Behold you are fair, my beloved; our couch is shaded
Behold, you are fair, my beloved, and graceful. Our couch is shaded. Now first the Bride more carefully inspects the Bridegroom’s beauty with those eyes called doves. The shared couch is understood as the soul’s body, in which, while still placed there, she is counted worthy to be taken into partnership with the Word. Shaded: not dry, but wooded with the density of good works.
Latin
Ecce tu pulcher es, dilecte mi, et decorus. Cubile nostrum umbrosum. Nunc primum sponsa attentius pulchritudinem sponsi inspicit illis oculis qui columbae dicti sunt. Cubile commune corpus animae intelligitur, in quo adhuc posita ad consortium Verbi assumitur. Umbrosum: non aridum, sed densitate bonorum operum nemorosum.
About this text
Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, Liber II (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–20.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, 1925), Rufinus’s Latin of Commentary Liber II. Lawson ACW 26 was not used as wording. This page is Liber II §§1–20 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII = GCS 33 (1925) (Latin · Commentary Liber II §§1–20)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.