
Can buy them love
Only play the fool
And meet with scorn.
Poem 30:
The king has a vineyard
Whose fruit is worth silver.
I have a vineyard -
Its fruit is my own.
Have your wealth, Solomon!
Keep all your vineyards,
Whose yield you must share
With your watchmen and guards.
On the whole I love Falk's translation - what drew me to the text was reading about how she translates 1.5 as "Yes, I am black! and radiant" rather than as the much more common "I am dark yet comely" (found for example in KJV and JPS). It's a really important distinction, and one that is more true to the Hebrew - the woman is dark from working in the sun, but she is proud of her darkness and the beauty it gives her, whereas in the more typical (and incorrect) translation, the woman is apologizing for her darkness. It's taken a few thousand years but our society has finally come full circle to the point where we can once again accept and appreciate beautiful darkness.
The one aspect of Falk's translation that I didn't like was her decision to split the Song into 31 separate poems. I'm not a biblical scholar, and she is, so I guess it's a justified move, but in my uneducated opinion the Song definitely seems to have a very vague overarching narrative, and splitting the Song into 31 poems kind of breaks that apart. But I most object to "Poem 26": "Who is this approaching, / up from the wilderness, / arm on her lover's arm?" This was clearly not meant by the original author to be a standalone poem (haiku?) and to me shows that the whole endeavor of splitting up the Song has failed.
But overall the translation is amazing. I just wish I could get access to the version of the book with commentary on the Song. Here are a few of my favorite poems:
Poem 2
Yes, I am black! and radiant -
O city women watching me -
As black as Kedar's goathair tents
Or Solomon's fine tapestries.
Will you disrobe me with your stares?
The eyes of many morning suns
Have pierced my skin, and now I shine
Black as the light before the dawn.
And I have faced the angry glare
Of others, even my mother's sons
Who sent me out to watch their vines
While I neglected all my own.
Poem 4:
Like a mare among stallions,
You lure, I am held
Your cheeks framed with braids
Your neck traced with shells
I'll adorn you with gold
And with silver bells.
Poem 28:
Stamp me in your heart,
Upon your limbs,
Sear my emblem deep
Into your skin.
For love is strong as death,
Harsh as the grave,
Its tongues are flames, a fierce
And holy blaze.
Endless seas and floods,
Torrents and rivers
Never put out love's
Infinite fires.
Those who think that wealth
Can buy them love
Only play the fool
And meet with scorn.
Poem 30:
The king has a vineyard
Whose fruit is worth silver.
I have a vineyard -
Its fruit is my own.
Have your wealth, Solomon!
Keep all your vineyards,
Whose yield you must share
With your watchmen and guards.
March 7, 2023
"O for your kiss! For your love / More enticing than wine, / For your scent and sweet name-- / For all this they love you" (1)
"Feed me raisincakes and quinces! / For I am sick with love" (8)
"At night in bed, I want him-- / The one I want is not here" (13)
"Open, my love, my sister, / my dove, my perfect one, / for my hair is soaked with the night" (19)
Find a reposed reader lying in the sunshine savoring aphrodisiacal treats reciting these lines aloud--that is me. :-) Thoroughly enjoyed this iteration of the Biblical book, complete with Marcia Falk's most thoughtful note as a Divine Being, scholar, & translator and with Barry Moser's beautiful illustrations. <3
"Feed me raisincakes and quinces! / For I am sick with love" (8)
"At night in bed, I want him-- / The one I want is not here" (13)
"Open, my love, my sister, / my dove, my perfect one, / for my hair is soaked with the night" (19)
Find a reposed reader lying in the sunshine savoring aphrodisiacal treats reciting these lines aloud--that is me. :-) Thoroughly enjoyed this iteration of the Biblical book, complete with Marcia Falk's most thoughtful note as a Divine Being, scholar, & translator and with Barry Moser's beautiful illustrations. <3
June 21, 2023
“Turning to him, who meets me with desire-
Come, love, let us go out to the open fields
And spend our night lying where the henna blooms,
Rising early to leave for the near vineyards
Where the vines flower, opening tender buds,
And the pomegranate boughs unfold their blossoms.
There among blossom and vine I will give you my love,
Musk of the violet mandrakes spilled upon us…
And returning, finding our doorways piled with fruits, The best of the new-picked and the long-stored,
My love, I will give you all I have saved for you.”
- -
“Under the quince tree
you woke
to my touch
there
where she conceived
where she who carried
and bore you
conceived”
Come, love, let us go out to the open fields
And spend our night lying where the henna blooms,
Rising early to leave for the near vineyards
Where the vines flower, opening tender buds,
And the pomegranate boughs unfold their blossoms.
There among blossom and vine I will give you my love,
Musk of the violet mandrakes spilled upon us…
And returning, finding our doorways piled with fruits, The best of the new-picked and the long-stored,
My love, I will give you all I have saved for you.”
- -
“Under the quince tree
you woke
to my touch
there
where she conceived
where she who carried
and bore you
conceived”
November 17, 2017
A text for a Spring 2018 Brite Divinity Class - a beautiful read -- From the publisher: Striking in its appeal to the senses, the Song of Songs--the Bible's only book of love poems--is remarkable for its lack of sexual stereotyping and its expression of mutuality in relationships between men and women. Marcia Falk's rich and lyrical translation, praised by poets and scholars alike, is paired here with the original Hebrew text.
March 6, 2024
A beautiful poetic translation. I miss however the explanation as to why she selected certain phrases. I question her decision to totally leave out line 6:12 because it did not fit into her schema. An English translation should have been provided.
September 22, 2025
I enjoyed this in-depth look at an often overlooked book of the Bible. I enjoyed the breakdown of various decisions over the centuries in the interpretation. The flow of her own translation brought the text to life in a different way, but I am not sure I wholly agree with all the choices.
July 13, 2024
It was alright. Some beautiful poems here and there.
November 7, 2007
this is a beautiful translation by Marcia Falk. she manages erotic, sensual, and intimate - without being vulgar or awkward. "i rise to open for my love, my hands dripping perfume on the lock" is so different from the bible translation i was forced to read out loud in church. now i know this as a love poem and not some disjointed book squeezed into the middle of the bible to throw us off! what i also like about this version is that the woman's voice very clearly belongs to a beautiful young black woman and not some pasty monk stumbling over the sexy bits. no offense to any pasty monks now reading my review. i also enjoyed the sturdy, creamy paper and print which reflected the author's deep respect for this work. after the poem she includes notes on why she chose different words or phrases and some helpful insight into the time period.
April 6, 2012
The most elegant and primal of love poems.
January 24, 2008
One of my favorite authors and a great collection of sonnets.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews