Music For Saint Valentine’s Day: I

The incomparable Ofra Haza, singing from the Shir haShirim, the Song of Songs, chapter 8, verses 6 and 7.

The Hebrew text that she is singing, transliterated.

“Simeni kachotam al libecha,

?simeni kachotam al z’ro’echa,

?Ki aza kamavet ahava, ?

Ki aza kamavet ahava,

?kasha kish’ol kin’ah,?

Rishafeha rishpei esh,

?esh shalhevet Yah.??

Mayim rabim yo yuchlu l’chabot et ha’ahava, ?

u’n’harot lo yish’t’fuha,?

Im yiten ish et kawl hon beito b’ahava,

?boz yavuzu lo.?

– Shir HaShirim 8:6 and 7.

English (wording based mostly on the King James version, but modified at a couple of points in order to more accurately reflect what the Hebrew is saying).

“Set me as a seal upon thine heart,

as a seal upon thine arm;

for love is strong as death,

(its) jealousy unyielding as the grave;

the flashes thereof are flashes of fire,

a very flame of the LORD. 

Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can the floods drown it;

if a man would give all the substance of his house for love,

it would utterly be contemned.”

Song of Songs chapter 8, verses 6 and 7.