METAPHORS OF THE BRIDE AND THE GROOM

The bride and the groom are plants

The text abounds in metaphors with the source domain of plants. In the Songs the bride is most often presented as an odorous and pleasant plant, a flower, a fruit or sometimes a tree. These metaphors represent and illustrate certain features of the beloved lady.

“A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me.” (Song 1, 13)

“Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits.” (Song 4, 13)

“thy stature is like to a palm tree…” (Song 7, 7)

A plant with ointment characterizes her sexual ripeness and fertility, a pleasant fruit her desirable nature, a white flower her purity, a high and straight tree her healthy and open character. Not only her figure as a whole appears in the form of a plant but also her separate body parts:

3 In Szelid 2007 we see that this phenomenon is typical in folksongs. As an example to this let us see the following extract: “Ennek vétek a gyümölcsfa, lefeküdjék árnyékába, Körte béesik szájába, S az sem ura, hogy elrágja.” (’He does not deserve a fruit tree: he would just lie in its shadow, and would even be too lazy to chew the pear falling into his mouth.’) This scene that seemingly speaks about nothing more than a lazy man implies a love affair, through the Sex is eating metaphor. The supporting evidence is everyday expressions such as ’I love you so much, I could eat you.”; “You are so sweet.” on the one hand; and similar lines taken from songs of the same region on the other, where eating fruit and sexual attraction are in parallel. For example: „Megérett a cseresznye, le lehet etetni, megérett a barna kislány meg lehet csókolni.” (’The cherry is ripe and can be eaten when picked, the little girl is grown up and can be kissed.’)

4 For the analysis of the Song of Songs I used the English translation in the King James Version of the Holy Bible (Cambridge edition).

5 See Lakoff – Turner 1989.

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“Thy belly is like a heap of wheat” (Song 7, 2)

“and the smell of thy nose like apples” (Song 7, 8)

“thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine…” (Song 7, 8)

“thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks” (Song 4, 3) These last lines suggest that the various plants need to be together to represent

the person as a whole. This is also emphasized by the lines that describe the bride as a garden, a vineyard or an orchard: a place that is fenced off and collects many plants together. It is part of the so-called agricultural metaphor.6 The land repre-sents the woman’s body and all of the activitiy on it stands for the male force. Here belong for example, sowing, planting, watering, reaping, blowing of the wind that spreads the pollen and odour of the flowers. This is very common in the literature and folk tradition of peoples of nature. Some parts of the Song of Songs speak quite explicitly about it:

“A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse.” (Song 4, 12) Some others contain this meaning in a more implicit way:

“My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” (Song 8, 12)

“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” (Song 4, 16)

The groom and his body parts are presented by very similar types of plants, but much less frequently:

“As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons” (Song 2, 3)

“his lips like lilies” (Song 5, 13)

“his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars” (Song 5, 15) The bride and the groom are animals

Compared to the source domain of plants, the domain of animals appears much less often in the Songs to describe the features of the lovers. Most often it is their body parts (eyes, teeth, breasts) that appear in the form of an animal.

6 See e. g.: Martínez 2006, Szelid 2007.

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“Behold, thou art fair, my love; thou hast dove’s eyes…” (Song 1, 15)

“Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins” (Song 4, 5)

“Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.” (Song 6, 6) ”His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and

fitly set.” (Song 5, 12)

The groom is sometimes represented as a dove hidden in secret places or an animal upon the mountains: both of them are positioned high, a bit distant but at the same time present everywhere, the way the first of the following quotations shows:

“O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is lovely.” (Song 2, 14)

”Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” (Song 8, 14)

At times the bride is compared to a group of animals like a company of horses, a flock of goats, or a flock of sheep. This might carry the same message as the above-mentioned metaphor of garden and vineyard: both of them represent a unity of different items.

“I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots…”

(Song 1, 9)

The bride and the groom are precious objects

The text abounds with precious and semi-precious stones and expensive jewels, accentuating the noble features of the two lovers. The fact that the groom of the Songs was most probably a king (traditionally he is identified with King Solomon) owning all the wealth of the world does not interfere with the metaphorical inter-pretation of the text. Like in the case of plants and animals, the different body parts are elaborated on by these sources in a very detailed way. It seems to be important, similarly to the previous cases, that they form a whole body together.

“Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely…” (Song 4, 3)

“How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.”

(Song 7, 1)

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“His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.”

(Song 5, 11)

“his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.” (Song 5, 14)