Song of Songs (3) : A poem with a narrative
Probably not the story most see in this text
In this post I am going to give you a narrative overview of the story of Song of Songs as best I understand it. I'm aware that there are several caveats to offer first:
Not everyone things the Song can be read as a narrative
There are not clear "speaker-tags" to identify who is speaking; that information has to be inferred from contextual clues
The narrative I'm outlining here is by no means universally accepted!
It has uncomfortable implications for most readers.
The poem opens in 1:1 with it's ascription "The Song of Songs, which pertains to Solomon"; I've already talked about the fact that I don't think it's written by Solomon, I don't even think he really appears directly in the poem. It's a poem primarily about two characters, the Man and the Woman, and opens with the woman expressing her desire for her man, but in 1:4 I think we have the first sign of the predicament:
Drag me away with you, let's hurry! The king is bringing me into his chambers
Her plea is for her man to rescue her, because she is [on the verge of] being married to the king, a situation she doesn't want. 1:6 further depicts this situation: her brothers have arranged this marriage to the king, and she has been forced to neglect her own vineyard - metaphorical for her body, especially her sexuality and reproductive capacity. Chapter 2 contains dialogue, possibly a rendezvous, and in 2:17 the instruction that the man should run away - he's in danger.
3:1 then initiates a dream sequence of three dreams (1-5, 6-11, 4:1-5:2). In the first she imagines herself getting up and going out seeking her man. In the second we have the dreamed approach of Solomon, as both conquering king and as groom to a wedding; this part of the poem depicts Solomon in terms of (i) his many warriors, (ii) his many women; it's not meant to be a flattering picture. In the third we have a long speech by the man, a praise-description of the woman in terms of physical beauty and sexual desire, and the final lines of 4:16-5:1 suggest sexual invitation, mutual delight, and consummation.
But 5:2 interrupts this and suggests that we've been in a dream, and the reality is at hand. The man has turned up at the woman's house, she is locked up, it's night; there is a metaphorical overlay of the locked gate/house, and entering/penetration, especially in 5:4,5, but when she does open the door, he is gone (5:6), instead the woman is subject to violence by her 'protectors' (5:7).
She then moves to an impassioned praise-description of her own, in 5:10 onwards, including physical prowess and suggestive content (14b in particular suggests that his member is like an ivory tusk).
The narrative seems to become a little more confusing in this section. The exchange iwth the chorus in 6:1 and the woman's reply in 6:2-3 again overlays the physical/real with the metaphorical/sexual. 6:2-3 in particular again suggests sexual consummation, but it's unclear if this has really happened just yet.
The man responds instead with a description-praise, and 6:8 makes clear again a contrast with Solomon. Unlike Solomon who has countless women, the Woman is the only one for this Man. 6:10 though may suggest that the woman is being depicted as a bride, being led or prepared to be led to Solomon.
6:12 is a particularly difficult verse to translate or understand; Athas' argument is that it represents something like, "I did not know", and "my main is made up", and then an expression of leave-taking. The woman despairs of all courses of actions, determines a course, and sets off - she is going to run away with her man. 6:13 is then the harem/chorus calling after her, where 7:1 onwards becomes a depiction of the woman, spoken by the man, that is probably the most sexually explicit (though still highly poetic and figurative) section of the poem. In the narrative, it suggests that they have run off together, and consummated their relationship. I'll discuss the ethical side of this in a separate post.
It's not until 8:5 that the couple returns "on the scene" so to speak, from their rural escapade. 8:5a seems to be brothers speaking, seeing the woman and man returning from their elopement. 8:5b-8 is the woman's defiant statement that she has indeed run off and been with the man, that love is worth dying for (v6), and is worth far more than money (v7).
The brothers then discuss their sister in in 8:8-9, attempting to work out what to do; they downplay her sexual maturity, and contemplate whether they can pass her off as sexually pure (9a) and get a lot of money from the marriage, or (9b) whether they have to conceal her sexual impurity at great cost and effort.
Her rebuttal in 8:10 is startling, in affirming sexual maturity, and sexual purity in terms of exclusive fidelity to her lover. There follows a final scene in 8:11-14, where first the woman tells a kind of parable (8:11-12) that is again difficult to pin down, but suggests Solomon as essentially hosting his harem in which hired workers act as procurement agents to bring new women in for his sexual satisfaction, but 12a asserts the woman's agency over her own sexuality. v13 Appears to be the man interjecting, perhaps shouting from afar to get the woman's attention, asking for her to acknowledge him. v14 is the woman's final cry, telling him to run away. The poem, and its narrative, then ends unresolved.
I'll talk about the ethics of this narrative in my next post, but to make explicit the reading here: the woman is betrothed against her will to Solomon, by her brothers, who will profit from it. Her father is absent, and so they have both control of her and responsibility for her. She, however, is in love with a man, and their gambit is to run off and have sex, forcing a legal dilemma on everyone - either to recognise and so ratify their relationship as marriage, or else put them to death. It's love or death for them, and that's part of what makes the poem so evocative, so challenging, and so problematic for us as readers!